PURE HEARTS AND CLEAN HANDS FULL

It is in this short scene, all seen from the servant’s viewpoint, that Rebecca’s character is revealed. All of the verbs in Hebrew referring to her are verbs of movement, action and speed. But it is not only the fact of her fulfilling the sequence that marks her out, it is also how she is described. Suddenly, Rebecca appears and miraculously fulfills the whole sequence, thus proving her to be the right choice. He asks for a particular sequence of events to occur which will reveal to him the proper choice of bride for his master’s son. After his arrival, the servant makes a strange request of God. Rebecca was the real link in the chain of the tradition, and all of her character and future actions are illuminated to us the very first time we meet her in this week’s parasha.Ībraham’s servant has traveled to Nahor in Aram-naharaim in order to find a wife for Isaac from among Abraham’s relatives. So the choice was made for him by the true heir to Abraham’s example, the one who fulfilled the requirements of the psalm and taught it to her son. And when it came time to designate his heir, he had not the foresight to choose correctly.

He did not even search for his own wife, it was done for him. He was bound and willingly gave himself to the knife, but he had nothing to do other than not resist. And he did not take God’s name in vain like Laban but swore truly by his father’s faith.īut where is Isaac in this list? Why was he not counted by the midrash together with his father and his son? If Abraham was the first model of such a life of inward devotion together with outward action, how then did Jacob learn to follow this path? It could not have been through his father Isaac, for Isaac was not a person of balanced piety. He has a pure heart because he did not know of Rachel’s theft of her father’s idols. He had clean hands because he did not steal from his uncle Laban. Jacob is also identified by the midrash as one with all the proper qualifications to stand in God’s holy place. He did not swear falsely before Nimrod (according to a midrash) and did not take God’s name in vain before the king of Sodom. He has a pure heart because he believed in God’s promise at the covenant “between the pieces”. He has clean hands because he took nothing for himself when he intervened in the war of the kings (Genesis 14).

PURE HEARTS AND CLEAN HANDS FULL

Who then has fulfilled these requirements? In Midrash Tehillim to this psalm, Abraham is mentioned because in all his actions, thoughts and speech he had full integrity and faith. In thought, action and speech, such a person is in harmony with God and the world. We might say that these characteristics constitute the complete person of religious integrity.

24:3-4).” The medieval commentator David Kimhi of Provence (1160-1235) felt that the answer to the question lists three requirements: proper action-clean hands proper thoughts-pure heart and faith in speech-not swearing deceitfully. Psalm 24 asks: “Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place?” The answer given is: “He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not taken a false oath by My life or sworn deceitfully (Ps. Posted On / 25 Heshvan 5759 | Torah Commentary

Pure hearts and clean hands