Musar for Sanhedrin 112:26

It is important to appreciate that the מצות are so interwoven with one another, that each מצוה contains a part of all the spiritual aspects of every other מצוה. The מצות are bound up with the emanations, which are also interwoven with one another as will be explained on another occasion. This means that there is a general as well as a specific significance or purpose of each מצוה. As soon as man was created, G–d gave him a מצוה. We read in Genesis 2,16: "G–d commanded man saying, etc." The Talmud Sanhedrin 56 understands that verse to mean that the seven Noachide laws were commanded to Adam at that time. The Talmud dissects the verse to show how different ones of the seven commandments are alluded to in the various words. At any rate, these seven commandments conceal within them all the 613 commandments. The elite of mankind, men such as Chanoch, Methuselah, Noach, Sem, Ever, the patriarchs and their respective sons, all observed seven Noachide commandments until G–d decided to reveal the 613 commandments. Since attaining one's perfection is impossible unless one observes them, they had to do so even though each commandment contains spiritual elements of all other commandments also. Nonetheless, unless one translates the potential of the מצוה into an "actual" through its specific performance, one has not done what our sages call הוציא את הכח לפועל.

Let us examine a few more details of this story. Why did Eliezer have to describe his seniority in Abraham's household to the point where he said that his master had entrusted all his belonging to him? Why did the Torah keep repeating his status as עבד, "slave?" Why did the Torah later (24,21) describe Eliezer as האיש, an appellation hardly appropriate for an עבד? Still later, the Torah speaks of Laban running towards האיש; Rebeccah tells about what האיש has said to her. When Eliezer enters the house of Bethuel and Laban he is described as האיש, whereas as soon as he sits at the table he introduces himself as Abraham's slave, עבד. This, of course, is no problem seeing that Eliezer is Abraham's slave, and the Torah has repeatedly referred to him as such. The puzzling thing is that even after he handed out all the silver and golden trinkets, he is described as עבד; why would Laban ask Rebeccah if she wanted to go עם האיש הזה, thus elevating his status at the very moment when he harbored ill will against Eliezer? Immediately afterwards, when Rebeccah and Eliezer depart, Eliezer is again described as עבד, although Rebeccah and her handmaids are reported as following האיש. Once Isaac has been sighted Rebeccah is described as addressing the עבד. How could Laban address Eliezer with the words: בוא ברוך ה' "Enter the one blesssed by the Lord," when we know that every עבד is cursed since the time Noach cursed Canaan? This was the reason why Abraham did not want Isaac to marry Eliezer's daughter. He did not want to become involved with a tribe that was accursedץ When we said earlier (page 142) that Laban's blessing had the power to eventually help Esau's descendants to switch from being cursed to becoming blessed, where did Laban get that power from? Another difficulty is the expression in 24,31 where Laban claims to have cleared the house, (of idols, according to Bereshit Rabbah 60). If that were indeed so, Laban displayed a spiritual level that is hard to credit. Whence did he attain that spiritual level? Why did Eliezer reverse the sequence of events when describing his placing the bracelets on Rebeccah before he knew who she was (compare 24,22 with 24,47)? The other problem we have to deal with is the statement in Chullin 95 we have quoted, classifying Eliezer's "test" of Rebeccah as the only such kind of test that is admissible for Jews. Tossaphot, Chullin 95 raise the question that according to a view expressed in Sanhedrin 56 it is not only Jews who are forbidden to practise ניחוש. The answer given is that Eliezer did not rely on ניחוש, and did not give the jewelry to Rebeccah until he had found out that she was from Abraham's family. According to this view we would have to disregard the Torah's first report of that event and accept the version Eliezer told in Bethuel's house. If that is so, why does the Torah seem to mislead us and create the impression that Eliezer relied exclusively on ניחוש? Besides, since Eliezer obviously accepted the word of a stranger, and presumably a minor at that, at face value, how can one claim that he did not rely primarily on ניחוש? Was there any proof that this girl would agree to marry a man she had never seen and who lived a long way from her home and family? Why then did Eliezer give Rebeccah the jewelry except that he believed in ניחוש?