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Biography of Yehuda Katz | Archives | This Week's Parsha

CHAYEI SARAH

"And the servant took 10 camals of the camals of his master ................................................." (24:10)

Abraham sents his trusty servant, Eliezer, to find a suitable match for his son Issac. Eliezer takes 10 camals of his master , Abraham, along on the journey. Rashi comments on the words "of the camals of his master" (these words are extra) to mean that Abrahams camals were recognizable from anothers camals in that they were muzzled in order to prevent robbery so that they not pasture in the fields of others. (Please refer to Rashi)

We find, Bezrat Hashem, a very fascinating Gemora in Chullin 7A as follows: G-d does not allow the animals of the righteous to sin in error. As can be seen from the donkey of Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair. Rabbi Pinchos B.Yair once stoped at a certain inn,whereby his donkey refused to eat the sifted barley that was given to it as feed. Rabbi Pinchos B. Yair suggested that perhapes the barley given to his donkey was not tithed , and therefore forbidden to be consumed. The barley was then tithed, and the donkey ate it.(Paraphased..........Please refer to Chullin 7A for further details.) Based on Chullin7A, a question can be asked regarding Abraham as follows: If Rabbi Pinchos B. Yair's donkey was being protected from causing his owner to sin, then certainly Abraham's camals were in no need to be muzzled in order to keep them from consuming that which their owner (Abraham) did not own? So why did Abraham have to muzzle his camals? I would like to propose, Bezrat Hashem, the following original answer: It is true that Abraham was Devinely protected from theft , yet Abraham wished to educate the world about the immorality associated with robbery. When people would see Abraham's camals, they knew that these camals must for sure belong to him. Only a righteous man like Abraham would muzzle his camals to prevent them from feeding on some elses property. By doing so, Abraham had sanctified G-ds name. Because Abraham served G-d, he also represented G-d to the world. Abraham knew that his camals would never steal feed from another, yet Abraham wanted to teach the world against robbery from his own actions. This was Abraham's greatness in that he wished to bring G-d in to the lives of the multitudes.What better advertsing than his very own camals. Where ever his camals went , a campaign against robbery was surely being promulgated to the masses. As observant Jews , we must realize that the world is watching us for moral guidance. The way we walk,talk and how we conduct bussiness is being scrutinized very carefully. Do we sanctify Hashem's name like Abraham ,our forefather ? This is the 60 million dollar question.................... Perhapes we should spend atleast some time thinking about it. Every word (and letter) of Torah can and does teach us a lesson. Are we open for instruction? Have a good Shabbos...

 


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