Parashas Chayei Sarah: Going beyond the pail

Shlomo Newman
Nov 12
2 min read

Updated: Nov 13

By Shlomo Newman,

Class of 2028

In Parshas Chayei Sarah, Avraham Avinu sends Eliezer to find a wife for Yitzchak.

Eliezer davens to Hashem and says:

“וְהָיָה הַנַּעֲרָה אֲשֶׁר אֹמַר אֵלֶיהָ הַטִּי נָא כַדֵּךְ מִמַּיִם וְאֶשְׁתֶּה וְהִיא תֹאמַר 'שְׁתֵה וְגַם גְּמַלֶּיךָ אַשְׁקֶה', הִיא הָאִשָּׁה אֲשֶׁר הִורִיתָ לְעַבְדְּךָ לְיִצְחָק וּבָהּ אֵדַע כִּי עָשִׂיתָה עִם אֲדֹנִי חָסֶד.”

(I’ll ask a girl for water. If she not only offers to help me, she take care of my camels too, I’ll know she’s the one for Yitzchak. It shows she’s kind, thoughtful, and the right fit for the family.”)

Sure enough, Rivkah comes out and does exactly that.

At first, this might sound like just a nice story about chessed. But I think there’s also something important here we can learn about what it means to take responsibility. especially as students in the process of buildings our future.

Rivkah wasn’t told what to do. Nobody said, “Go help that man.” She saw someone in need and took action on her own. She didn’t wait for someone to tell her the right thing. She took responsibility. That’s what made her the right person to build the future of the Jewish people.

As teenagers, it’s easy to think that it’s our teachers’ job to teach and our parents’ job to guide, and all we have to do is sit back and listen. But Rivkah teaches us that real growth happens when we take responsibility for our own learning.

If we just wait to be told what to do, we might learn facts, but we won’t really change. But when we start to want to understand, to ask our own questions, to care about what we’re growth, that’s how we learn to become adults who really care.

Eliezer was looking for someone who would take initiative, who didn’t just do the minimum. In a way, Hashem is looking for the same thing in each of us as. He wants us to be like Rivkah, to take what we’re taught and make it part of who we are, to go beyond what’s required.

Perhaps the messege is: Don’t just be a receiver of chinuch. Be a partner in it. Take responsibility. Ask, think, care, and live what we learn.