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“Let it be that the maiden to whom I shall say, “’Please tip over your jug so I may drink’ and who replies, ‘Drink, and I will even water your camels,’ her will You have designated for Your servant, for Yitzchak.” (24:14)

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That is exactly what happened. Rivkah passed the litmus test for becoming Yitzchak’s wife. She demonstrated that she possessed exemplary character traits. Her act of   kindness towards Eliezer and his camels indicated that she was a baalas chesed, kind, sensitive, caring person. We have to ask ourselves: Is this enough to be the wife of Yitzchak, the Olah Temimah, perfect sacrifice? Is chesed all that one needs in order to become the wife of the one who lay still at the Akeidah, willing and ready to forfeit his life because his father was commanded so by Hashem? While chesed is a laudable character trait, what about the other middos, should they not also play a role in determining one’s character?

Horav Chaim Mordechai Katz, z.l., derives from here an important lesson in human behavior: when one succeeds in refining and perfecting even one character trait and internalizing this middah into his psyche, it affects every other middah in his personality. The perfection spreads throughout his essential character. He becomes a different human being. When Rivkah demonstrated her remarkable act of chesed, it was an indication that all of her middos were exemplary. She was now worthy of becoming the next Matriarch.

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