Torah Sparks
Genesis 23:1 – 25:18
“I am the servant of the Holy Blessed One, before Whom and before Whose glorious Torah I bow at all times.” Every Shabbat we say these words as we stand before the open Ark, ready to take out a Torah scroll and read from it the weekly Torah portion. Week after week we say these words and week after week we read another portion, the very same portion that we read approximately a year before, right at this time, and that we hope to read again, right about this time, next year.

We should recall that long ago this Torah was taught, not through the public reading from a scroll, but by oral recitation. Storytellers, gifted with good memories and, hopefully, with a talent for narration, would repeat the sacred words, serving the needs of the Holy Blessed one and of the community.

Our Torah portion this week tells us about a servant who is given the brief opportunity to take over the Torah’s narrative. He is given two tasks to perform. One task is given to him by his master, Abraham. It is to find a proper wife for Abraham’s son, Isaac. The other task is given to him by the Torah itself. It is to repeat the words of the Torah as best he can, to retell the story of his fulfilling the task entrusted to him by his master. So the Torah portion is given over to the servant so that he may deliver a lengthy speech, recapitulating everything we have just heard (or read). In a Torah Sparks commentary from 5772 I called this the Torah’s “narrative generosity.”

It strikes me now that, beyond exemplifying this magnanimity to Abraham’s servant, the Torah, thereby, also gives a gift to us. We are allowed to witness an early example of the loyal servant who is both the trustworthy agent of his master’s will and the engaged repetitor of the words of the Torah. This is so that we may take that example to heart for ourselves, so that we may repeat that servant’s example, we who are, so many years later, ever called upon to be our Master’s loyal servants, and to vigorously retell the sacred account of our efforts to fulfill our mission in this world.

Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi David Greenstein

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Rabbi David Greenstein

Rabbi David Greenstein arrived at Shomrei Emunah in August 2009 with a rich, broad and deep background as a rabbi, cantor, artist, scholar, and teacher. He retired midyear 2022, and spends his time teaching and painting.

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