In this week's parsha, we are told that Avraham instructed Eliezer to find a wife for Yitzchak in the land of Aram. Eliezer, upon arriving in Aram, asked for divine help in fulfilling his mission. He then encountered Rivkah, and, after experiencing the gracious way in which she treated him, decided that she was the woman who was meant, from heaven, to be Yitzchak's wife. He then negotiated with Rivkah's family for their assent to her marriage to Yitzchak. The family, upon hearing Eliezer's description of the process he had used to find Rivkah, declared "The matter came from God" (Bereishis, 24:50) and assented to the marriage. The midrash, in Bereishis Rabbah, 60:5, derives from this entire incident that the conversation of the servants of the patriarchs is more dear to God than the Torah of their children, since we see that the Torah records at length the entire episode of Eliezer in Aram, including both the event if finding Rivkah, and Eliezer's account of the event to her family, while complex halachos are recorded in the Torah using only a few words. What is the deepr meaning of this statement of the rabbis, and how is it manifested in our parsha? Rav Moshe Tzvi Neriah, in his Ner La Maor, cites a beautiful explanation from his teacher, Rav Kook, which I would like to present and expand upon, with an eye to how this principle plays itself out in the parsha, aside from its recording of Eliezer's words themselves.

 

Rav Kook explains that, contrary to the superficial understanding of the expression in the midrash concerning the conversation of the servants of the patriarchs, that these conversations prepeare us to understand Torah, exactly the opposite it true, namely, that the entire Torah is a preparation for us to understand the conversation of the patriarchs and their servants. These conversations reflect the total immrsion of the patriarchs in their relationship with God, to the extent that no part of their lives was void of their love and fear of Him. Rav Kook refers to the Ramban to parshas Kedoshim, where he says that the formal laws of the Torah cannot cover every situation in life, and, therefore, the Torah tells us that we must strive for holiness, which entails infusing all areas of life and all situations with religious significance, and as opportunities to come closer to God. Thsi is, actually, says Rav Kook, the end goal of the entire Torah.

 

Although Rav Kook does not mention this, this is also how Rav Yosef Albo, in his Sefer HaIkkarim, explains the verse in parshas Eikev, " And now, Yisroel, what does theLordyour God ask of you but to fear the Lord, your God,to walk in all His ways and to love Him etc" ( Devorim, 10:12). Rav Albo explains that if a person would attempt, on his own, to attain the level of fear and love of God, it would take a lifetime of work and even then it would not be likely for him to succeed. The Torah therefore gave us the mitzvos which have the effect of bringing us closer to God and attaining love and fear of Him. I once heard Nechama Leivovitz mention an explanation of the dictum of the rabbis that the patriarchs observed all of the mitzvos to mean, allegorically, that the patriarchs attained, on their own, a level of closeness to God that, once the Torah was given, could only be attained through observance of its mitzvos. The conversation of the patriarchs, then, refers to the entire scope of their lives. Their connection with God so permeated their lives that it was, for them, like conversation is for others- a natural part of their everyday existence. Rav Eliezer Waldman, in his talks on the weekly Torah reading, explained that this is why prayer is referred to in the Torah as 'sicha,' a conversation (Bereishis,24:63,and Rashi there;see also Bereishis, 2:5,and Rashi  there) , since prayer really constitutes a conversation of man with God. we may add the description of Rav Yehdah HaLevi, in his Kuzari ( 3:3), of the pious man, who orders his day around the three times that he prays to God.He begins his day with the shacharis prayer, connecting with God, and then faces his day, imbued with the inspiration of his prayer, and looking forward to the next time he will have a chance to speak with God, at mincha. This process continues with mincha and the interim between mincha and ma'ariv. Thus, the entire day centers around maintaining his connection with God.When eliezer prayed to God for help in finding  wife for Yitzchak, and then pursued this task with his prayer in mind, he began to attain this level of conversing with God, and, perhaps, that is why the midrash tells us that after his prayer, he was no longer in the category of being cursed, but now in the category of being blessed.

 

When Rivkah first sees Yitzchak, she sees him with his arms stretched out in prayer to God. The Torah tells us ( Bereishis,24:63) that Yitzchak had gone out to converse in the field   - lasuach- ba-sadeh- which the rabbis explain refers to prayer,  and that is when Rivkah first sees him. The conjunction of Yitzchak's prayer to God, described as a conversation, and his encounter with Rivkah has great significance. Rabbi Ya'akov Nagen ( Genack) in his recent work, Nishmas Ha Mishnah (pps.17-22), points out that both the recitation of the Shema, a central part of prayer, and marriage, according to the opinion of Beis Hillel, are to be viewed, not as isolated atoms of time to be utilized for specific religious functions, but as means of enriching one's entire life. Thus, the recitation of Shema, for Beis Hillel, serves not simply as an acceptance of the yolk of  the kingdom of heaven upon oneself at a specific point in time, but as a way to permeate one's entire life with a sense of serving God. That is why, according to Beis Hillel, a person recites the Shema ' as he walks on the road,' and does not need to recite it while reclining, at night, and while standing, in the morning, as a simple translation of the words of the verse in Shema- 'uveshakbecha uvekumecha' - would indicate, and as Beis Shamai indeed maintains ( Berachos,10b- 11a). Rather, the message of the Shema is to become a natural part of a person's life, and, therefore, he can recite it a she walks on the road. In a similar way,  for Beis Shamai (Gittin,90b), marriage provides a way to observe the specific command to procreate,and, therefore, for Beis Shamai, a man can divorce his wife only if she does something which will render her unable to do so, namely, engaging in illicit relations which render her forbidden to her husband. However, for Beis Hillel, marriage is a means off transforming one's entire life through sharing it with another person. ha is why , according to Beis Hillel, one can divorce his wife even for burning his dinner (' hikdicha tavshilo') which, as Rabbi Nagen demonstrates, is an example of causing anger  ( as in ' kadchabe-api,'which is an expression of anger) to permeate the household, thus damaging the entire relationship and lifestyle of the couple. 

 

Following Rav Yehudah Ha Levi's explanation of the life of the chasid, as delineated by the times that he prays to God in the course of the day, thus permeating  his entire day with a connection to God, we can see prayer as an extension of the recitation of the Shema when viewed  according to the approach of Beis Hillel. This being so, marriage can be seen as serving a related purpose, namely , of bringing one's daily life to a higher level, geared toward the mutual goal of each of the partners to connect with God. In this way, we can better appreciate the confluence of Eliezer's prayer and his choice of Rivkah as Yitzchak's wife, and the subsequent confluence of Yitzchak's prayer and his initial meeting with Rivkah before they were married. Both prayer and marriage, therefore, contribute towards making life a form of sicha, or conversation,with God, bringing Him into our everyday lives, which is as Rav Yosef Albo taught,  the end result of Torah observance. The conversation of Eliezer recalling his prayer  to find a proper wife for Yitzchak reflected the conversation of his master,Avraham, who converted his entire life into a conversation with God.