logo_tm
Newsletter           November 17, 2011 - 20 Cheshvon 5772
            

   

Made You Look   

I was first annoyed by the two boys sitting in the row before me playing a game of "Made You Look" for the entire flight. I was trying to focus on a scene from the portion and I was distracted by their game until I realized they were giving me the key to the text:

He may have loved her, but he did not seem to see her. Isaac and Rebecca look up at the same moment, potentially one of those magically perfect moments when two people meet with their eyes and fall in love. There was no magic: "He went out to the field one evening to converse with God, and as he looked up, he saw camels approaching.  Rebecca also looked up and saw Isaac. She got down from her camel and asked the servant, 'Who is that man in the field coming to meet us?' 'He is my master,' the servant answered. So she took her veil and covered herself (Genesis 24:63-65)."
Isaac looked up and saw camels. Rebecca looked up and saw Isaac.
He, the passive purpose of Eliezer's mission, observed the camels returning, and, in a detached way, turned to welcome the party.
Rebecca saw Isaac, and by falling from her camel in reaction, created a moment that was permanently implanted in her memory.

Eliezer breathlessly watches as this young woman almost falls off her camel because she perceives something so significant in the boy he watched grow up. When Rebecca asks, "Who is that man in the field coming to meet us?" the only way Eliezer can respond is with a shocked whisper, "He is my master." Rebecca played "Made you look!" with Eliezer.

Until that moment, Eliezer always spoke of Abraham as the master, and Isaac as the son, but when he observes Rebecca insisting that to simply see Isaac, even from a distance, is a moment to treasure for eternity, Eliezer sees Isaac differently. "He, is my master." Rebecca fell from the camel for Eliezer's benefit, and for Isaac's. Once the people around him saw Isaac as did Rebecca, he was able to rise to his new role as patriarch.
 
Perhaps when Abraham insisted that Eliezer choose a wife for Isaac from the family he abandoned many years earlier, he was insisting that Isaac could only marry someone who perceived him as the family saw Abraham, as an ivri, an other. This was a delicate stage in the family's development; Would the new generation be able to forge its own path? Rebecca, who sees Isaac from a different perspective allows him to become Isaac, not just another Abraham.

Rebecca's momentary glance changed Isaac, and taught us the significance of a "Made you look!" The Sages applied Rebecca's lesson to Sinai. They understood Revelation as God revealing His view of Israel to them: "When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance (Exodus 20:18)." The Sages teach that Israel trembled with fear because their souls left their bodies. The only indication in the text of the such an experience is, "the people saw the thunder," they saw the sound. God made them look; they saw themselves from the outside, just as Rebecca saw Isaac. They saw themselves, as God saw them, as people worthy of Revelation. They saw themselves from a distance, and there they stayed to maintain the view.

My most treasured moments of Torah study are those when the wisdom changes my self-perception, when I experience the challenge of elevating myself, and the honor of that challenge. Learning, thinking, choosing, call out "Made you look!" There are times I perceive something so powerful that it knocks me off my camel, and I catch my breath as I realize how fortunate am I to have such experiences. I hear the Torah shout, "Made you look!" and rejoice that so it did.

The best Shabbat experience is when the day allows me to reflect on my life as an outsider, as Rebecca saw Isaac, as Israel saw themselves through God's eyes, and I can observe my growth. My favorite Shabbat is one that yells, "Made you look!" I wish such a Shabbat for you.

Shabbat Shalom,
 
Rabbi Simcha L. Weinberg
President 
If you are interested in sponsoring our  awardwinning Newsletter, please email [email protected]       
                                                                      Go to our BlogBlog Image
Join Our Mailing List
             Follow us on Twitter  twitter


                 Become a Fan   facebook
The Foundation Stone
www.thefoundationstone.org