Camels & Kindness

The government shutdown formally ended this week, but it's been the longest one in U.S. history and its effects will be felt for quite some time. Over recent weeks, the administration has tried to use this shutdown to enact permanent reductions in the government workforce and has petitioned the Supreme Court not to fund SNAP benefits so that low-income people can eat; all of this feels callous and cruel. The extreme lack of generosity that is informing public policy -- this impulse not to take care of people, not to pay them, not to feed them -- flies in the face of every religious value we hold dear as Jews and as decent human beings.

At a time like this, with indifference and cruelty having a heyday, we must return to some of our most fundamental, foundational values and articulate them anew. In a previous moment, teaching about the importance of kindness and compassion might have felt trite. Yet, given what's transpired here in America over these last few weeks, lifting up such basic values as these feels like precisely the Torah we need to revisit at this moment.

This week's Torah portion, Chayei Sarah, helps us in this attempt. Abraham, concerned with the continuity of his line, sends his servant back to his hometown to find a wife for his son Isaac. After a long journey across the desert with his camel caravan, the servant arrives in Aram-naharaim and heads to the well outside the city at evening, "the time when women come out to draw water" (Gen 24:11). He then utters a prayer that sets up a test -- one designed to help him identify the right woman. He says to God:

"...Let the maiden to whom I say, 'Please, lower your jar that I may drink,' and who replies, 'Drink, and I will also water your camels' -- let her be the one whom You have decreed for Your servant Isaac. Thereby shall I know that you have dealt graciously (ki asita chesed) with my master." (Gen. 24:12-14)

The camel test is noteworthy in several ways. Many modern commentators highlight the physical feat that it sets up. For example, the Etz Chayim Chumash notes, "A single camel (and here there were 10!) requires at least 25 gallons of water to regain the weight it loses in the course of a long journey. It takes a camel about 10 minutes to drink this amount of water." We can imagine that Rebecca -- the woman who shows up at the well just as soon as the servant finishes uttering these words and indeed not only offers water to the weary traveler but also to his camels -- must have been both physically strong and generous with her time in order to undertake such a Herculean task as hauling some 250+ gallons of water.

In addition, Rebecca's offer to water the servants' camels is also a testament to a set of desirable personal characteristics such as kindness, generosity, and caring for others. These qualities connect her very directly to her soon-to-be father-in-law Abraham, who just chapters before (see Gen. 18, the beginning of last week's parasha) had stationed himself at the opening of his tent in the heat of the day to be able to welcome visitors, and when they arrived, raced around preparing food for them. The hospitality (hachnasat orchim) and kindness (chesed) of both Abraham and Rebecca make her the right choice for ensuring continuity in this first family of avot v'imahot (patriarchs and matriarchs).

As Rabbi David Kasher pointed out in an essay on this parasha a couple years ago, camels appear more times in Genesis 24 than in the whole rest of the Torah put together! Kasher claims a philological (linguistic) connection between the Hebrew word for camel (gamal: spelled gimel, mem, lamed) and the verb ligmol (also gimel, mem, lamed), meaning "giving" or "bestowing" -- as in Birkat HaGomel, the blessing of gratitude recited at the Torah after having survived a dangerous situation. The word chesed -- which also appeared in the servant's prayer as noted above -- and the repeated appearance of camels, together, evokes the famous phrase "gemilut chasadim," "the giving of kindness" --  one of the three pillars upon which the world stands, according to Shimon HaTzaddik in Pirkei Avot. We also pair these words in a slightly different form every time we recite the Amidah, as we call God "Gomeil Chasadim tovim," "the Bestower of Good Kindnesses." 

So, what's the takeaway from this story and all of this word-play? Rebecca is the right wife for Isaac not only because she is physically strong, but also because she is exceedingly kind and generous-of-spirit. As we read the section of Parashat Chayei Sarah in which she draws vast quantities of water from the well in order to care for a dusty traveler and a whole caravan of camels, and when the servant interprets her presence as a fulfillment of God's chesed (kindness, faithfulness, graciousness) towards Abraham, we the readers are left to connect the dots. Rebecca's actions are an echo of Abraham's, and also of the Divine quality of "bestowing kindness."

As descendants of Rebecca, we hold up her kindness towards the servant and his camels as a model for how each of us can aspire to act in the world. Channeling Rebecca's spirit gives us a way to resist the callousness and cruelty that swirl around us right now. When we see people in need of food and water, supplies and clothing, it is our responsibility to feed them and ensure that they have what they need. If the government is not going to do its part, then it is up to us to fill in the gap to the greatest possible extent until we can make change on a governmental level.

There are so many opportunities to embody Rebecca's spirit of "gemilut chasadim" and to "give kindness" to others. For example, this week, you're invited to click here to donate to JFS's SNAP Response Fund to provide grocery gift cards to those in the Seattle community who need them most, or here for more info about the JFS Winter Warmth Drive (complete with an Amazon wish-list which makes it very easy to choose a useful item). This weekend at our High School Program, Kavana teens will be learning about how our Jewish values inform our obligation to help cultivate belonging and community for our neighbors experiencing poverty and homelessness, and next month at our Kavana Chanukah party, we will be collecting non-perishable food and hygiene items for the Queen Anne Helpline (click here and scroll down to view their wish-lists -- please start collecting items now!).

Lastly, Rebecca's spirit of generosity goes beyond what she physically gives, and can be seen through her nobility of character, her hospitality to strangers, and her kindness towards animals. Let us -- each of us -- try to embody her spirit during this week of Chayei Sarah, acting as our kindest, most hospitable, most noble selves in our personal interactions with one another. The small kindnesses we might bestow upon one another matter more than we can possibly know; together, they create a powerful wave of resistance to cruelty, callousness and hatred.

Wishing you a Shabbat of generosity, kindness, and all that is good,

Rabbi Rachel Nussbaum