Boulder Aish Kodesh

Eliezer is a perplexing character in a perplexing situation. According to the Gemarra in Tractate Sofrim Eliezer is Og, the king of Bashan. And according to the Ari Z”L he was also the Palit – the one who told Avraham that Lot was in trouble in Sodom. Let’s look at each of these characters and see what they have in common.

Rashi comments that the Palit was called the Palit because he escaped the flood. It is brought down in the writings of the Ari that one reason why his name is עוג – Og is because, at the time of the flood, he dug himself a trench (עוגה) to avoid sinning. He was not righteous, like Noach, but he understood himself to be in real danger of sinning. He was aware enough to prevent himself from sinning, but holy enough to not want to sin.

Perhaps it is for this reason that Rebbe Nachman describes Eliezer as the lower covenant and Avraham as the higher covenant. As Rebbe Nachman describes in L.M. 31:5, the lower covenant is one who agrees to distinguish between the permitted and the forbidden – i.e. one who will not eat pork. But the higher covenant is one who distinguishes between the permitted and the holy – one who does not partake even of that which is permitted unless it is in a holy way. Eliezer, as survivor of the flood, understands how to avoid that which is forbidden, but is not in himself clarified enough to not want it.

The way he escaped the flood was indicative of his spiritual state – it is written that he actually held on to the outside of the ark, and was fed by Noach. Again, he was not holy enough to get inside, but was conscious enough about himself to deserve to be saved from the flood.

Eliezer as servant of Avraham was a similar situation. He was of the Canaanite people who were cursed and called arur. And, yet, he had the presence of mind to decide that he would be better off, as someone who was arur, to be near someone who was blessed, like Avraham. He has a good sense of how to improve his lot. Another story about Eliezer during that time is that he thought to kill Avraham and marry Sarah. And because he didn’t, eh was rewarded. Again, we see the awareness of how not to do what is wrong, though he is not internally driven in that direction.

We also read that Eliezer was quite gifted in the sense that he “doled out the Torah of his master.” Here, again we have a sense that, though he was not personally infused with the Torah of his master, he was certainly adept at receiving it and bearing it to others, so that they may receive it.

As Og, the king of Bashan, we find him residing just outside of the land of Israel. There is an interesting idea brought in the Mei Shiloach – Moshe saw that he was circumcised, and was scared of him. He said to Hashem that he was worried, seeing as Og must have great merit. Hashem told him that despite Og’s being circumcised, his bed was only 9X4. The Izhbitzer explains that 9 is the number before 10, which is י, and 4 is the number before 5, which is ה. Though he is circumcised, and circumcision is corresponding to the name of G-d י-ה, Og only has what is outside of that, ט-ד.

So, we see that the common theme of Eliezer in all three of his manifestations is that he is outside. This must be a frustrating situation for him – he is righteous, but marked, as it were, by a moment that reaches deep into his past. When Cham looked at his father Noach’s nakedness, he, as Canaan, was cursed as arur. According to some opinions, this was Eliezer himself. According to other opinions, this curse only really took effect on Eliezer, and the word is used when Rashi describes Eliezer’s attempts to have his daughter marry Yitzhak. Avraham tells him “You are cursed, and he is blessed.”

But there is a moment when Eliezer’s life changes. Rav Simcha Bunim of Pschyscha writes that Eliezer’s greatness lay in his awareness that he was a servant. When he said, “I am Avraham’s servant”, it implied a deep self-knowledge and an awareness that he would not and should not attempt to sidestep his true nature, no matter how frustrating it may have been.

In Midrash Rabba in several places it is written that, because Eliezer served Avraham, he actually ceased to be arur – cursed, and became blessed. He was able to transcend his cursedness by accepting it, admitting it, and not trying to change it.

What does this mean for us? I heard once from the mouth of Rabbi Avraham Twerski, the great rabbi-therapist, that the servitude of Egypt, the שעבוד, is addiction. We are addicted to all sorts of things – some of us are addicted to substances, or sex, or food or TV. Some of us are addicted to attention, or rejection, or anger. And the first step of any 12-step program is going to be admitting that you are addicted. Only by admitting “I am addicted” – or, in Eliezer’s words, “I am an עבד – slave”, only at that moment can a person begin to leave the state of cursedness and enter the state of blessedness.

Eliezer’s addiction, whatever it was, kept him always on the outside. Though he knew where and what he wanted to be, though he was not fallen away completely from his objective, which was holiness, something inside him kept him from truly having a relationship to holiness. So, too, our addictions as addictions, keep us outside of life. They keep us tormented, struggling within ourselves, unable to get help. When we admit our addictions, they lose their cursedness and become their own way out. They become a conduit to the deepest possible dialogue about the most meaningful things. They cease to be demons and become angels again.