Chamishi - Bereishis/Genesis - Parshas Toldos 26:30-27:27

א׳ (27:1, on Rashi)

Likkutei Sichos vol. 15, Toldos 3: Question: The verse itself gives the reason, "when Yitzchak was old, his eyes grew dim", and we see that sight weakens in old age. Why does Rashi look for other reasons? And why three explanations, what is difficult in each, and why in this order? Answer: In the previous parsha, "G-d blessed Yitzchak": the Master of blessings Himself blessed him, and without an outside cause he would have been like Moshe, "his eye had not dimmed". So Rashi needs an outside cause. The first explanation, "from the smoke of these", is hinted by the juxtaposition with the verse "they were a bitterness of spirit", so it comes first as the main one; but Esav's wives lived in their own dwelling, and why did the smoke harm Yitzchak and not Rivkah? The second, the angels' tears at the Akeidah, is a homiletic explanation. The third, "so that Yaakov would take the blessings", is more puzzling still: how would Hashem darken Yitzchak's eyes for another's benefit? Yet each has an advantage: the first is hinted in the verse; in the second the dimness comes from Yitzchak's greatness, the Akeidah, not from something shameful; and the third fits the verse's order, first "he was old" and then "his eyes grew dim". The lesson: Hashem could have told Yitzchak that Esav was wicked, with no need for dim eyes. Instead Yitzchak sat for fifty-seven years "confined to the house", "considered like the dead", so that lashon hara would not be spoken about a Jew, even an apostate. How much more so about any Jew after the Giving of the Torah.

ב׳ (27:2, on Rashi)

Likkutei Sichos vol. 15, Toldos 4: Question: Yitzchak himself gives a reason, "Behold, I have grown old"; why does Rashi need the reason of "his mother's age"? Why does he name the author of the statement, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korchah? And Yitzchak had Hashem's blessing, which surely adds years: why did he live only 180, and why did he worry already at 123? Answer: Avraham and Sarah were "advanced in days": on reaching 100 and 90 they had used up their allotted years, and they lived longer only through the blessing. So by nature Yitzchak would have reached at most 105 (five more than his father's 100), and the blessing added 75 years, as it did for Avraham (175 = 100 + 75). By Yitzchak's own reckoning: Sarah was allotted 90 and lived 37 more; he would have had five fewer than his mother, 85, plus 37 from the blessing, 122; so he worried at 123. But one difficulty remains: Avraham lost five years so as not to see Esav go astray, so Yitzchak should have lived 185! Rashi hints at the answer with "Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korchah said": this Sage attributed his long life to "I never gazed at the face of a wicked man". So gazing at a wicked man takes away years, and Yitzchak, who looked at Esav (though he did not know he was wicked), lost those five years. The "wine of Torah": Yitzchak, the line of gevurah, measured himself by the strictest reckoning, the lowest possibility; but when he blessed Yaakov he blessed without limit, "of the dew of the heavens and the fat of the earth". The lesson: if you are strict, be strict with yourself; with another Jew, act with kindness and a generous hand.

ג׳ (27:13, on the pasuk)

Likkutei Sichos vol. 1, Toldos (secs. 22–24): Question: Why did the blessings have to come specifically "with cunning"? And what comfort is "Upon me be your curse, my son"? A son, especially a son like Yaakov, must worry for his mother; yet we see that it worked on Yaakov. Answer: As a maamar of Chassidus explains, these things had reached Esav through deception: the sparks of holiness that fell below through "the serpent was cunning". So the way to take them back is also through a kind of cunning, "with the crooked You act with subtlety", which is "with the wisdom of his Torah". Yaakov is compared to Adam and repairs his sin: Adam was taken by the serpent through deception, so for the blessings not to remain with Esav, Yaakov had to take them back the same way: "Your brother came with cunning and took your blessing." Here one takes something from a place above intellect (or below it, as in the sin of the Tree of Knowledge), so the receiver too needs a fitting vessel: not reason and understanding but a movement of mesiras nefesh. That is "Upon me be your curse, my son": Rivkah was ready even for that. On the contrary, this is attained only through self-sacrifice, not through reasoned calculation; and her answer worked the same way on Yaakov.

