Sara The Seven Year Old Beauty “Vayihiyu Chayei Sara Meiah Shana V’Esrim Shana V’Sheva Shanim.” (Chayei Sara 23:1) Rashi famously quotes the words of Chazal that the Torah writes this language to tell us that Sara was beautiful like a seven year old. Why does the Torah, when summing up the greatness of Sara’s life, refer to Sara’s external beauty as one of the highlights of her character? Furthermore, seven years old is not the peak of a woman’s beauty, which comes only as the woman physically matures.
Rav Zeidel Epstein zt”l, the Mashgiach of Torah Ohr, answers (see L’Sitcha Elyon) that beauty is a great gift from Shamayim, but it is a double edged sword. Beauty is a chief cause of haughtiness if used improperly. “Age twenty,” says Rav Zeidel, “is the year a woman is most susceptible to sensing her own beauty and misusing this gift and corrupting the spirit. A seven year old girl, no matter how beautiful, is more than happy to play in the sand without caring about the effect on her outward appearance.
Despite that Sara was one of the four most beautiful women to ever live (Megila 15a), she always conducted herself like a seven year old, by not paying heed to her own beauty and keeping herself well grounded and modest. This was one, indeed, of the highlights of her great personality!”
****************************

Why Does Avrohom’s Daughter Suddenly Show Up? “V’Avrohom Zakein Ba Bayamim VaHashem Beirach Avrohom Bakol; Avrohom was aging and moving on in years and Hashem blessed him with everything.” (24:1). The medrash says that the word “Bakol” alludes to the fact that Avrohom had a daughter. Why does the Torah tell us this in the Parsha of Yitzchok’s shidduch? Rav Yehonoson Eibushitz answers that Avrohom was now a widower and needed to remarry. The halacha is that if a father needs to choose between getting married himself or marrying off his son, he should get married first. However, if the father already was Yotzei his mitzva of Pru U’Rivu, then his son comes first. We all know that Avrohom had a son, but we didn’t know that he had a daughter, and, therefore, he should have remarried before dealing with Yitzchok’s Shidduch. Therefore, the Torah tells us that Avrohom already had a daughter, and his first priority was to call Eliezer to go find a shidduch for his son Yitzchok.
*******************************

Avrohom’s One And Only Precious Mitzva When Avrohom asked Eliezer to swear his allegiance to the great task of finding Yitzchok a suitable wife, he asked him to place his hand beneath Avrohom’s thigh. The halacha is that when swearing you must hold a holy object, normally a Sefer Torah. Avrohom wanted Eliezer to swear on his mitzva of Bris Mila. Rashi says that this diversion from common halacha on Avrohom’s part was because the mitzva of Mila was precious to him, because it came with great pain. Rav Eliezer HaGadol Ashkenazi, in his classic work Maasei Hashem, asks on Rashi why he needed to answer why Avrohom didn’t swear on a Sefer Torah. Although Avrohom kept all the mitzvos, Mila was the only one he was commanded to do by Hashem. He answers that Rashi was not explaining why he didn’t take a Sefer Torah, he was answering why he didn’t ask Eliezer to swear on his own Bris Mila, since Avrohom was commanded to do Mila on his Avadim as well. To this Rashi answered that Avrohom’s own bris mila came through pain and sacrifice and was, therefore, more holy to him.
******************************

Eliezer Is A Sly Shadchan When Avrohom gave Eliezer instructions to find a wife for Yitzchok he says(24:4) “V’Lakachta Isha Livni L’Yitzchok; You should find an appropriate girl for my son Yitzchok.” When Eliezer retells the storyto Lavan and Besuel he says (24:38), “V’Lakachta Isha Livni,” omitting the word Yitzchok. Why did he do this? The Bais HaLevi explains that this is a phenomenon in Shiduchim. Sometimes a very wealthy man will offer a large dowry for the son of a great talmid chochom from a chosheveh family, for his daughter. If another Shadchan would approach him and tell him that for the same price he has a boy who himself is great in learning and yiras shamayim, the father would balk. Why? The father is machshiv Torah, and he is willing to pay for the aura of Torah. However, he doesn’t want his daughter to live a Kollel lifestyle. He wants his daughter to enjoy life and indulge in the luxuries that may not be consistent with a Kollel lifestyle. He wants his daughter to be the wife of a wealthy businessman.
When Eliezer took one look at Lavan and Besuel he realized that Yitzchok’s Yichus, as the son of one of the world’s wealthiest and most influential people, would be a big draw. However, he was afraid that if he would inform them that Yitzchok himself was a great tzaddik, this might be a turnoff and ruin the shidduch. He, therefore, sold Yitzchok as the son of Avrohom and nothing more.

Created By Rov Avrohom Sherman
786-565-9945
[email protected]