Parsha Topic
Make it happen before me today. (Bereishis 24:12)
Hashgachah and Chance
Eliezer, Avraham’s faithful servant, arrives at the well in Aram Naharayim, in search of a wife for Yitzchak. That is his mission. He prays to Hashem saying הקרה נא לפני היום. The word הקרה comes from the same root as מקרה, “chance.” He asks Hashem that Yitzchak’s wife-to-be should chance before him.
This calls for explanation. Why did he ask for success to come in the form of a chance occurrence?
We find a similar thing written about Rus, when she went to gather gleanings from a field: ויקֶר מקרה חלקת השדה לבֹעז – She chanced upon the field of Boaz.
This is awfully strange. Why does the pasuk say it was a chance occurrence? On the contrary, the whole future of Melech Hamashiach, who was her descendant, depended on her coming to the field of Boaz, her future husband.
What's more, it says in the Gemara that Rus is called “the mother of the [Davidic] dynasty.” This implies that just as the Jewish people could descend only from the four Imahos, so the dynasty of Beis David and Mashiach could descend only from Rus.
So when Hashem brought Rus to glean in that particular field, resulting in her marriage to Boaz, how could this be considered a “chance occurrence"?
This brings us to the crux of the issue: what is the difference between Hashgachah and chance?
Let's say a tree leaf falls and lands in a certain place. This could be viewed as Hashgachah or as chance. Hashgachah means that Heaven declared that this leaf will fall in that particular place. The declaration traveled from world to world and from angel to angel, as there are many different levels of angels, until it came to the angel close to our world, and he directed the leaf to its intended location.
When it is not Hashgachah, when it takes place by chance, it means that there was no Heavenly declaration regarding the event. No angel or prophet knows that such and such an event needs to happen, neither was it revealed to anyone in a dream. Instead, the occurrence is governed by nature. It is a result of the forces of natural law. But what is nature, really? Hashem brings everything into being. He created nature and controls nature. Thus, a chance occurrence is something that comes directly from the hand of Hakadosh Baruch Hu Himself, with no angel or heavenly being in between.
When is it necessary for something to take place by “chance,” in this sense? When is even a miracle not good enough to do the job?
When the Satan might interfere. Let’s say a Heavenly decree would resound through the upper worlds, saying, “Rus is to come to the field of Boaz.” Since this will result in David Hamelech and in Melech Hamashiach, the Satan will not be very happy about it at all. He will immediately come along and argue against such an event taking place. He will make kitrugim and do everything he can to stop it. But when the event happens by “chance,” by the hidden hand of Hashem acting via the ways of nature as determined way back at the time of Creation, then the Satan has nothing to say. He can’t argue against the laws of nature and he can’t stop them. The event thus circumvents the normal process because it is performed by Hashem Himself.
Speed is of the Essence
This explains why hurrying and immediacy is mentioned so many times in the story of Eliezer at the well. “The servant ran toward her.” “She hurried and poured out her jug into the trough and ran again to the well to draw.” And so forth.
This need for rushing is explained by the Brisker Rov. He noted that Eliezer said, “Make it happen before me today.” The sign he requested from Heaven was for it to happen that same day. And this didn’t leave a lot of time, because Eliezer arrived at the well towards evening. Thus the whole event had to take place in a very short period of time, so they needed to hurry at every stage.
This raises a question: why did it all need to happen before the end of that very day? What would be so terrible if they wait until tomorrow?
The answer is as we explained above. If they would wait for a day, some kitrug would come up and prevent it from happening. That's why Eliezer hurried and Rivkah hurried and everything was done as fast as possible. And that’s why Eliezer asked for Heaven’s help to come in the way of mikreh, of a chance occurrence. Because if he would pray a regular prayer for Hashem’s regular help, then an angel would go to bring his tefilah before Hashem, and that takes time.
Michael takes one, and Gavriel takes two.
This means that each angel takes a certain amount of time to get from heaven to earth. (It takes Gavriel twice as long as it takes Michael.) And after the angel gets here, he then needs to bring Rivkah to Eliezer. So if Eliezer would wait for an angel to do it, the Satan’s opposition could arise in the meantime, and stop it from happening. Thus Eliezer asked for a “chance occurrence.” In other words, he prayed that Rivkah should happen to be there already, at just the right time.
הנה רבקה יצאת אשר ילדה למלכה – Before he finished speaking, Rivkah was already going out.
Rivkah happened to go out to the well at just that moment, before Eliezer even finished his tefilah, so when he finished praying he saw her standing there immediately. When Hashem Himself does something, it doesn’t take any time at all.
Eliezer Did Not Do As Told
This explains why Eliezer did not follow his instructions exactly. Avraham instructed him: ישלח מלאכו לפניך – He will send His angel before you.
Avraham told Eliezer that Hashem will send an angel. But Eliezer asked Hashem to do it Himself. This is because Eliezer was a faithful servant, but also a wise one. He realized that more was needed. Avraham assumed an act of an angel would be sufficient, but Eliezer prayed for a “chance occurrence,” meaning that Hashem will do it Himself.
There is another amazing point here. Eliezer was Avraham’s shaliach to go and fulfill for him his obligation to marry off his son. The father’s obligation is to help make the shidduch. But we see from the story that Eliezer actually betrothed Rivkah to Yitzchak, so Eliezer must have been the shaliach also of Yitzchak. Otherwise, Eliezer would have been Halachically unauthorized to perform kiddushin on behalf of Yitzchak. So Yitzchak, too, must have been involved in Eliezer’s mission.
Avraham indeed said that Hashem will send an angel. But Yitzchak apparently instructed Eliezer not to employ angels; rather, the bride should be chosen by Hashem Himself. Because it was the way of Yitzchak to be totally attached to Hashem Himself, due to his special trait of yiras Shamayim. He wanted his shidduch to come directly from Hashem.
When Eliezer recounted the event at the well to Lavan, he did not tell him that he prayed, “Make it happen before me.” He rather told him: ואבוא היום אל העין ואומר ה' אלקי אדני אברהם אם ישך נא מצליח דרכי אשר אנכי הולך עליה – I came today to the well, and I said to Hashem, the G-d of my master Avraham, “If you will now grant success to my mission that I am going on.”
Eliezer explained it that way to Lavan because otherwise, Lavan wouldn’t understand what he is talking about. Only tzaddikim know what a “chance occurrence” really is. The nations of the world think it means the opposite. They think it is something that happens on its own, without Hashem’s intervention. So Eliezer told Lavan that Avraham had said that Hashem will send an angel, and that’s all he told him.
And it wasn’t just Lavan who didn’t get it. Eisav, too, was not privy to this secret. When Eisav brought roasted meat to his father Yitzchak, as recounted later on in the Torah, he said כי הקרה ה' אלקיך לפני – “Hashem your G-d caused it to chance before me.” This really raised Yitzchak’s suspicions.
Rashi explains that Yitzchak’s suspicions were aroused because Eisav did not usually mention Hashem, whereas the person standing in front of him just said, “Hashem your G-d caused it to chance before me.”
As we explained, the idea that “chance” events are directly from Hashem is exactly the opposite of how Eisav and the nations of the world look at things. They consider the phrases, “Hashem your G-d” and, “chance before me” to be utterly contradictory. If it is chance, it isn’t from Hashem, and if it is from Hashem, it is not by chance. That’s how they think.
So when Yaakov assured Yitzchak that it was straight from Hashem because it chanced before him, this brought Yitzchak to ask, “Are you my son Eisav or not?” Only Yaakov could have said such a thing.
