Parashat HaShavua - Chayei Sarah

Do we work hard enough at discovering the names of the unnamed characters in our lives, and at accepting the complexities of others? When we read this week that Avraham asked his servant to find a spouse for his son Yitzchak, it is from a midrash we learn that the servant is Eliezer. And this is not the first time we learn from a midrash that an unnamed actor is Eliezer: in last week’s reading, following Avraham’s halted attempt to offer Yitzchak as a sacrifice to God, he “returned to his helpers, and they got up and departed together for Beersheva / וַיָשב אַבְרָהָם֙ אֶל־נְעָרָ֔יו וַיָּקֻ֛מוּ וַיֵּלְכ֥וּ יַחְדָּ֖ו אֶל־בְּאֵ֣ר שָׁ֑בַע (Ex. 22:19). There, according to the midrash, it is Eliezer and Yishmael who accompanied Avraham.

One can obviously be concerned, offended even, by Eliezer’s status as an unnamed character. Yishmael also deserves better in how he is treated by Avraham and Sarah and then in not being named. It is also worth considering, I think, why these unnamed characters might be understood to be Eliezer and Yishmael. In other words, why not leave them unnamed and anonymous? And if they must be named, why Eliezer and Yishmael?

In fact, we know that in the case of Yishmael, he and Hagar are perceived as a threat by Sarah, and she instructs Avraham to evict them, which he does. And yet according to the midrash, at the moment when Avraham is on his way to sacrifice Yitzchak at God’s bidding, Yishmael is one of the people he turns to. Not only that, but the midrash teaches that Yishmael actually understood that Avraham took Yitzchak to offer him as a sacrifice, and thought he might again be in line to inherit Avraham’s legacy! Meanwhile, that same midrash teaches, Eliezer assumed that he would be Avraham’s inheritor after the sacrifice of Yitzchak, considering Yishmael’s previous banishment.

Yet there they both were, accompanying Avraham, trusted by him, in a most vulnerable moment. And now here is Eliezer again, trusted by Avraham to find a spouse for Yitzchak.

There is a concept in biblical interpretation of an economy of characters, that when we are not told the name of someone, we find a way to understand it to be someone we already know from elsewhere. This might seem like a simplistic drive to concretize the biblical text to the very last, to not leave any word ambiguous. Or it might be seen as an easy path, a sort of lazy way to understand the text: ‘Who is this talking about? It must be somebody we know!’

We see, however, that this approach to identifying unnamed characters in fact challenges us to think more deeply and differently about characters we might otherwise think we know. Yishmael is tragically rejected, and understandably continues to think of ways he can be Avraham’s inheritor even at Yitzchak’s expense; yet there he was at Avraham’s side even after Yitzchak survives. And here is Eliezer, a servant, similarly thinking of receiving his own fair share of Avraham’s legacy, also at Avraham’s side after it is clear he will not. On top of that, this week Eliezer is entrusted with securing a future for Yitzchak as our ancestor, and fulfills his promise to Avraham to do so.

One is reminded here of the ways in which, in our own lives, we might not make the extra effort to identify the nameless, and of how hard it can be to accept the complexities of others. We might be quick to categorize someone as good or bad, trustworthy or not. Comes the midrash to teach us otherwise. At different times and under different circumstances, there is always more to learn about another person. May we always strive to name the unnamed characters in our lives, and may we always be open to learning from all the different characters in our lives, no matter how familiar.

Shabbat shalom!

Rabbi Jack Nahmod
Middle School Judaic Studies Head
Rabbinic Advisor