ד׳ (27:15, on the pasuk)

Torah Ohr, Beshalach, "Vayehi Beshalach Paroh": Question: What does "Rivkah took the clothes of Esav her older son, the precious ones... and dressed Yaakov her younger son" mean in serving Hashem? Answer: The Torah is clothed in physical garments, and the mitzvos are done with things that were under the rule of kelipas nogah, whose root is in the world of Tohu. So they are called "the clothes of Esav her older son", for the world of Tohu came before the world of Tikkun. "Yaakov her younger son" is the "smallness", the contraction of G-d's light so that it can be clothed in His attributes according to the Torah. When one does a mitzvah with a physical thing, such as the wool of tzitzis or the parchment of tefillin, the holy life-force that fell there in the shattering of the vessels rises to its source, and "darkness is turned into light". Through this light and joy are added, "as light excels darkness".

ה׳ (27:22, on the pasuk)

Torah Ohr, Vayeshev, "Vayeshev Yaakov": Question: Why is the first "voice" in "hakol kol Yaakov" written without a vav and the second with one? Answer: The first, defective, is "the voice that is not heard"; the second, full, is "the voice that is heard", as the Zohar explains. "Yaakov" is yud-akev, yud and heel: the yud, the beginning of thought, supernal Chochmah, is drawn down to the level of heel and foot: speech, action. "The voice that is heard" is the Torah, drawn from supernal Chochmah and clothed in physical matters, the orders of Zeraim, Moed and so on. But for a person to be a vessel in which supernal Chochmah rests and is revealed when he studies Torah, he first needs self-nullification, "the will of the heart": this is "the voice that is not heard", the cleaving of spirit to spirit. Then "I have put My words in your mouth": "the word of Hashem, this is halachah", speaking from his throat.

Torah Ohr, Ki Sisa, "Smolo Tachas Leroshi": Question: What are the two "voices" of "hakol kol Yaakov", one without a vav and one with? Answer: There are two voices: one for Torah and one for prayer. Once the Sages said "Torah study is equal to them all", and once they praised prayer greatly, as corresponding to the offerings; both are true, for prayer is from below upward and Torah from above downward. Prayer is the fulfillment of "You shall love" in the Shema, and the whole order of prayer before it was established for that purpose, through contemplating "See, I have set before you today life... choose life": just as the body is nullified to the life within it, so and more must one love Hashem, "for He is your life".

Maamarim Melukatim vol. 4, "VeSamti Kadkod Shimshosayich" (Shabbos Re'eh, Mevarchim Elul 5716): Question: Rashi explains "If you will listen (eikev)" as "if you will heed the light mitzvos that a person tramples with his heels (akeiv)". What is the root of being careful even with the lightest of the light? Answer: "Yaakov" is yud-akev, a light that shines through every level down to the heels; this is carefulness in everything. Its root is "hakol kol Yaakov": "the first voice, defective" is the voice that is not heard, the service of the heart's will; "the last voice, full" is the Torah. When one's service follows reason and understanding, there is a difference between light and severe mitzvos; but when there is Torah that follows the heart's will, which is above reason and understanding, there is no difference at all between light and severe. And "when the voice is the voice of Yaakov, the hands of Esav do not prevail".

ו׳ (27:25, on the pasuk)

Torah Ohr, Vayishlach, "Vayakam BaLaylah Hu": Question: What is meant by "he brought him wine and he drank", which the Zohar explains as "he cast water into the wine": Yaakov mixed water into it? Answer: Yaakov's intent was to unite the makif (surrounding light) of Tohu with the lights and vessels of Tikkun: that there always be ratzo and shov, running and returning, in one blend, "the return matching the running". There should be a great love "with flames of fire", longing to separate from the wick, and yet afterward "return to the One", "against your will you live", to draw down the light of Ein Sof below precisely through Torah and mitzvos. Wine is ratzo, gevuros and flames of fire rising from below upward; Yaakov "cast in water", which is shov. That is why "vayavei lo" has two cantillation marks (a double merchah): the blending of running and returning, water and wine. And that is why Yaakov is "the perfection of the Avos": not like Avraham, plain kindness without blending, from whom Yishmael came, nor like Yitzchak, gevurah, but the joining of the opposites.

