On Monday night of this week, the night of the 15th of Kislev, a shiur was held in the home of The Rav, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a, for English speakers and for the ‘Noam Hashem’ yeshivah for English-speaking bochurim.

Below is a summary of the shiur:

The Rav shlit"a opened the shiur with the teaching that Rabbi Shimon wept and said that because of four words—“If only Yishmael might live before You”—we are suffering until today. He then spoke about the blessings that Yishmael received, “And I will make you exceedingly, exceedingly fruitful”—that the Muslims received a blessing that they are billions. But only Yitzchak received the true blessing: the Bris! After that, he spoke about how in Chevron they did not agree to allow Avraham to perform the Brisos, and Avraham insisted on it.

The Rav shlit"a concluded the shiur after forty minutes with the topic of the shidduch that Eliezer sought, and the questions he had for Avraham—how could Avraham send him to take the daughter of the greatest sorcerer in the world? The Rav compared it to taking the daughter of ‘Saddam Hussein’… when Eliezer himself had a righteous daughter who was raised in the path of Avraham and Sarah. This was Eliezer’s test—to know that Avraham truly knew what he was doing. And through this, he merited to see in Rivkah both Yaakov and Esav.