Why Avrohom Chose Lavan's Family: Blessed vs. Cursed - Ambition Over Piety

Rabbi Zweig opens with what he calls "the hardest question on the parsha": Why did Avrohom Avinu specifically seek a match for Yitzchok from Lavan's family—people the Torah (תורה) describes as swindlers, potential murderers, and idol worshipers—rather than from his own righteous servant Eliezer, whose every word the Torah records as pearls of wisdom? The question is compounded by the fact that Eliezer was totally immersed in Avrohom's Torah, a tzaddik yesod olam, while Lavan and Besuel were morally corrupt. Avrohom's insistence on avoiding the daughters of Canaan because they were "arur" (cursed) also seems puzzling—why would an ancient curse matter more than current righteousness? The shiur examines the Kotzker Rebbe's explanation of the word "ulai" (perhaps) in the narrative. When Eliezer asks Avrohom what to do if the woman won't return with him, the word "ulai" is spelled defectively (without a vav) in one instance, which Chazal read as "alai"—"to me"—hinting that Eliezer had a personal interest in having Avrohom choose his own daughter. The Kotzker Rebbe explains that the first time Eliezer spoke, he didn't even realize his own bias because self-interest can be so deeply buried. Only later, when retelling the story to Lavan, does the defective spelling appear, indicating he had become conscious of it. Rabbi Zweig challenges this: if Eliezer truly had unconscious bias, Avrohom—being wise—should have brought it to the surface immediately to ensure Eliezer wouldn't act on it. The principal should make the agent aware of any conflict of interest upfront, not let it emerge later.