ON THE PARSHA
          Parshas Chayei Sara

          by Dovid Lipman, Jerusalem


The World Of The Supernatural

     (25:6) "And to the sons of the concubines of Avraham,
he gave gifts." The word gifts, Rashi brings from the
gemara (Sanh. 91a), means he taught them the "name of
impurity." The Da'as Z'kainim MiBa'alei HaTosfos explains
that Avraham taught his other sons how to command the
demons (shaidim) by using their names. He notes that the
word "gifts", with its unusual spelling in our pasuk, has
the same Gematria as "he taught them to command demons".

A Time To Laugh

     (24:64) "She (Rivkah) saw Yitzchak, and she got off the
camel." Why? Well, the gemara (Bera. 16b) says that one
may not daven Shmoneh Esray on top of a tree, because
one would not be able to concentrate, out of the fear of
falling. The gemara (Pesa. 3b), based on the earlier pasuk
(24:61) says Rivkah was frightened of falling off the camel.
And the gemara (Bera. 26b) based on pasuk (24:63) says
that Yitzchak had just come out to daven Minchah. (LaSuach
means to daven, see Tehillim 102.) So maybe she saw him,
realized it was time for Minchah, and got off the camel so
she could daven also.

Worthy Of Note

     (24:39) "Perhaps the woman will not go..." Rashi explains
that the word "perhaps" is spelled like "ailei", meaning "to
me", hinting to Avraham, if she won't come Yitzchak can
marry MY daughter. R. Eliyahu Dessler (Michtav Me'Eliyahu
Vol. 2, pg. 202) notes that the switch occurs only in Eliezer's
retelling, not in the Torah's original report. He explains that
people often look at things from a skewed point of view, based
on personal interests. So too, Eliezer did not even realize his
vested interest in "the woman not going", and he only noticed
it later, when he understood that Hashem had chosen Rivkah
for Yitzchak, and the Torah puts the switch at that point, to
remind us to beware of this kind of subjectivity.

From the Gemara

     (23:13) "I am giving you the money for the field; take
it from me..." Kidd. 2a - Kiddushin (marriage sanctification)
can be peformed with money, as is taught by the Torah's usage
parallel, saying "When a man shall take for himself a wife",
and using the same word ("take") when one gives money.
     (23:3) Bera. 18a - When one's deceased relative is still
before him, he is exempt from Sh'ma, tefillah, and tefillin,
. However, for one who must take care of the deceased himself,
the body need not be before him, as we see from Avraham
considering the deceased "from before me" even after "he arose
from before his deceased". In such a case, the mourner is
exempt anywhere.
     (24:63) Pesa. 88a - Hashem does not consider the Beis
HaMikdash a mountain, like Avraham called it, or a field, as
Yitzchak thought of it, but as a house, as Yaakov described it.

Rare And Unusual Words

     (23:9) "Machpelah" Rav and Shmuel, the gemara says (Eruv.
53a) desagreed as to the implication of the word, which
literally means "two-fold". One says it contained an upper
and a lower chamber, and the other says it was populated by
pairs of passed-away people: Adam & Chava, Avraham & Sara,
Yitzchak & Rivkah, and Yaakov & Leah.