And Abram said, "0 Lord God, what will You give me, since I am going childless, and the steward of my household is Eliezer of Damascus?" (Bereishis 15:2)

The Gemara in Yoma explains:

Even Eliezer, the servant of Abraham, was an elder and a member of the scholars’ council, as it is said: "And Abraham said unto his servant, the elder of his house, that ruled over all he had" - Rebbi Eleazar explained that he had dominion over the Torah of his master. (It also states) "Eliezer of Damascus" - Rebbi Eleazar said: He was so called because he drew and gave drink to others of his master's teachings.(This is a play on D'amascus, as if it were a combination of doleh (one who draws) and mashkeh (one who gives drink) (Yoma 28b)

From the simple understanding of the verse, Avraham is in despair because he has no one to succeed him except for Eliezer of Damascus yet the Gemara learns from the verse the tremendous value of Eliezer as a teacher of Avraham's doctrine. What was wrong with Eliezer being the propagator of Avraham's teachings?

I heard from a Rav in the Mir that each of the Avos (fathers) brought a unique and innovative quality into the world that never existed before. This is is why they were called "avos". The Gemara stated that Eliezer of Damascus "drew and gave drink to others of his master's teachings". You could infer from this that he did not innovate and bring Avraham's teachings to new levels and ramifications but instead just repeated what he heard. Avraham wanted a successor who would bring his teachings to their ultimate understanding and logical conclusions, not just parrot back what they learn. G-d requires from us to contemplate and think deeply about what the Torah is saying. It is only through this process of deep thought that we can truly come close to G-d.

Have a Good Shabbos!

Dear Rabbi Mitterhoff,

I am always reluctant to remove your name frome the screen and replace it with my own, since you are greater than the Rosh Yeshiva is here, if not then you are the Rosh Yeshiva, whatever that is. And it is so good to see your name , especially when there is a minyan on the screen.

But I wanted to post on this topic, before it fades into the sunset.


You have been very creative in starting and maintaining Global Yeshiva and it has definitely taken the Torah to new levels, giving access to the world. It is important to be creative and to apply Torah's lessons to our every day lives, if you have the ability to do so.

But I think that it is G-d's will for some of us to just pass on what we learn in it's purist form. Sometimes when we add to things or embellish things we have a tendency to corrupt them. But if you are pure in heart which I am sure that Abarahams servant was. you can still maintain the truth.

Isaac was Abraham's son, his heir, which gave him a special priveledge to be innovativen with his father's teaching. Sometimes it takes a priveledged position to inspire us that we will not be punished if we are creative. Because being creative often takes you off the beaten path and sometimes you can make "mistakes".

Eliezer, as a servant , and out of respect for Abraham did not add to or detract from Abraham's words because he wanted to make sure that he quoted him right and not forget what Abraham originally said. So it was Eliezer's role to repeat what Abraham said in the most simple way. I don't see anything wrong with that for some people. But you, being a teacher, probably see it way too much. I don't think everyone is obligated to be creative, and I think some people are more obligated than others.

Raybin

This is an excellent point. Rav Chaim Zimmerman once asked on a new sefer that was published the following question: If what that is written here is new then its not Torah and if its already in the Torah what do we need it for!

I will answer as follows: Being creative in Torah means extending the tradition we have into new applications and bringing out things that were in the background into the foreground. By turning a diamond we can see things we never saw before. Creativity in Torah means bringing our tradition to life.

The process of creation involves the inner wisdom contained in the teaching of our Avos. The great wisdom of our forefather might be encripted into different levels of awareness. Each one of our forefather incorporated one important attribute as jessed, din, and gevurah. These of course added different ways of
feeling creative innovation of onesses of G-dlyness.

The search for G-d´s way inevitable gets one soul closer to Mitzvoth and the wisdom given by the only and ethernal one. G-ds way as bara,asah, yatsar may hold for different levels in the creation process. Nevertheless, Mankind is restricted to creation from matter that already exists, the limitation imposed over by G-d. The heaven rejoyses when a new key to the road of wisdom encounters its way to the physical world through the study of Torah as first person which might be interpreted as innovative and creative.

Lej Leshalom

quote:

Originally posted by Rabbi Mitterhoff:
This is an excellent point. Rav Chaim Zimmerman once asked on a new sefer that was published the following question: If what that is written here is new then its not Torah and if its already in the Torah what do we need it for!

I will answer as follows: Being creative in Torah means extending the tradition we have into new applications and bringing out things that were in the background into the foreground. By turning a diamond we can see things we never saw before. Creativity in Torah means bringing our tradition to life.

You must have known that my mother had just pawned an heirloom diamond ring. They say that diamonds are forever, but we will never see that one again. The Torah is too great to compare to any worldly possessions.

There is nothing new under the sun. Torah encompasses everything and all teachings. If it is not in the Torah, then it doesn't exist. There is really nothing that we can create, everything is already spelled out by G-d.