Parshas Chayei Sarah 5786 - PC vs NPC

 Torah Parallels 

Parshas Chayei Sarah 

לעילוי נשמת האדא בת מרדכי 

PC vs NPC 

 

Parshas Chayei Sarah continues the narrative of the avos, in particular the transition of the generation of Avraham and Sarah to that of Yitzchak and Rivka. The bulk of the parsha is really centered around two episodes: Avraham’s purchase of Maaras HaMachpeilah and Avraham sending Eliezer to find a wife for Yitzchak. Interestingly, in each of these stories, Avraham directly interacts with another central character to the story. In the purchase of buying the burial place for Sarah, the Torah introduces Ephron and details the negotiations back and forth between him and Avraham; and in the story of finding a wife for Yitzchak, Avraham’s servant Eliezer gets the spotlight as the Torah follows his journey to finding Rivka.  

 

In both episodes, the Torah goes through tremendous detail and doesn’t spare word count in relating the stories. So much so, that in the middle of the Torah relating the episode of Eliezer, Rashi comments (Beraishis 24:14, quoting from Rav Acha in the medrash) that we see from here that the conversation of the slaves of the avos is more pleasing to Hashem than the Torah of their descendants. After all, so many passukim are dedicated to telling the play-by-play journey of Eliezer, while there are many essential parts of Torah that are only alluded to. Why else would the Torah be so lengthy in relating all the details of the story with Eliezer, it must mean that that Hashem attributes such tremendous value to what we could learn from these events. It is the behavior of Torah itself. 

 

However, taking a step back, it is a little hard to understand for a couple of reasons. First, why do Rashi and the medrash choose here during the story of Eliezer to make the comment? There are plenty of other episodes from the past few parshiyos, that while perhaps not as lengthy as the episode with Eliezer, are certainly lengthier than “necessary” to relate what had happened. Why not make this comment, for example, by the story of Ephron and Ma’aras HaMachpeilah earlier in the parsha?  

 

Second, while the story of Eliezer is certainly extra-lengthy (67 passukim!), and is defintely relevant to “maaseh avos”, this episode is unique in that for the most part Avraham himself is not involved. The earlier stories all involve Avraham throughout; this one though is centered around Eliezer. Why is the story of Eliezer considered part of maaseh avos at all? And furthermore, why would we want to focus so much on Eliezer anyway? As Rashi (24:39) points out, Eliezer himself had suggested that his own daughter marry Yitzchak, to which Avraham directly told him, “Yitzchak is blessed (baruch) and you are cursed (arrur), and one who is cursed cannot cleave to one who is blessed.” As the medrash explains, Eliezer came from Canaan who was cursed by Noach. If Eliezer had this imperfection about him, why does the Torah use this specific story to lengthen as much as it does? And why does Rashi observe from this specific episode that the stories of even the slaves of the avos are so important to Hashem? 

 

If you’ve ever played any form of video game, you are probably familiar that there are typically two types of characters: PCs and NPCs. PC stands for “Player Character” and refers to the character that is controlled by the human player. NPC stands for “Non-Player Characters” and refer to the characters that are programmed in the game. NPCs are those characters that you walk up to in the game and they always say those same things in the talk bubbles. They are there to help, give a hint, point in the right direction, or simply continue the game’s narrative. They aren’t real players in the game, they are mere pawns that are relevant in the moment but lose importance once they relay the information they were programmed to give. Sidenote: With the adoption of AI everywhere, there is no doubt that NPC will be AIs and give off the impression of being an actual player with personalized messages or ability to converse back and forth, but at the end of the day they are programmed to do what they do and are not real players. Their motivation isn’t to win or maximize the game, they are simply part of the design.  

 

The Torah itself is a journey of reality. It starts with Beraishis and relates the shift of responsibility of Adam before the cheit (sin), him needing to leave Gan Eden, then the mabbul (flood) and restart of civilization, and ultimately the foundational structure of the avos who recognize Hashem and restart a mesorah that leads to their descendants receiving and bearing the responsibility of keeping the Torah. In this journey, Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, and the shevatim are no doubt the “Player Characters” in executing on ratson Hashem; and along the way there are plenty of NPCs, people who play a role in helping, or who bring nisyonos, etc. They become relevant in the storyline for a moment and then as the PC continues the NPC inevitably fades away. Ephron is such an example. Rashi describes (23:10) that Ephron was appointed an official of Cheis on the very day that Avraham came to them. It was specifically because of Avraham’s importance and his need for his particular land  that Ephron ascended to greatness. Rashi (23:16) characterizes Ephron as someone who said a lot but didn’t do much. He became relevant for a moment, did the bare minimum (selfishly), and moved on. The mishna in Avos (4:15) teaches that one should be the tail to a lion and not the head of a fox. Ephron was precisely the latter. Rather than viewing the opportunity to join Avraham in building the future and purpose of the world, he remained an NPC fox head with some prestige for a moment before he quickly faded into history. It is no wonder that immediately after the event the Torah (23:17) states that “Ephron’s field....stood”, which Rashi explains that it had an ascension as it left the possession of a hedyot to the possession of a melech.  

 

The story of Eliezer is exactly the opposite. Eliezer could have been like an Ephron and played a passive or selfish role in the story, but he did everything but that. He literally put his personal desires aside and stepped completely into Avraham’s shoes to carry out the mission the way Avraham himself would do it. He maximized all his efforts to do what he could to contribute to the derech HaTorah and formation of the next generation of k’lal Yisroel. The Torah describes how he engaged in Tefillah, looked for middos tovos, and recognized and told over the clear siyata d’shmaya he experienced along the way. Eliezer humbled himself to being the tail, but he was a tail to a lion. The Gemara (Yoma 28b) says that Eliezer drew the Torah of Avraham and poured it for others.” He didn’t assume an NPC role, he latched on to Avraham and became an active partner in bringing emes and chesed into the world along with doing his part to help build the foundation of b’nei Yisroel. The Medrash Rabbah (Parsha 60) relates that when Lavan welcomed Eliezer (24:31), he at first mistakened him for Avraham himself and welcomed him with an expression of “bo baruch Hashem” (Come, blessed one from Hashem). The Medrash says that Eliezer’s face had actually changed to look like Avraham’s. His accepting the mission as an active partner changed his very state from arrur to baruch, turning him from being his own person to being part of something bigger and more meaningful.  

 

Perhaps this is why the episode of Eliezer searching for a wife for Yitzchak is chosen to be the example of the importance of maaseh avos. Eliezer’s actions were indeed the actions of Avraham, and what better way to demonstrate the importance of the maaseh avos than to see it modeled by a student.  

 

The Torah is a path of emes. It is a lens of reality through which to view the world. And simply put, there are two types of characters we could choose to be. We could choose to be a NPC that is just following a script – a character who knows when to wrap tefillin around an arm, when to light candles, and how to read a tefillah, or we could take the responsibility to be a Player Character and strive to add more meaning, kavanah, thoughtfulness, growth, and model the behaviors of Avraham avinu for others to see.