Parashat Chayei Sarah

In this week's portion, Eliezer, Abraham's servant, sets out to find a wife for Isaac, and for him there is one central criterion: kindness. Rav Kook teaches that true kindness must burst forth from within, out of a vision of the other as bearing the image of God. But kindness can also have harsh and harmful consequences. Boundless kindness, giving detached from its root, can produce grievous damage and blindness before a reality with problematic aims. Thus a judge before whom litigants come is commanded to see justice before his eyes, and not merely the weakness of the poor and lowly. Thus a Jew is forbidden to marry someone of another faith, even though this blocks a light of kindness in the world. Thus there is a prohibition of contact between an unmarried man and woman, even though the absence of contact prevents connection, kindness, and beauty. Halachah restrains us from certain things, knowing that too much light may strike us blind. The depth of kindness is the ability to enjoy its light, to seek its light, and to know how to contract it at times, so as to merit its light and not be blinded by its intensity.

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