In this week’s Parsha, Chayei Sarah, we meet Rivka for the first time. From this encounter, we learn not only the importance of chesed but also of its proper performance.

   The Shlah HaKadosh brings down in the Gemara Pesachim that every Jew is obligated to perform at least one act of chesed per day. If a day should pass when he does not do any act of kindness, that day is considered nonexistant. He further explains that when a one does a chesed, one opens up a shefa, or a flow, of chesed from the heavens. And when one does not, one closes it. From here we see that chesed should be an integral part of our daily lives. But how can we learn this from Rivkah?

HaRav Moshe Feinstein comments on the pasuk which says: She said, 'Drink my Lord,' and quickly she lowered her jug to her hand and gave him drink. When she finished giving him drink, she said, 'I will draw water even for your camels until they have finished drinking' (Bereishis 24 18-19).

We find that Eliezer was originally supposed to choose the girl who said: "Drink, sir, and I will also give your camels to drink." But if this is true then Rivkah seemingly failed the test because she first offered Eliezer a drink and only later did she offer to satiate his camels, almost as if it were an afterthought.

Rav Feinstein goes on to explain true chesed and how it is practiced by real baalei chesed. Eliezer understood Rivkah’s response that her providing water for the camels was not an afterthought at all but rather, an illustration of Rivkah’s high level of kindness.

Eliezer asked for water, and Rivkah immediately agreed and gave him to drink as if it were no big deal. Meanwhile, she saw the thirsty camels. Without any announcement or fanfare, she jumped into the next task, as if it was perfectly natural and nothing extraordinary. "I will now also give your camels," she said, and then she did it, as simple as that. Eliezer never expected to see that level of chesed outside Avraham and Sarah’s home. He was looking only for a baalat chesed; instead he found Rivkah, who was not only a baalat chesed, but also a girl for whom chesed was so natural that she performed it unassumingly and with no fanfare.

We learn from Rivkah how to be a baalat chessed. And that the highest level of chesed is reached when chesed has become so deeply ingrained in a person’s soul, that they do not feel it is necessary to announce that they will do chesed, but rather, they do it because it is second-nature to them.