This Lelamed Dvar is also available in your local App Store (iTunes and Android). As you hopefully enjoy this Dvar, it would be nice to share these thoughts (and quote) with as many people as you can think of, either via email which I will gladly include in these distributions, or by word-of-mouth... _______________________________________________ Parshat Chaye Sarah records two major transactions, which begs us to wonder about their connection. The Parsha starts with Avraham insisting on paying for his plot of land in which to bury his wife. After much negotiating, Efron agrees to accept payment for the plot. The Parsha then goes into even greater detail describing the efforts of Avraham's servant in finding a suitable wife for Yitzchak, his son. What's the connection, other than then technically both being "transactions"? One possibility is that the dialog of the first transaction could be the requisite to the completion of the second. In other words, Avraham had to understand and negotiate a FAIR transaction where both sides benefit before he could find a wife for his son. This requirement says a lot about what it takes to find a suitable mate: Give. If you find yourself taking more than you're giving in a given relationship, you need to insist on adjusting it. If any marriage is to work, the first ingredient is mutual respect, which breeds mutual giving. It is this fact that Avraham mastered before venturing to find his son a wife, and it's this lesson that we should master before venturing to find our own mates or business partners. Shlomo Ressler _______________________________________________ Quotation of the Week: “Your talent is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God."