From: JoshHoff@aol.com
Sent: Friday, November 17, 2006 4:35 AM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort:parshas Chayei Sarah, 5767

                                                        
                                              Engaged at the Moment
                          
                      By Rabbi Joshua (engagingly known as The Hoffer) Hoffman


 In parshas Chayei Sarah, after recording Avrohom's purchase of the burial ground of Me'oras Hamachpelah in Chevron, and his burial of his wife Sarah, the Torah tells us that he then preceded to arrange for the marriage of his son Yitzchok. However, Avrohom did not seek out a bride for Yitzchok on his own, but, rather, sent his servant Eliezer to Charan to find Yitzchok's future mate. Why didn't Avrohom go himself ? Rabbi Naphtoli Tzevi Yehudah Berlin, or the Netziv, in his commentary Ha'amek Davar, infers two reasons from the wording of the verse that introduces this episode. The Torah tells us, "Avrohom was old, coming in years, and God blessed Avrohom with everything" (Bereishis 24:1). The first part of this verse speaks for itself. Avrohom was already quite old, and it was therefore too hard for him to travel to Charan and find Yitzchok a wife on his own. In fact, the Ramban preceded the Netziv with this explanation of why Avrohom sent an agent rather than going to Charan himself. Secondly, included in the statement that God blessed Avrohom with everything, according to the Netziv, is that Avrohom had dealings with everyone, and provided help to all who sought him out. Some people had questions about their faith, and Avrohom discussed their issues with them. Others asked Avrohom to pray on their behalf, and he acceded to their request. Rabbi Berlin infers this from a Talmudic passage (Bava Basra 16b) which says that Avrohom had a precious stone that he wore around his neck, which he used to cure people. The precious stone, explains Rabbi Berlin, consisted of Avrohom's prayers and blessings, which he employed to help others. Because Avrohom was needed by all of these people, he felt that he could not leave the scene for the purpose of finding his son a proper match, because the people needed him to serve as their pastoral counselor and spiritual adviser, and their needs came before the need of his son Yitzchok to find a wife.


 Rabbi Yissochor Frand of Baltimore, in a taped shiur on parshas Chayei Sarah, mentions the two explanations of the Netziv, and says that the second reason reflects a quality exhibited over the generations by all great leaders of the Jewish people. This quality is their concentration on the needs of the Jewish collective. To illustrate this approach of rabbinic leaders throughout the generations, Rabbi Frand mentioned a story about Rabbi Menachem Perr, z"l, in South Ozone Park in New York. The rabbi's son-in-law, Rabbi Tendler of Baltimore, was making a bar-mitzvoh, and invited the grandfather to spend that Shabbos with the family. However, he said that he could not go, because if he did not come to his synagogue on Shabbos, other people would not either. Even though there was not even a minyan in the synagogue, the rabbi knew that during the time that his seven or eight congregants would be in the synagogue on Shabbos morning, they would not break any Shabbos laws. Accomplishing this feat, felt the rabbi, was more important than attending his private simcha of the bar mitzvoh of his grandson. I would like to mention another story of this nature, which also has to do with Shabbos, but also involves the wedding of a rabbi's child, thus making it a bit more comparable to the case of Avrohom and Yitzchok.


 Rav Nachum Kaplan of Grodno, who was the spiritual mentor of the saintly Chofetz Chaim, had nineteen children, only one of whom survived to adulthood. When this child, a daughter, reached the day of her wedding, it was of course a great simcha, or joyful event, for her father, especially since the groom was the famed Rav Gavriel Zev (affectionately known as R. Velvele) Margolis, a great Talmudic scholar who would later serve in a rabbinical position in New York for twenty-four years. However, at the chupah, which was held on a Friday, as was customary among European Jewry for many centuries, when Rav Nachum was called up to recite a blessing, he was nowhere to be found. People went to look for him, and finally found him walking the streets of Grodno, going from shop to shop, making sure that the owners would close as Shabbos approached. When Rav Nochum explained that he was tending to this weekly task when the chupah was being held, he was asked how he could forego such a great simcha in order to make the rounds. Couldn't he have done it later, after the chupah, or have someone else do it just that once? Rav Nochum answered that Shabbos is the simcha of the Jewish people, and it therefore takes precedence over his private simcha. According to the Netziv, this was also Avrohom's approach, placing his obligations to the Jewish community over his own private need to find a wife for his son.


 While Rabbi Frand's understanding of the Netziv as reflecting the dedication of our great leaders to the needs of the community over their own needs is certainly true, I would like to add another dimension to the Netziv's explanation, taking into account the wider context within which the Torah places the episode of Avrohom sending Eliezer to find a wife for Yitzchok. The Torah tells us that Avrohom came to eulogize Sarah and to cry over her. Where did he come from? One opinion in the midrash tells us that he came from Mt. Moriah, where the incident of the akeidah had taken place. Rabbi Mordechai Elon, in is Mikdash Mordechai, explained that Avrohom understood that it was only because of the training that Yitzchok had received at home from Sarah that he had been able to pass the trial of the akeidah, and it was with that appreciation with which he proceeded to purchase a burial plot for her. This explanation takes on more meaning in light of the teaching of Rav Avrohom Yitzchok HaKohein Kook, that the name of  the city in which the burial plot of Machpeilah is located, Chevron, is formed from the word chavor, meaning to connect, and represents the connection of the generations of the Jewish people, forming a chain that shapes its collective identity (see Meoros HaRayah, Yerusholayim 5764, pages 84-87). According to this understanding, Avrohom, realizing the crucial role that Sarah played, together with him, in training their son Yitzchok, was all the more motivated to find a proper wife for Yitzchok when the time came, so that Yitzchok and his wife could continue developing the collective character of the Jewish nation. In light of this, the Netziv's comment on why Avrohom sent Eliezer on this mission takes on added meaning. True, Avrohom, in seeking a wife for Yitzchok, was looking to the future of the Jewish people. However, his daily work of spreading the knowledge of God and performing acts of chesed in his community took precedence over those wider, future-oriented considerations, and, therefor  he did not act as Yitzchok’s matchmaker himself.



 Please address all correspondence to the author (Rabbi Hoffman - pastorally known as The Hoffer) with the following address - JoshHoff @ AOL.com.

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