White Clouds with Grey Linings
And Avraham was old, well advanced in age, and Hashem had blessed Avraham in everything. (Beresheit 24:1)
- Avraham was blessed in everything
Parshat Chayey Sarah closes the Torah’s narrative of the life of Avraham. In includes two episodes. The first is the death of Sarah and its aftermath. The parasha describes Avraham purchasing a burial site for Sarah. This is the Cave of Machpeylah. It will serve as the burial site for Sarah and Avraham, Yitzchak and Rivkah, and Yaakov and Leyah. The second episode described is the search for an appropriate wife for Yitzchak that Avraham initiates.
The above passage introduces this second episode. The Torah tells us that Avraham reached an advanced age. He was blessed in every way. The Torah continues its narrative. Avraham concludes that the time has come for Yitzchak to find a wife. Avraham summons his trusted servant Eliezer and charges him with the responsibility of finding the appropriate wife. Eliezer accepts and undertakes the mission. He succeeds. He finds Rivkah. He determines that she is the proper woman to wed with Yitzchak. He secures her agreement and the agreement of the family. He brings her to Yitzchak. Yitzchak and Rivkah meet and then they wed.
2. A daughter for Avraham
The Talmud presents an interesting dispute regarding the above passage. Ribbi Meir comments that Avraham did not have a daughter. Ribbi Yehudah disagrees and asserts that included among Avraham’s blessings was a daughter.
These comments present a number of problems. First, these comments are intended to interpret our passage. What in the passage requires interpretation? Furthermore, it is clear that the passage is declaring the magnitude and extent of the blessings experienced by Avraham. How can Ribbi Meir interpret the passage as suggesting that Avraham did not have a daughter? Does not this interpretation contradict the explicit message of the passage that Avraham experienced every sort of blessing?
3.What is included in everything?
Etz Yosef responds to this first problem. He explains that these Sages of the Talmud were both responding to a difficulty in the text. The passage states that Avraham was blessed “in everything”. The phrase “in everything” is apparently intended to communicate some additional element of blessing that is not otherwise evident. Ribbi Meir and Ribbi Yehudah are proposing their suggestions for the identity of the extra element of blessing to which the passage alludes.
And the L-rd created the human in His image. In the image of the L-rd He created him; male and female, He created them. And the L-rd blessed them and said: Be fruitful and multiply; fill the land and conquer it. Rule over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the heaven, and over all the living creatures that swarm on the land.
(Sefer Beresehit 1:27-28)
4. Children are a blessing
Etz Yosef’s comments are helpful. The passage’s reference to “everything” is intended to alert the reader that some blessing is included that is not obvious. But this insight leaves another question unanswered. How did Ribbi Meir and Ribbi Yehudah come to their respective conclusions regarding the identity of this unstated blessing?
In the above passage, Hashem bestows His blessing upon humanity. The human species is blessed with prolificacy and endowed with sovereignty over the creatures of the world. Later, Hashem extends this blessing specifically to Avraham and tells him that his descendants will be as numerous as the sands.
The Torah tells us that Avraham was blessed in everything. This must include this most fundamental blessing of progeny. Accordingly, Ribbi Yehudah reasons that Avraham must have been blessed with a daughter.
However, Ribbi Meir argues that Avraham did not have a daughter. In other words, Avraham was blessed in every way. To Ribbi Meir this suggests that Avraham was blessed by not having a daughter! How is it a blessing to be deprived of a daughter?
5. The challenge of a daughter
Nachmanides responds to this question. He explains that typically a daughter is a blessing. However, Avraham’s situation was not typical. He was the founder of a new, radical philosophy and religion. Very few people fully accepted Avraham’s views. He lived in a world dominated by backward heathen beliefs, superstitions, and practices. He confronted this issue when he searched for a wife for Yitzchak. He commanded his servant to travel to Aram Naharayim to seek a wife for Yitzchak. The people of Aram Naharayim were idolaters. Yet, Avraham felt that these people were not as primitive as the nations of Cana’an. He decided that Yitzchak could find a suitable wife among the citizens of Aram Naharayim. Yitzchak would be able to teach his partner and, with her, establish a family committed to serving Hashem.
This plan would be far more difficult to execute on behalf of a daughter. Would Avraham be able to find a suitable husband? Would she be able to influence this man to abandon his culture? This would be unlikely in a male-dominated society. How could a daughter of Avraham have a happy family life, free of idolatry? Ribbi Meir concludes that Avraham was spared these problems. He did not have a daughter. In his situation, this was a blessing.
