I Recognize Those Camels From a Mile Away.

 “Avraham’s camels.”  It seems that they were famous!  Where would you get that idea from, you ask?  Well there are two words in this week’s Parsha that seem redundant, and as our Sages teach us, every peculiarity in the Torah is written to teach us a lesson.  

The tale of Eliezer finding a wife for Yitzchak is told in wonderful detail in the Parsha.  He traveled to Avraham’s birthplace to find a righteous woman for the holy Yitzchak.  So Eliezer sets out on his journey with ten camels laden with gifts.  The verse states (Bereshit 24:10):  “The servant took ten camels of his master's camels, and he went, and all the best of his master was in his hand; and he arose, and he went to Aram Naharaim, to the city of Nahor.”

 

Rashi comments on the words “migemalei adonav” – his master’s camels.  As Avraham’s servant, clearly the camels he would use would be Avraham’s, so why mention their ownership?   Rashi quotes the Midrash:  “They were distinguishable from other camels by the fact that they would go out muzzled to prevent robbery, that they should not graze in strangers’ fields.”  In other words, wherever Eliezer traveled, people saw the muzzled camels and knew that they were Avraham’s.

 

I’m imagining the world in those days.  Everyone traveled by camel or donkey.  A stranger passing through would likely allow his animals to graze in other people’s fields along the way, and I imagine that short of hiring an army to protect his property, there wasn’t much the field owner could do.  But there is one man who, despite his position as a world leader, and despite the prevalent morality that “everyone does it,” made sure that his camels were muzzled.  So unique was this that everyone seeing these muzzled camels immediately recognized that they were Avraham’s.

 

This is the moral and ethical code that our forefather Avraham taught us.  Stealing is stealing even if the whole world does it.  As the one who “commands his children and his household after him, that they should keep the way of the Lord to perform righteousness and justice” (Bereshit 18:19), Avraham taught the “the way of the Lord” is absolute and not dependent on the current thinking or culture of the society.

 

This is our heritage, and this is what our enemies are trying to wipe out.  Those who kill us and those who support them, they are all really fighting the message that we bring to the world - based on Hashem’s Torah and not the ethics and morality du jour.  We see the effects of shifting ethics, when killers are glorified by supposedly civilized people, and those who try to protect the innocents are publicly and forcefully vilified.  

We stand for truth and light, and against twisted logic that claims that darkness is light and light is darkness.  It has been that way since Sinai, and we will continue to stand as Hashem’s messengers to bring light to the world forever.

 

This is why, when the message of light and goodness is being quashed in our supposed “higher” institutions, when streets around the world are full of supposed humanitarians, we must strengthen our commitment to the message and to our mission.  Throughout history when our Jewish core has been challenged, we do the opposite of what our enemies expect and double down on our mission.

 

You, my friend, play an important role.  Your Actions – every word of prayer and Torah, every word of encouragement, every positive and holy thought – show you are standing proud of your heritage, and ensures that we will endure this.  So do another Mitzvah, have faith and set aside your fear.  We are Hashem’s people and we are moving toward a better future, a future of true peace and harmony throughout the world.

This weekend Chabad Rabbis from around the world will be gathering at the annual International Shluchim Convention.  (Most of the Shluchim in Israel will be joining by live virtual conferencing.)  We will be discussing ways that we can strengthen global support for Israel, and how each of us can help fortify Jews around the world with this message of resilience, strength and commitment to furthering our mission, ultimately leading to the coming of Moshiach.

You can watch the live broadcast of the Grand Banquet on Sunday, November 12 at 9:30 am Pacific Time here https://www.chabad.org/221818.  It will be an event like no other.