Parashat Chaye Sarah: On Avraham's Servant and Service of God

Everyone knows that Avraham’s servant’s name is Eliezer. The Torah tells us about him and names him earlier in the Avraham saga. Why, in this week’s parsha, do we hear of him solely as eved Avraham, “the servant of Avraham”?

Perhaps part of Eliezer’s function in this parsha is to teach us about service. We are commanded to be avdei Hashem, “servants of God.” How does one do this? Take a page from Avraham’s servant’s book.

He is single-minded in his pursuit of the task his master has assigned him. He is in such a rush he seems to have arrived at the spot even without travelling. Rashi says he had kefitzat haderekh, “jumping of the road,” – his journey took less time than Waze predicted.

And all of this servant’s many speeches are all for one purpose – to achieve his mission of getting a proper wife for his master’s son. And so, again, to match his enthusiasm there is a quickening of time and in the middle of making a deal with God, there she appears, the right woman, the very first he sees.

When he gets to the house, he is offered food but no, Avraham’s servant must first perform his task. There is nothing else on his mind but to fulfill his master’s mission – get the girl home. Again, after they agree, there is the possibility of delay – the family suggests staying around for a year or so, as was traditional – but Eliezer insists and she agrees and off they go.

Zerizut, “alacrity,” and total focus on the mission at hand are the hallmarks of this servant and so should they be our hallmarks as servants of God. Our tasks may be less clearly defined, but if we keep in the forefront of our minds at all times that we are servants of God, put here to perform some helpful function, that our primary desire is simply to be of service, if we keep this in mind and do not stray, then we, too, will have kefitzat haderekh, “jumping of the road”, God’s aid in achieving our goals.