And the descendents of Chet responded to Avraham and said to him: Listen to us my master. You are a prince of the L-rd in our midst. In the choicest of our burial sites bury your departed. None among us will withhold his burial site from you for the burial of your departed. (Sefer Beresheit 23:5-6)
6. Avraham’s stature
Now that Rebbe Meir’s position is explained, Nachmanides must reconsider the position of Ribbi Yehudah. It seems that Ribbi Meir is offering a cogent argument. For Avraham, a daughter would present challenges that might not be possible to overcome. How might Ribbi Yehudah respond to this argument?
The above passage is from the first episode of the parasha. Avraham is seeking a burial site for his departed Sarah. He asks the residents of Hebron – the descendents of Chet – to allow him to purchase a burial site. They respond that they regard him as a prince of the L-rd. No one will resist his burying Sarah in a site in their community. The account continues and describes Avraham’s purchase of the Cave of Machpaylah.
Commenting on this narrative, Nachmanides suggests that it is included in the Torah for a number of reasons. One of these reasons is that the interaction between Avraham and the people of Hevron demonstrate the immense respect he received and his esteemed position in the community. The community’s treatment of Avraham testifies to the fulfillment of one of the blessings that Hashem bestowed upon Avraham. Hashem told Avraham that He would “make his name great”. Through the Torah’s description of this episode, it is clear that this blessing was achieved.
7. The function of the blessings bestowed upon Avraham
According to Nachmanides, the Torah is communicating to us that the blessings that Hashem promised to Avraham were fulfilled. These blessings included prominence and influence, as well as wealth. Avraham’s renown and impact facilitated the pursuit of his mission. He used his position to encourage others to return to the worship of Hashem. But what was the purpose of the wealth that Hashem bestowed upon Avraham?
The most obvious possibility is that the blessing was Avraham’s personal reward for obeying Hashem. However, it is difficult to accept that a person of Avraham’s spiritual stature would feel rewarded by amassing enormous wealth. More likely, this blessing was not a personal reward for Avraham. It was designed to demonstrate to the world Hashem’s providence over His servants. Furthermore, it is likely that in Avraham’s time – as in our own – wealth conferred dignity and even credibility.
Nachmanides suggests that Ribbi Yehudah fully appreciates the quandary that a daughter must have created for Avraham. However, he argues that the blessings that Avraham received were more than personal rewards. These blessings were intended as a demonstration to the world. Through these blessings, Hashem displayed the extent of His providence. The blessings also contributed to the stature that facilitated Avraham’s work. This required that Avraham have a daughter. It must appear to the world that Avraham’s life was perfect and that he possessed every blessing. This could only be accomplished through granting Avraham a daughter.
8. Paradoxical needs
Ribbi Meir and Ribbi Yehudah are grappling with a fundamental paradox of the human experience. Many of the “blessings” that we desire and for which we strive contain within them negative aspects. Sometimes, we recognize the challenges that a blessing may bring with it. But sometimes, we are blinded by our desire and we fail to recognize these challenges. Sometimes, the challenges that will emerge with achievement of the blessing cannot be known in advance.
To an extent, this paradox reflects our basic nature. Every person has competing desires and needs. A specific blessing may be a response to one of our needs but conflict with another need or desire. A great job may provide my family with the income to live more comfortably. This is a blessing. But the position may bring with it demands and expectations that take me away from my family and preoccupy me when I am with my loved ones. Because of my competing needs and desires, the job is a blessing and also a challenge that threatens my family life.
9. Asking Hashem to respond to our prayers with mercy
One of the requests that we make in the daily Amidah is for Hashem to listen to and respond to our prayers. An interesting aspect of the text of this petition is that we ask Hashem to receive our prayers with mercy. In the Ashekenazic tradition, this element of the petition receives additional emphasis. The petition closes by describing Hashem as receiving the prayers of Israel with mercy. Certainly, Hashem’s acceptance of our prayers and His response to our petitions is an expression of Divine mercy. However, this does not seem to be the message of the text. Instead, the text seems to beseech Hashem to not only receive our prayers but to assess our petitions with mercy. What is this expression of mercy that we ask Hashem to include within His acceptance of our prayers?
Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik Zt’l suggests that the mercy we seek is in response to the issue discussed above. We cannot know whether the fulfillment of our prayers will be a blessing or not. We lack the insight and foresight. We ask Hashem to respond to our prayers, but we recognize that we cannot know whether the best response is to grant our wishes, to grant them only partially, or to withhold the blessing that we ardently seek. In recognition of the limitation of our understanding, we ask that Hashem temper His response to our prayers with His mercy. We ask that He hear our petitions but grant us that which is best for us.