Chaye
Sarah
And
he (the servant) said, “O Lord, God of my master Abraham, grant me good
“chance” this day, and deal graciously with my master Abraham.”
24:12
Our
sages certainly do not recommend Eliezer’s procedure
as an ideal way of choosing a wife. Indeed,
only man such as Eliezer, one guided on his mission by the confidence of a man
like Abraham that God would surely send His angel before him and lead the right
girl to him, could permit himself to proceed in this fashion…
Samson
Raphael Hirsch (19th Century)
Eliezer
who was so wise that he is reported to have taught Torah in a manner similar to
his master must have had good reason for relying on a sign from God, and for
requesting such a sign…He knew that man has free choice, and that the people of
Aram Naharayim were not easily swayed from their
beliefs and customs. They might easily
refuse to send a daughter of theirs to a distant land…If he would be able to
relate that he had been involved in an encounter bordering on the miraculous,
even such tough minded people would be impressed….
Moshe Alshich (17th Century)
If the
servant relied on Divine Providence and for that reason prayed to Him, how
could he invoke the workings of “chance” and ask him to engineer a coincidence
when these are two mutually exclusive categories? What happens through the workings of
Abravanel
(15th Century)
As a
general rule the term “chance” is applied by the Torah to every situation
befalling man not directly brought about by deliberate intervention and
effort. Nevertheless all is ultimately
prompted by Divine Providence which mysteriously works in accordance with His
hidden purposes. However, that which our
moderns term “pure coincidence” – an occurrence which has no cause whatever
cannot be found at all in the bible since such a thing has no existence but in
our imagination as a result of our ignorance of the real causes.
Solomon Dubnow (18th Century)
Nothing
in the Torah is to be considered a random occurrence, a coincidence. What seems causeless has a cause, although we
don’t always readily discern what it is.
The deeper we look, the more reason and purpose we find. And, from a biblical perspective, whatever
occurs is a result of human action and Divine will. We must ultimately bear responsibility for
all our deeds, not only for what they are when we commit them, but also for
their ramifications, for the chain reaction which they often bring within their
wake, sometimes even in later generations.
Shlomo
Riskin (Contemporary)
Why “let
it chance’ when he was on a deliberate mission?
Chance is not something rendered inevitable by definite
causes…Notwithstanding that to us it will appear as fortuitous, in reality it
will be providential…Providence acts not necessarily in violation of the
natural order – as the latter is commonly understood – but in providing for the
coming together of improbably circumstances to effect a desired end
result. A man may be mortally ill and
located at one end of the earth, while the necessary medical assistance may be
found at the other end. However, divine
providence may so arrange things that a ship just ‘happens’ to be in port
carrying the doctor and the medication that can save his life. So too the opposite result – if a given man must
be punished.
Malbim (19th
Century)