The table below presents an aligned extract of verses in Gn24-22:23, Gn24-47 Both verses discuss Eliezer meeting Rivkah and deciding that she is the proper wife for Isaac. The alignment justifies the Rashi assertion that Eliezer disguised himself as a slave but nevertheless Rivkah provided food and water. Eliezer was so excited by her charitable nature that he 1st) gave her the ring (that is, he was sure she was Isaac's wife) and 2nd) inquired about her family. He therefore gave gratitude to God for God's quick guidance. But in discussing the matter with Rivkah's family he 1st) mentioned inquiring about her family and 2nd) gave her the ring. With her family Eliezer did not want to appear emotional and involved with God. He rather wished to appear business like and professional.

Verse	Text of Verse	Rashi comment
Gn24-22:23	Ring 1st: And it came to pass, as the camels had done drinking, that the man took a golden ring of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels weight of gold; Family 2nd: and said: 'Whose daughter art thou? tell me, I pray thee. Is there room in thy father's house for us to lodge in?	Rivkah gave charity to a slave. Eliezer was shocked. Someone so charitable must be Isaac's wife. He saw it as an act of God. He therefore gave her the ring first and inquired about her family, 2nd.
Gn24-47	Family 1st: And I asked her, and said: Whose daughter art thou? And she said: The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor's son, whom Milcah bore unto him. Ring 2nd: And I put the ring upon her nose, and the bracelets upon her hands	With Rivkah's family Eliezer did not want to appear emotional and involved with God. Such an air would turn them off. Instead he had to appear logical, business-like and professional. Hence he used the logical order: family 1st, ring 2nd.

Sermonic points: Rashi teaches us the etiquette of wearing different hats. Very often in life we have to be cold in one setting and warm in another, emotional vs. logical, faith-dependent vs. involved with God. The Eliezer story succinctly depicts the different hats that we have to wear and how to successfully accomplish it.

Certain Biblical paragraphs are stated in a Theme-Development-Theme form. In other words a broad general idea is stated first followed by the development of this broad general theme in specific details. The paragraph-like unit is then closed with a repetition of the broad theme. The Theme-Detail-Theme form creates a unified paragraph. The detailed section of this paragraph is therefore seen as an extension of the general theme sentences. Today's example illustrates this as shown immediately below.

Verse Gn23-01b discussing Sarah's life states states
• General Theme: This is the life of Sarah
• Detail:
  • The 100-year life [maturity],
  • The 20-year life [the young-adult life]
  • The 7-year life [innocence]
• General: The years of Sarah's life

Rashi comments on the Theme-Detail-Theme form which creates the illusion of an entire paragraph. Although her life had 3 distinct aspects - maturity, young-adulthood, innocence - nevertheless these 3 aspects were illustrative of her life as a whole. That is her life had a unified theme of personal-fulfillment and growth.

Advanced Rashi: We have not explained why we translated the verse as the 100 year life, the 20 year life, the 7 year life. This is in fact the subject of another Rashi. We are simply not covering it today. However it will be justified, possibly next year. We also seem to have taken sides on what the 100 year, 20 year and 7 year life mean. There is considerable controversy among Rashi-ists on this point. We will explain this also next year. Right now, we are focusing the general-theme-General form which justifies that the three stages be nevertheless perceived as aspects of one whole life.

The climax principle asserts that a sequence of similar phrases should be interpreted climactically even if the words and grammatical constructs used do not directly suggest this. That is the fact of the sequence justifies reading into the Biblical text a climactic interpretation even if no other textual source justifies it. For this reason we consider the climax method a distinct and separate method.

The climax principle is illustrated by verse Gn24-55c, discussing the request, by the family of the soon to-be-wed bride that she be allowed to stay home a little longer before leaving, states And her brother and her mother said:
• 'Let the damsel abide with us days,
• or ten;
after that she shall go.'

An initial interpretation could be literal as indicated by the bracketed words And her brother and her mother said:
• 'Let the damsel abide with us [a few]days,
• or ten [days];
after that she shall go.'

Rashi however objects to such an explanation. True - such an explanation is consistent with word meaning and grammar But it is non-climatic. People simply don't speak that way. They don't ask for a few days and then say but if I can't get a few let me get 10. Such a sequencing is anti-climactic.

Rashi therefore provides an interpretation consistent with climax. And her brother and her mother said:
• 'Let the damsel abide with us days [a year],
• or ten [months];
after that she shall go.' It is important to understand the underlying Rashi methods: Rashi is using climax The climax principle allows us to interpret the ambiguous ten as meaning ten months versus ten days. The Bible occasionally uses the word days to mean year and since year versus a few days is consistent with climax Rashi so interprets.

