This week’s parshah describes Eliezer’s search for a suitable wife for Yitzchak Avinu and his journey to Aram Naharayim. When Eliezer arrived at his destination and realized that Hashem had guided him to encounter Rivkah, a relative of Avraham Avinu as he had been instructed, he thanked Hashem and said:
“Anochi baderech nachani Hashem beis achei adoni—Hashem led me on the road to the house of my master’s relatives!”
The Divrei Yisrael notes Rashi’s comment on the word “baderech”: “On the designated road, the straight road, on the very road that I needed,” and asks what the surprise is about—didn’t Eliezer know where he was going?
He explains that when a person sets out on a journey, he may think he knows where he’s headed and which path he needs to take, but it’s only once he arrives that he knows for certain that he was actually meant to end up there. All kinds of things can happen along the way to disrupt a person’s plans. But if you end up somewhere, that’s where you were meant to be, no matter what your thoughts are on the matter.
People get married with all kinds of ideas in their head, some of them immature, unrealistic, overly ambitious, and so forth. Ironically, with a “prearranged” shidduch, people certainly think they know what they’re getting into, as all the “investigations” are done beforehand. But plenty of surprises await the new couple, and I’ve received many letters over the years from people who are a few months, a few years, or even longer after the chasunah, upset that “it’s just not what I wanted—it’s not for me.”
There’s no question that without emunah and bitachon, a person is going to feel this way. That’s why we need to trust in Hashem that whatever path we’re on, it’s “the very road that I needed.”
