And [food] was set before him to eat, but he said, “I will not eat until I have spoken my words.” And he said, “Speak.” And he said, “I am Avraham’s servant. (Breishis 24:33-34)

So, I came today to the fountain, and I said, ‘HASHEM, G-d of my master Abraham, if You desire to prosper my way upon which I am going…” (Breishis 24:42)

So I came today… Rabbi Acha said: The ordinary conversation of the servants of the Patriarchs is (YAFFA/Literally Beautiful) more beloved before (HaMakom) the Omnipresent than the Torah of their sons, for the section dealing with Eliezer is repeated in the Torah, whereas many fundamentals of the Torah were given only through hints. —Rashi

Why is the Torah about to record Eliezer’s version of what the Torah just spelled out in detail. It’s understood that the Holy Torah is spare with its words and every letter counts. For some mystical reason extra ink is employed here to allow Eliezer, the servant of Avraham to repeat a narrative we are already familiar with. What in the world is going on here? Rashi is compelled to bring a Midrash that opens us up to an explanation. These words spoken by Avraham’s servant are precious, YAFFA – Beautiful before HASHEM. Why is the name HAMAKOM used here in reference to HASHEM? What makes Eliezer’s conversation so beautiful?

Shlomo HaMelech, wisest of all men, wrote, “Many people are called a man of kindness, but a reliable man who can find?” (Mishlei 20:6) What is King Shlomo telling us? It’s an all-time problem. It’s hard to find good help! For sure the world is filled with people who come and go and deliver intermittent acts of kindness and goodness. We all get by with help like that. However, there is a rare species that is titled an “ISH EMUNIM”, a loyal, persistent personality, someone you can count on to do a job and get it completely done, unswervingly and unselfishly. These qualities are on open display with Eliezer.

Rabbi Shraga Silverstein wrote in his book of original aphorisms, “A Candle by Day”, “It’s easier to make your presence felt, but it’s harder to make your absence felt. Isn’t it true!? A person can make a lot of noise and everyone knows when he’s in the room, but in order to make one’s absence felt they have to be quietly doing real and perhaps even thankless jobs and without any recognition or fanfare. When, one day there is no hot coffee or tissue boxes on the tables in Shul, we may begin to figure out who was quietly doing what all that time.

That is the Model of an EVED, A SERVANT! We are all AVADIM-SERVANTS to HASHEM! How does a servant best do his job? We are invited to study Eliezer as a model. Dutiful is considered beautiful to HASHEM. Reb Yeruchem Levovitz states that the real measure of a Jew is how much of an EVED HASHEM he is. This is not just a single arena of our lives. It defines our entire existence!

Let us now amplify the meaning of the word YAFFA – BEAUTIFUL as it is employed in Torah literature. The Mishne in Pirke Avos tells us an extraordinarily profound idea. “He used to say: (YAFFA) more precious is one hour in repentance and good deeds in this world, than all the life of the world to come; And (YAFFA) more precious is one moment of the tranquility of the world to come, than all the life of this world”.

This word YAFFA is used twice to describe the ultimate goodness and pleasure that lies beyond the boundaries of all of the delights this world has to offer. That’s superlative and sublime beauty.

It has been said that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, which seems to tell us that all beauty is subjective. What if the beholder is HASHEM -HAMAKOM – literally “The Place”, because everything exists within HASHEM. HAMAKOM is The Beholder of all beholders. The Torah is opening for us a window to see what is considered beautiful in the eyes of The Beholder.