Likkutei Torah, Eikev, "Eretz Harim U'Vekaos": Question: What is the meaning of Yaakov "casting water into the wine"? Answer: There are two kinds of arousal from below: fire and water. "Mountains" are the arousal of ratzo, a raised seal from below upward, love like flames of fire. "Valleys" are a sunken seal: self-nullification and awe, "making oneself like the leftovers", like water that flows down to the low place. The arousal from above drawn down through the arousal of water, sinking and self-nullification, is higher than that drawn down through fire: from a sunken seal below, a "raised seal" is revealed from above, the light of Ein Sof without concealing garments. That is why Yaakov cast water into the wine: to draw down a higher blessing.

ז׳ (27:27, on the pasuk)

Likkutei Sichos vol. 10, Toldos 2: Question: The Sifri says: "'See, the fragrance of my son' (b'ni): behold, it is built (banui); 'like the fragrance of a field': behold, it is destroyed ('Zion shall be plowed as a field'); 'that Hashem has blessed': behold, it is built and perfected in the Time to Come". How can all three be an introduction to a blessing, especially the destruction, the opposite of blessing? And why is the destruction hinted specifically in "field"? Answer: The blessing that follows, "May G-d give you", "give and give again", includes giving for the service of tzaddikim, receiving the flow as it is given ("a cemented cistern that does not lose a drop"), and giving for the service of baalei teshuvah, who innovate by their own power ("a spring that flows ever stronger") and turn willful sins into merits. The House in its first building, with no destruction before it, is the service of tzaddikim; the House destroyed and then built and perfected is teshuvah, which comes after a descent. Teshuvah comes through bitterness and a broken heart, nullifying one's former self: "shall be plowed", loosening the soil. But the purpose of the bitterness is not the plowing but the "field", ready for sowing and growth: the Torah and mitzvos that follow teshuvah, with added life, up to "built and perfected", the Third Beis HaMikdash.

Torah Ohr, Toldos, "Re'eh Rei'ach Bni": Question: Yitzchak thought this was Esav; how could Esav be so precious in his eyes? On one hand "game was in his mouth", he deceived him with questions; on the other, "the voice is the voice of Yaakov": he knew that Hashem's Name was not fluent in Esav's mouth. Answer: Esav is "the dross of gold", the waste of Yitzchak's gevurah, which has the superiority of gold over silver: "the head of Esav is in the lap of Yitzchak". Fragrance is returning light from below upward, raising mayin nukvin: "fragrance restores the soul", like a fainting man revived by a scent; that is why offerings are called "a pleasing fragrance", for the animal soul is raised and transformed. Esav has no inner revelation, only a surrounding level; so "he smelled the fragrance of his garments", the surrounding levels, to draw down the makif "from the dew of the heavens". And "like the fragrance of a field that Hashem has blessed" is the raising of mayin nukvin of the makif, which needs help from above. But all this is by Yitzchak's understanding; in truth it was Yaakov: "his garments" (bigdav) are "his rebellious ones" (bogdav), baalei teshuvah, who are a surrounding level and "draw with greater force".

ח׳ (27:27, on Rashi)

Likkutei Sichos vol. 1, Toldos (secs. 8–9): Question: How did Yitzchak know the fragrance of Gan Eden, "like the fragrance of a field that Hashem has blessed"? Answer: All the Avos were given "a taste of the World to Come", but only a taste; Yitzchak's whole life was like the Time to Come, for at the Akeidah "his soul departed" and a soul of the World to Come was drawn into him, and in the Time to Come it is specifically to Yitzchak that they will say "For you are our father". His distinction is not only that "his soul departed", which is found with others too, but that he was above the world and brought from there into the world: his having been in Gan Eden stayed with him afterward, below. So he said "like the fragrance of a field that Hashem has blessed", Gan Eden: he remembered it from the time he was there. Although ordinarily, when a soul comes down from Gan Eden an angel "strikes it on the mouth" so that it will not confuse the order of service below, Yitzchak brought the matters of Gan Eden with him below.