A Thought on Parshas Chayei Sara

"...va'yish'tach'avu l'am ha'aretz..." "...and Avraham bowed to the local people..." (23:7) The Torah describes how Avraham completed the purchase of a grave site for Sara and himself. He appears to have closed the deal by bowing in the direction of the persons who agreed to the sale. What can we learn and derive from this gesture? Rabbeinu Avigdor writes that we conclude from this verse that one must give thanks when he has good news. He notes that the concept of bowing - hish'tach'avaya - is a behavioral representation of giving thanks. He illustrates this from scriptural and Targumic sources. He reasons that one can utter words of thanks, and one can also gesture thanks through bowing the head graciously. The more humbled one is when granted goodness, the more apt he or she is to find words inadequate. This is when one might portray their appreciation through a nonverbal or behavioral means. He notes that we bow to HaShem in key places, and that this is a gesture of sublime thanksgiving. Rabbeinu Avigdor goes on to illustrate how we bow at the beginning and end of the first bracha in our Amida prayer. This is known as the Bracha of Avraham; its ends by thanking HaShem Who is the Magen Avraham - the Shield of Abraham. He suggests that this "Bracha of Avraham" is modeled after the verse in Nechemia (9:6) which we recite each day near the close of pesukei d'zimra. The prophet proclaims "It is You alone HaShem... who selected Avraham." We see how thanks is proclaimed to HaShem for having chosen our Patriarch. This thought is captured in our initial praising of HaShem in the Amida, where we allude to that special selection of Avraham through verbalized thanks and by bowing. Rabbeinu Avigdor then directs our attention to the verse describing how Eliezer, the servant of Avraham, bowed in thanksgiving upon hearing good news, and he praised HaShem - ya'yikod ha'ish va'yishtachu la'HaShem va'yomer Baruch HaShem - (24:26). Following this, in verse 52, we find Eliezer bowing a second time. From here, Rabbeinu Avigdor says, we see an allusion to the rule that we must bow at both the beginning and the end of the Bracha of Thanksgiving (Modim and "HaTov Shimcha") later on in the Amida prayer. Rabbeinu Avigor endorses the practice of bowing when we give thanks to HaShem. It is interesting that he includes in this rule the practice to bow at the beginning and the end of the Birchas haTorah which a man says at an aliya, when he is called to the Torah. Although not all halachic authorities support that practice, Rabbeinu Avigdor rules that this is the proper way to thank HaShem for giving us His Torah. We thank Him in verbalized blessing and in behavioral gesture by way of bowing our heads as we say the brachos over and following Torah reading. This is the practice which I saw when I was a student of HaGaon Rav Simcha Wasserman zt'l, and which I continue to practice. Good Shabbos. D Fox