spirit

torah portion

139 WEST MAPLE ROAD H // 2ND FLOOR // BIRMINGHAM, MI 48009

A Sense
Of Destiny

CUSTOM MADE SUITS STARTING AT $1150

MADE FROM THE FINEST ITALIAN AND ENGLISH FABRICS

Reda, Guabello, Vitale Barberis
Canonco, Zegna, Loro Piana, Scabal, Holland
& Sherry and More.

INQUIRIES AND BOOKINGS
CALL: 248.229.9052

Find Us On

@bhamtailor

WWW.THEBIRMINGHAMTAILOR.COM

RELAX

Take a breather at your local Metroparks

Get some fresh air this fall and relax at one of your local
Metroparks. Open 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

www. metroparks .com

50

November 1 • 2018

jn

S

o much is riding on a mission. behind family and community in
Avraham sends his servant
order to start life anew in a for-
back to Aram Nahara’im to
eign land, the land of Canaan, and
find a bride for his son Yitzhak.
agrees in an instant. A person with
Avraham wrests a prom-
a core of kindness and a
ise from the servant that he
willingness to help strangers,
won’t take Yitzhak back to
who runs to act on a prom-
Aram Nahara’im, but will,
ise of assistance. It should
instead, find a proper bride
sound like Rivka since that
for Yitzhak there and bring
is what I described above.
her back to Canaan. Avraham
But it should also sound like
Rabbi Steven
is old and isn’t able to carry
Avraham. Asked by God to
Rubenstein
out the mission himself. God
go to Canaan, he immediate-
has promised that Yitzhak
ly sets out. Seeing the three
Parshat
will be the one to carry on
Chaye Sara: men (who turn out to be
the covenant that God first
angels) coming through the
Genesis
made with Avraham.
23:1-25:18; desert, Avraham jumps up
By the end of the parshah,
to welcome them in, to feed
I Kings
the success of the mission
and care for them.
1:1-31.
comes down to just one
Professor Tikva Frymer-
word. The family asks Rivka,
Kensky expresses the
“Will you go with this man?” She
comparison between Rivka and
responds with one word in Hebrew Avraham this way: “Her [Rivka’s]
— Ay-laykh, “I will go.”
strong will and her embrace of her
Think for a moment about who
destiny make her a strong, active
Rivka is and where she is going.
link between Abraham and Jacob.”
She is leaving her home, her family
Each time we read Chaye Sara,
and the only life she has known. It
I am awed by Rivka’s, “I will go.”
is likely that she will never return.
God’s explicit command sets
We hear only certainty in her
Avraham off to his destiny. Rivka
answer, “I will go.”
doesn’t have the benefit of God’s
We already learned that Rivka
voice to go on. Instead, she senses
is a strong and kind person when
her destiny and hears the voice of
Avraham’s servant first meets her at God in the very possibility of a
the well. After seeing her fill her jar new land and a life with Yitzhak.
to water the camels, he asks her to
Her kindness makes her a wor-
give him a sip of her water. Rivka’s
thy inheritor of God’s promise to
response is generous and energetic; Avraham. Her strength and deter-
she gives him water and then draws mination make it all possible. ■
water for his 10 camels.
Rabbi Steven Rubenstein is rabbi of
Let’s see — who does this sound
Congregation Beth Ahm in West Bloomfield.
like? A person asked to leave