He [Eliezer] said, Baruch Hashem, G-d of my master Avraham, Who has not withheld His kindness and truth from my master.
Most of us don’t enjoy getting credit for something we did not do. Except for the truly humble, most of us certainly don’t appreciate when someone else gets credit for something that was our doing. Poor Eliezer is ignored by Chazal, who deny him the credit for an innovation of his in our parshah, awarding it instead to Yisro!
The words of the familiar exclamation roll off our lips without difficulty. “Baruch Hashem!,” as popular an expression as it is, it was not always the standard reaction to learning about something exciting and positive. Chazal point to Yisro’s “Baruch Hashem” as the first time that Man offered a berachah to Hashem for His performance of a miracle. In Yisro’s case, it was the news of all the wonders that Hashem had performed for the Bnei Yisrael at the time of the Exodus.
Why do Chazal ignore the same words of berachah offered by Eliezer, as he looked back at the wondrous way in which Hashem bestowed quick success upon the mission that Avraham had assigned him? Moreover, the gemara elsewhere criticizes Moshe and his people for failing to say, “Baruch Hashem,” at the time of yetzias Mitzrayim, leaving it for Yisro. Why had they not in fact learned the practice from Eliezer, and followed his example?
Of course, Eliezer was not really being shortchanged. “Berachah” means different things in different contexts. The most frequent use of the word is decidedly not as an expression of acknowledgment or thanks. Primarily, it is related to the idea of becoming full or enriched. It expresses the wish that Heaven should be enabled, kevayochal, to overflow with even greater abundance in its influence upon our world. HKBH willed it that Man’s berachos should have an effect upon the Upper Worlds. Man’s recital of the formula of a berachah, is the spiritual currency with which he pays for even greater berachah to flow from Heaven. It is as if the berachah is a bit of spiritual lubricant that keeps the flow of blessings to gain traction in this world.
This effect, however, is limited entirely to natural phenomena in the natural world. In the world of “ordinary” events, our berachos feed into the system. Overtly, manifest miracles are different. These extraordinary events are not part of the pattern of ordinary natural phenomena, but a consequence of Hashem apparently overriding the laws of nature that He established to govern “ordinary” time. They are not dependent upon Man’s immediate spiritual input; they are not empowered by any berachah recited over previous episodes of such miracles.
When a miraculous outcome has been previously assured, it will occur whether or not Man davens for it or acknowledges some other miracle by reciting a berachah. Thus, Hashem prods Moshe at the banks of the Yam Suf: “Why do you cry out to Me? Speak to the Bnei Yisrael and let them move forth!” Hashem had assured both the outcome, and the miraculous manner it would occur. Further davening was therefore unnecessary.
Eliezer had witnessed a miracle. The miraculous answer to Avraham’s need came, however, completely within the boundaries of teva, of natural law. Eliezer knew that he had to utter a berachah, and he understood that such a berachah would facilitate other wonderful interventions by Hashem – all within the parameters of the laws of nature. His berachah was not only significant, but it can be seen as the model for all berachos of thanksgiving.
Eliezer’s “Baruch Hashem” did not speak to the events surrounding yetzias Mitzrayim, all of which mocked the laws of Nature. Moshe and the Bnei Yisrael saw no room for a berachah, since no natural order stood behind those events. Eliezer’s berachah was irrelevant to their situation. It took Yisro to invent a new sort of beracha – pure thanks and acknowledgment for a pure, open miracle.
Rabbi Yitzchak Adlerstein Based on the Netziv, Harchev Davar, Bereishis 24:27
