How should we react when someone reveals their distress to us? We can simply take care of their problem and mark it as checked, or we can check whether they may need anything else. Let's learn from Rivka Imenu: in this week's Portion, Eliezer asks her for just a little bit of water, but Rivka does above and beyond that. She lets him drink generously, and gives water to all of his camels, and of course, she invites him and his people to be hosted at her home.
Rabbi Michi Yosefi says that it is a wonderful rule in our relationship with others, not only when they ask for something tangible: when someone tells us about a difficulty or a certain lack in their life, we usually tend to do only that which they ask for, "to block the hole", but then we must think - if that person already agreed to say that he's lacking something, could it be that he is lacking anything else in addition to that? How else can we be of help? After all, they do not always tell us the whole problem. We must think creatively, with care, and give help in abundance, generously, from the bottom of our heart and with our whole soul. The young girl Rivka turns into Rivka Imenu (our matriarch) thanks to her ability to not do just what she was asked to do, but to go above and beyond that.
