Chayei Sara

“And when she finished bring water for him to drink, she said, ‘I will also draw water for your camels until they are finished.’” (Breishit 24:19)

It is interesting to point out that earlier, in verse 14, Eliezer says, “And regarding the maiden to whom I will say, ‘Please pour from your jug and allow me to drink,’ if she will say, ‘Drink, and I will also get water for your camels to drink . . . ‘ then I will know that You, Hashem, will have proven” (i.e. that she is the wife for Yitzchak). Yet, Rivka says in our verse, “Drink, my master,” and only afterwards does the Torah tell us that “and when she finished to offer him to drink . . . (she said) ‘also for your camels will I draw water to drink . . . “ That is, Eliezer anticipated 2 simultaneous offers, and Rivka only provided them one after the other.

The Seforno explains that in accordance with the Talmudic dictum, “One does not speak with someone during a meal, lest he swallow into his windpipe”, Rivka did not wish to mention her second offer for the camels until Eliezer had finished drinking. But we could still ask according to this explanation, why didn’t Rivka make both offers to bring water, for Eliezer and for his camels, right from the beginning of her conversation, when there was no concern as yet for the rule of the sages, since the meal had not yet begun?

From here, Rabbi Eliyahu Meir Bloch, zt”l, explains, we can see the profound sensativity of Rivka, our Matriarch. To a person of her spiritual standing, it simply was not possible to utter a statement in which the drinking of man and beast are equated in the same breath. Man, bearer of spirituality, who recognizes the value of water and that “all that is, is through the word of the Almighty”, drinks in an entirely different manner than a stolid animal. Thus, Rivka couldn’t make both offers simultaneously as Eliezer anticipated.

Such purity of character, such sensitivity to the levels of spirituality in creation! This is the legacy of Rivka, Matriarch of Israel.

(This d'var Torah is based on the work Peninei Daas, the essays of the Telsher Rosh HaYeshiva Rabbi Eliyahu Meir Bloch, zt"l, edited by Rabbi Noson Tzvi Baron, shlit"a, and Rabbi Avrahom Chaim Levin, shlit"a, vol. 1, p. 60)