She descended to the spring, filled her jug and ascended. The servant ran towards her and said, “Let me sip please, a little, from your water jug.” She said, “Drink my lord” and she hurried, and lowered her jug to her hands and gave him drink. When she finished giving him drink, she said, “I will draw (water) even for your camels until they have finished drinking.” So, she hurried and she emptied her jug into the trough and kept running to the well to draw (water) and she drew for all his camels. (Breishis 24:16- 20)

Since when is giving water to camels or other animals such a major priority that it becomes the only and final criteria for choosing the future mother of Klal Yisrael?! The whole story and the test that Eliezer set up is crying out for an explanation. The Beis HaLevi opens up the entire story and sheds incredible and sensible light, to the point that after becoming aware of his approach, it’s hard to look at this episode any other way.

Eliezer was setting her up. It was almost evening. People are collecting their water to bring home for the rest of the night. There is not much time to operate. He is going to ask a girl who has just finished filling her jug for a drink.

If she refuses, then she lacks empathy. Once she gives him then a dilemma wakes up. What does she do with the rest of the water in the jug after he has drunk from it? The concept of PAGAM predates Louis Pasteur. If she brings that jug home, then she is reckless and irresponsible.

If she just spills it out then she is insulting him directly. She can’t just spill out the jug on the ground because that would be wasteful. So, what could she do? She brilliantly announces before that she is ready to give water to all of his ten camels, and make that gigantic effort, so that she could spill the remaining water into the trough and continuously fill up the jug, thereby cleaning it out and fulfilling all her obligations while not offending him even a little. The entire business with the camels was never about the camels. It was all just a major coverup so as to be able to give that stranger a drink of water and simultaneously preserve his honor.

I have a theory that people make their own Shidduch! Somebody impresses someone else and draws some kind of positive attention about themselves, even in unguarded moments and that makes the whole difference.

One of my oldest sons was home briefly from Eretz Yisrael for Pesach. He was heading back. There was a local Torah scholar that had been learning with my son since they met up in high school. I asked this Rebbe to keep his eye open please, for my son. I figured he knows and appreciates him. It didn’t take long before we got a call. He would give a ride once a week to an elderly Rebbetzin that was teaching Pre1A in Queens for more than 50 years. He presented the idea of my son and asked if she knew any good girls. She began to fount about her assistant, that there is no one like her. How good can a Pre1A assistant be!?

When I called her, she related the following story. She came to Yeshiva one day ready to go to a wedding in Brooklyn that night. She brought along her jewelry case. At the end of the day the jewelry case was nowhere to be found. It contained both expensive jewelry and many sentimental pieces. They checked everywhere but to no avail. Her and her assistant concluded that it must have been swept into the garbage and when they went to check, the Yeshiva garbage had been taken out and taken away by the sanitation department already. She went to the wedding broken-hearted.

Her assistant did not give up. She found out where in Staten Island the garbage from that location is brought. She went there and started rummaging through mountains of garbage bags until she found bags from that Yeshiva. After much digging, she found the jewelry bag and returned it.The Morah told me that she cannot imagine anybody in the universe going to that extent.

Then she told me that this was not the first call she got inquiring about her. I called my son back from Eretz Yisrael and they got married. What an amazing mother she is, caring so much and sparing no effort, like Rivka by the well.