Abraham’s servant Eliezer is searching for a wife for Issac in this week’s Torah portion (Chayei Sarah). When he sees Rebecca, Eliezer doesn’t walk, he runs to her. The Midrash explains that there was a miracle occurring for her and the water at the well was just shooting up like a geyser. Open miracles were a thing that happened for the house of Abraham, so Eliezer knew right away that this was the right girl for Issac and he rushed to have a drink of this miracle water.
When Eliezer asked Rebecca for some water to drink, she not only gave to him, but also did the kindness of giving water to all of his many camels. This sounds like this was quite a laborious task and Rebecca rushed back and forth to the well to draw water for each camel.
The question is, why did Rebecca have to work so hard drawing water manually when she apparently could have miracles where water just spurted up for her? Why didn’t she just pray for water to shoot up to the camels and then chill and watch?
The Brisker Rav says that miracles happen for the righteous. But they don’t take the place of their doing mitzvos. In other words, Hashem will sometimes make life easier for great people like Rebecca so that they don’t have to spend as much time and energy on mundane things like drawing water to stay alive. But when a mitzvah comes to their hands, He doesn’t interfere and do it for them. He allows them to toil so that they can be involved in creating good in the world.
Rebecca wanted to do an act of kindness. Hashem didn’t want to take that from her by taking care of the camels’ needs miraculously. Rebecca ran herself to fetch the water, and in so doing, showed that she is the type of person who personally goes out of her way for the good of others.
Sometimes, there is a little voice in our head that wonders why a mitzvah is so hard to do. Doesn’t Hashem want us to do mitzvos? Shouldn’t he remove all the obstacles so that we can do the mitzvah with ease?
Based on this teaching of the Brisker Rav, it seems like Hashem may specifically avoid making our mitzvos too easy. He wants us to be personally involved in mitzvos, to put ourselves into them. He doesn’t simply want us to fulfill the good results of mitzvos. He wants us to embody the mitzvos and the principles of personally going out of our way to bring good into the world.
Good Shabbos,
Rabbi A and the JET Team
