Laban Lifts the Camels in the Air and the Servant Joins the Blessed

"And it came to pass, when he saw the nose-ring" (Genesis 24:30) - at once he went out to kill him. When he recognized that his haste was for evil, [Eliezer] uttered a Name and set the camels upon the spring in the air, and he himself stood upon the camels in the air. When [Laban] saw this, he recognized that he was righteous and said, "Come, blessed of the LORD" - for he supposed he was Abraham, since his features resembled his. "Canaan" - this is Eliezer; and because he served the righteous one faithfully, he passed out of the category of cursed into the category of blessed. "And he said: Come, blessed of the LORD" (Genesis 24:31). Rabbi Yaakov in the name of Rabbi Yochanan of Bet Guvrin made of it a lesson: if Eliezer, because he served the righteous one faithfully, passed from cursed to blessed, then Israel, who do kindness with their great ones with their hands and their feet, how much more so. "Why do you stand outside?" - it is not your honor to stand outside. "And I have cleared the house" - from the filth of idolatry. "And the man came into the house, and he ungirded the camels" (Genesis 24:32) - he untied their muzzles. Rabbi Yirmiyah asked Rabbi Chiyya bar Abba: were not the camels of Abraham like the donkey of Rabbi Pinchas? The donkey of Rabbi Pinchas - robbers took her, and she was with them three days and tasted nothing at all. They said: in the end she will die and her stench will be upon us; let us return her to her owner. They sent her off, and she entered the house of her master. As she entered she brayed, and he recognized her voice. He said: open for that poor creature and give her to eat, for she has gone three days tasting nothing. They gave her barley and she would not taste it. He said to them: have you fixed [tithed] it? They said to him: yes. He said: have you removed the demai [doubtfully tithed produce]? They said to him: but did you not teach us, master, that one who buys for seed, for cattle, flour for hides, oil for a lamp, or oil to anoint vessels is exempt from demai? He said to them: what shall we do for her, for she is strict with herself? Rabbi Yirmiyah sent Rabbi Ze'ira a basket of figs. Rabbi Ze'ira said: is it possible Rabbi Yirmiyah sends them untithed? Rabbi Yirmiyah said: is it possible Rabbi Ze'ira eats them untithed? Between this one and that one the figs were eaten untithed. The next day Rabbi Yirmiyah met Rabbi Ze'ira and said: did you tithe those figs? He said: no. Rabbi Ze'ira said: if the earlier ones were angels, we are men; and if they were men, we are donkeys. Rabbi Mana said: we are not even donkeys, for the donkey of Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair - they gave her untithed barley and she would not taste it, while we eat untithed figs. "And he gave straw and fodder to the camels" (Genesis 24:32-35). The ordinary talk of the servants of the fathers is finer than the Torah of the sons, for behold the chapter of Eliezer is told over two and three pages, while the creeping thing is among the essentials of Torah and yet its blood does not defile like its flesh except from a redundancy in Scripture. Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai says: from "the unclean, the unclean"; Rabbi Elazar bar Yose says: from "this and this." "And food was set before him to eat" (Genesis 24:33) - Rabbi Acha said: the washing of the feet of the servants of the fathers is finer than the Torah of the sons, for if their foot-washing had to be written, while the creeping thing is among the essentials of Torah, and so forth.