עקידת יצחק — ואברהם זקן בא בימים / וה' ברך את אברהם בכל

Q — Why is Avraham called "old, advanced in days" when sending Eliezer, the same phrase used 40 years earlier? Why insert "God blessed Avraham with all" into a matchmaking narrative? Why charge Eliezer rather than Yitzchak, himself a navi? Why does Eliezer ask in advance what to do if she refuses, and seek a sign through her speech? And why does the Torah retell the whole episode at length — "the talk of the servants of the fathers is finer than the Torah of the sons"?

A — The charge to Eliezer was given when Yitzchak was born, not at 40 — Avraham, having just been called "זקן בא בימים" at 100, appointed his steward then to secure a wife from his homeland, fearing he might not live to see it. Reading the verses on this timeline dissolves every difficulty: "בכל" is the newborn son, the repeated retelling preserves the providential care embedded in the mission, and the servant's faithful narration is "finer" precisely because it transmits the hashgachah that arranged the match.