Georgia Kahane – Year 11

This week’ parashah, Chayaei Sarah, tells us how Rivkah (Rebecca) meets Yitzchak (Isaac). After Sarah, Yitzchak’s mother, passes away, Ya’akov (Jacob), Yitzchak’s father, tells his servant, Eliezer, to find a wife for his son. Eliezer goes to a well and decides that the woman to marry Yitzchak must be kind and so he will see who the first girl is to come and offer his camels water. The first woman ends up being Rivkah, she comes over and gives all of Eliezer’s camels water and asks nothing in return. He then brings her home to introduce her to Yitzchak.

This parashah teaches us the importance of kindness and selflessness, Rivkah saw that Eliezer’s camels needed water and so she decided to help them and did not expect anything in return. She shows us that being kind and selfless doesn’t mean not doing the wrong thing, it means going out of your way to help others. This is something that can be difficult. It can take time and you may have to begin by thinking about the different things you can do to help others, but eventually it will become natural.

Our goal should be to become like Rivkah, one of our matriarchs. When we see someone in need, we should instinctively go over to help and not ask for anything in return.

The Torah tells us that we are born with self-interest, meaning we are born inherently self-serving, this means we must train ourselves to be good, kind people. We must at first consciously decide to do good things over and over again; we must view good deeds like training a muscle, the more you complete the action the easier and more natural it becomes. Without this training we will be unable to complete selfless acts unconsciously.

Selfless acts are the most difficult and the most important. When we are able to put other people’s needs above our own, we become more like Rivkah, more selfless and kinder.

So what can you do in your everyday life to become more selfless and how can you embody the kindness of Rivkah?