let the maiden to whom I say, ‘Please, lower your jar that I may drink,’ and who replies, ‘Drink, and I will also water your camels’—let her be the one whom You have decreed for Your servant Yitzchak. Thereby shall I know that You have dealt graciously with my master.
English: Rav said: Any divination that is not like that of Eliezer the servant of Avraham is not [forbidden] divination.
On the daf / in context: Only a sign upon which one actually relies to act constitutes prohibited nichush. Eliezer’s test is the classic case of such reliance; lesser omens that do not determine action are not included.
Type of Learning
Custom (Bavli — definition of prohibited nichush)
What Is Learned
The prohibition of nichush applies only when one treats the sign as decisive and acts upon it, as Eliezer did; casual omens that do not govern one’s conduct are not forbidden under that rubric.