The Servant Who Shares the Inheritance

1The Midrash (Bereishis Rabbah 60:2) expounds: “‘A wise servant shall rule over a son who acts shamefully, and shall share in the inheritance among the brothers’ (Mishlei 17:2). ‘A wise servant’: this is Eliezer. And what was his wisdom? ... ‘And he shall share in the inheritance among the brothers’: these are Israel. Just as they invoke the merit of the Avos, he too invoked the merit of the Avos: ‘Hashem, God of my master Avraham’ (Bereishis 24:12).” See the rest of the Midrash there, to the end of the section.

2aThe explanation follows what we said on the teaching of Chazal (Berachos 7b): “R' Shimon bar Yochai (Rashbi) said: From the day the Holy One, blessed be He, created His world, no one called Him ‘Master’ until Avraham came, as it says, ‘My Master, Hashem, how shall I know?’ (Bereishis 15:8). And this is what Daniel invoked when he prayed, ‘Now hear, our God, the prayer of Your servant’ (Daniel 9:17).” This important teaching is to be understood along the lines of Rashi in Parshas Chayei Sarah (on Bereishis 24:7). There Avraham says “Hashem, God of the heavens,” and not “God of the earth,” although earlier he said, “I will make you swear by Hashem, God of the heavens and God of the earth” (Bereishis 24:3). Rashi explains that Avraham told Eliezer: “Now He is God of the heavens and God of the earth, for I have made Him familiar in people's mouths. But when He took me from my father's house, He was God of the heavens and not God of the earth, for the people of the world did not recognize Him, and His Name was not known on earth.” These holy words are explained as is well known: until Avraham, there were no believers. The ancient nations held the mistaken view that Hashem is so exalted that it is beneath His honor to watch over the lower world. He therefore handed it over, they said, to the order of the heavens, the stars and constellations. And because of the error of the heretics, who say there is only one world, Chazal instituted that we say “from the world to the world” [Berachos 54a].

2bChazal say at the end of Menachos (110a), on the verse “For My Name is great among the nations” (Malachi 1:11): “They call Me ‘the God of gods.’” The holy books explain that they say this because, in their view, He is so great that it is not fitting for Him to watch over the lower beings. Then Avraham Avinu came and made Hashem's divinity known in the world. Hashem is exalted without limit, and His greatness cannot be fathomed, yet His humility matches His greatness. He watches over the lowest of the low, and there is no place empty of Him (Tikkunei Zohar 57). On earth too He alone is God, the One who runs all the worlds, upper and lower, and there is no god besides Him. As the Midrash explains (Bereishis Rabbah 39:1), Avraham said, “Can you say that this palace has no one in charge?” It is impossible to say, as the ancient nations did, that this lowly world has no one guiding it, Heaven forbid. “The owner of the palace looked out at him” (this is the Holy One, blessed be He) “and said, ‘I am the owner of the palace.’” That is: through your lowliness, I watch over you. And I command you to go from place to place, to show that the ways of every creature below are under My providence, and “the eyes of Hashem are in every place” (Mishlei 15:3). This is why the initials of Elokei haShamayim v'Elokei haAretz, “God of the heavens and God of the earth,” form the Name of Da'as¹. For Da'as, deep knowing, is what connects the upper worlds with the lower.

3aSo too, when a lowly person knows his lowliness and “speaks from the earth” [Yeshayahu 29:4], his prayer rises to the height of the heavens. This is what Avraham said: “Behold, I have begun to speak to my Master, though I am dust and ashes” (Bereishis 18:27). I am the first to speak to Hashem in this way: from my side as a servant, and from Hashem's side as Master. For even from the earth we can speak to You, but only on condition that I know my lowliness before Your exaltedness and greatness. Chazal's teaching is well known (Bava Basra 10a): “When Israel do the will of the Omnipresent, they are called children. When they do not do His will, they are called servants.”

3bNow the ancient nations erred and the heretics corrupted the truth, saying that there is only one world: that Hashem reveals His divinity only to the upper world and not to the lower one. So the Men of the Great Assembly instituted that we say “from the world to the world,” in both worlds. For “the whole earth is full of His glory” (Yeshayahu 6:3), and there is no place empty of Him. In their mistaken view, even if they were willing to admit that Hashem's divinity is revealed to man, the choicest of creatures, it would be only to a righteous and upright person who does his Maker's will and stands as a son. That He reveals Himself to one who does not do His will, who stands as a servant, the lowest of the low, they neither admitted nor believed. Then Avraham Avinu came, showed them their error to their faces, and made Hashem's divinity known in the world.

4aThey erred about two things. First, they did not grasp that Hashem guides and watches over all creatures above and below, and “is equal and treats small and great as equal” [from the piyut V'chol Ma'aminim], all of them alike, as it says, “To whom will you liken Me, that I should be equal?” (Yeshayahu 40:25). Second, they did not grasp that when Israel do not do His will and are called servants, they are not like human servants who rebel against their master. Such a master no longer has any connection to them, because he has no essential ownership of the servant, only an outer one, “the acquisition of his money” (Vayikra 22:11). But with Hashem, “Hashem's portion is His people” (Devarim 32:9). He created us and breathed a living soul into us, so His ownership of us is essential. Even when we are like servants, we are still bound to Him, and He is within us. It is written in Parshas Acharei, “who dwells with them in the midst of their impurity” (Vayikra 16:16): even when they are impure, the Shechinah rests among them.

4bThis was Yechezkel's answer to Israel (Sanhedrin 105a). They said to him, “A servant whose master has sold him — has he not gone free?” He answered them: “What enters your mind shall never be.... Surely with outpoured fury I will reign over you” (Yechezkel 20:32–33). Against your will, He is your King. You are not like a human servant. You are owned by Him in your very essence, and you cannot run away from Him, as it says, “Where can I go from Your spirit, and where can I flee from Your presence?” (Tehillim 139:7). Are You, Hashem, not all our life? The soul You placed in me is Your portion, and I am Yours in every place and at every time. (We may add that a talmid who learns under a teacher is also owned by him in essence, through the Torah. The Torah binds them inwardly, in their very quality, as Elisha cried out to Eliyahu, “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel!” (Melachim II 2:12). The teacher is truly like a father to a son.) It follows that even when Israel are like servants, they are still essentially bound to Hashem, and so they can pray even then. This is the meaning of “Behold, I have begun to speak to my Master”: even as a servant before his Master I can speak to You. And this explains the Gemara quoted above.

5This is the meaning of the Midrash, that Eliezer the servant invoked the merit of his master. Eliezer would “draw and give others to drink” of his master's Torah [Yoma 28b], so Avraham has a share in his very essence, just as Hashem has a portion in Israel. Israel invoke the merit of the Avos even when they are in a low state, because they are owned in their essence by Hashem. In the same way Eliezer could invoke the merit of his master, for Avraham was the teacher who taught him Torah. The Torah, Israel and the Holy One, blessed be He, are one [cf. Zohar III:73a]. And the Torah is called an inheritance: “Moshe commanded us the Torah, an inheritance” (Devarim 33:4). This is the meaning of “and he shall share in the inheritance among the brothers.” (From the author's handwritten manuscript.)