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 (19^th 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 (17^th 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 Providence cannot be termed chance or coincidence.

Abravanel (15^th 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 (18^th 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 (19^th Century)