We ask the following database query: What does bowing symbolically affirm in the Bible? The reader is encouraged to perform the query using a standard Biblical Konnkordance or search engine. This database query yields the list below. The list justifies the following Rashi inference: Bowing can refer symbolically affirm 4 items:
1. A greeting of 'Hello.'
2. Expression of Thanks
3. Acknowledgement of Power
4. Worship
The list below presents the results of the database query.

Meaning of Bowing	A Supportive Verse	Text of Verse
Greeting of Hello	Ex18-07	And Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, and bowed down and kissed him; and they asked each other of their welfare; and they came into the tent
Expression of Thanks	Gn24-52	And it came to pass, that, when Abraham's servant heard their words, he bowed himself down to the earth unto the LORD
Acknowledgement of Power	Gn37-10	he told it to his father, and to his brethren; and his father rebuked him, and said unto him: 'What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down to thee to the earth?'
Worship	Ex24-01	And unto Moses He said: 'Come up unto the LORD, thou, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and bow ye afar off;

Verse Gn24-44b discussing how Eliezer would recognize a future wife for Isaac states and she shall say to me: Both drink thou, and I will also draw for thy camels; she is the woman whom God has proven for my master's son. Rashi's task is to explain how Rivkah's offering of water to Eliezer and his camels proves she is Isaac's future wife: Rashi solves this problem, not by citing verses, but by Filling in with logical and world facts. Rashi argues that Charitable men need charitable wives. Hence a woman who gave water to Eliezer and his camels was charitable and worthy of being Isaac's wife. Here Rashi uses a fill in method to explain why provision of water is a proof. This is typical of the fill in method.

Verse Gn24-22c discussing the gifts that Eliezer gave Rivkah states And it came to pass, as the camels finished drinking, that the man took
• a golden ear ring of half a dollar value, and
• two bracelets for her hands of
• ten shekels weight of gold;

The Rashi symbolic interpretations of these gifts seems strange:
• a golden ear ring of half a dollar value, [Rashi: corresponding to the Biblical commandment to give a half-dollar]
• two bracelets for her hands of [Rashi: Corresponding to the 10 commandments given on two stones]
• ten shekels weight of gold; [Rashi: Corresponding to the 10 commandments]

This Rashi is strange because it implies that Eliezer is prophesying that Rebekkah will be a matriarch to a people who will receive the 10 commandments and be commanded on the giving of the half-dollar. Rebekkah was in no position to know this at this stage of her life.

However the Rashi interpretations can be made plausible if we use one simple Rashi rule: Rashi does not speak using abstract concepts but rather Rashi speaks using examples of these concepts. Hence
• The concept of caring about the little man in the street is symbolized by the half dollar vs. say the $100 bill. The half dollar symbolism is also used in the commandment for every Jew to give a half dolloar symbolizing that all the little people in the nation count. Consequently instead of using the abstract concept of the little man in the street Rashi uses an example of this concept: The commandment to give a half dollar. Here we have used our understanding of Rashi's style to make his commentary plausible.
• The abstract concept of a dual emphasis on commandments between man-and-man vs. commandments between man-and-God is exemplified by the two tablets containing the ten commandments since one side the ten commandments contains commandments between man-and-God while the other side contains commandments between man-and-man.
• The abstract concept of community is symbolized by the plural number ten. One example of this is the quorom of people needed for a religious service,10, since the service must be delivered by the community. Another example might be the 10 commandments which contain the basic laws and ethics needed by the community.

Using this principle that Rashi expresses abstract concepts by using examples of them we can translate the Rashi symbolism into traditional abstract language. Rashi is explaining what Eliezer liked about Rivkah which would make her a good wife for Isaac:
• a golden ear ring of half a dollar value, [Rashi: She cared about the little man; Eliezer knew this since she gave a slave water to drink]
• two bracelets for her hands of [Rashi: She had a dual caring about both people and God---since she cared about the person, Eliezer, and also showed caring behavior to his animals(a man-God commandment)
• ten shekels weight of gold; [Rashi: Corresponding to her concerns for the community since she fed the camels which were presumably carrying commercial loads for community business]

As shown the Rashi symbolic interpretation is plausible and not far fetched. The sole tool we used to make Rashi plausible is replacing examples by the abstract concepts they exemplify. Rashi was not attributing prophetic knowledge to Rivkah or Eliezer. Rather Rashi was explaining how the events which just happened indictated personality traits desirable in a mate.