Avraham avinu sends his loyal servant Eliezer to find a wife for his son Yitschok. When Eliezer arrives in at his destination he is unsure how to find the right candidate so he turns to Hashem and asks for help.

 Eliezer askes Hashem for guidance and decides upon a sign that would indicate he has found the right girl. The girl that will not only agree to his request for water but will also offer to give his camels water to drink,  will be the right one.

Obviously Eliezer wasn’t sure how to locate the right girl so he decided upon a sign,  that being the case why did he decide upon the sign of the offer to his camels, he could have just said “the girls with the blue dress”?

It seems like Eliezer tried to do whatever he could to the best of his ability to make sure (by himself) that the girl had id least the primary component of joining Avraham’s family, and for the rest to rely on the sign.

That being the case, we must ask why did he choose the test of chessed? What if the girl was a pagan? Wasn’t Avrahams  hall mark his introduction of monotheism to a polytheistic world?  How can he possibly bring a pagan back to Avraham’s  home despite all her kindness.

A simple 2 minute conversation would have revealed what her beliefs are and that could have well served as the test- the girl that believes in the one and only  G-D.

There is something very deep and subtle we can learn from this. A person’s personality and the way he acts is a lot harder to change then what he believes. Eliezer was certain that if the girl had the attribute of kindness then she is in better shape than if she lacked it, despite the fact that she believed in Hashem. To convince someone of the truths of monotheism could be accomplished in an open one time conversation. But for one to change a way of life and personality of not doing kindness to a life of doing kindness- that is a lot harder.