Standing by the Well - How we act away from home.

 At this week’s Shabbat Assembly I talked to the students about the test of acting correctly when you are away from home.  In the parsha, Eliezer, Avraham's servant, was searching for a wife for Yitzchak. He was instructed to go to a specific area to find a wife. Why does he go to a well to look for this person? Why not go into the city to the homes of the people whom Avraham told him would be okay to marry?  The Chizkuni explains that Eliezer was looking for a wife at the well on purpose. He wanted to see this person and observe her behavior when she was away from her home.  This would be a true test of what type of young lady she was.  Had she been in her parents' home she would have done as instructed and offered guests food and water. She would have been polite and courteous in front of her parents.  Eliezer was looking to see how this young girl would respond when she was on her own. 

Similarly, we as parents and teachers educate our children to do the right thing and to behave properly. However, the children's true test is not when they are with their parents and teachers. The true test is when the children are at recess or lunch, or on the school bus, or at a play date. At these times, when they are on their own, they must demonstrate that they have incorporated good manners and appropriate behaviors into their lives. I hope the students will take this lesson to heart and assimilate it into their lives when the adults are not around.