Parshas Toldos
1. The Chida writes in Midbar Kedmos (in the name of Rabbi Yehudah HaChassid): "The fathers of the world, Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, saw one another, and for fifteen years they studied the Torah [together], every day and every night fifteen hours; and 'at fifteen for Talmud'" (and he lists several things in the number fifteen). The Chida explains there the reckoning of "fifteen hours" (specifically): "nine hours for sleeping, eating and attending to one's needs, and fifteen for Torah and prayer." A hint to this is "Let every soul praise G‑d (Kah)": "that he should study Torah and pray… 'praise Kah' in the fifteen hours" (for Kah, י"ה, equals fifteen).
Now in Sefer Chassidim it says: "Why did the Holy One, blessed be He, love the Patriarchs? Because all day and all night their hearts did not turn from contemplating the desires of Heaven… 'And Yaakov awoke from his sleep,' and our Sages said, 'And Yaakov awoke from his learning' [for even while sleeping he was occupied in studying Torah]. There are twenty-four verses with Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov in one verse in order… for all twenty-four hours were in one order, that they had no time free from the desires of Heaven, even in a dream."
The Chida explains in his commentary on Sefer Chassidim there that according to this it cannot be said that Rabbi Yehudah HaChassid's statement that "they studied the Torah… (only) fifteen hours" is because in the other nine hours they were occupied with the needs of the body (as he writes in Midbar Kedmos there), for "our master himself wrote that all twenty-four hours, even in a dream, were in the desires of Heaven." Rather, "this means that fifteen hours they studied Torah, and nine hours they directed their hearts to the Omnipresent, to think of His awe, His exaltedness, His love and clinging to Him" [that is, occupation in prayer, as our Sages said that the early pious ones would occupy themselves with prayer and its intent nine hours a day].
One may add that this explanation (that the number "fifteen hours" refers only to Torah study) seems compelled by the words of Rabbi Yehudah HaChassid himself (cited by the Chida), who wrote "for fifteen years they studied the Torah… fifteen hours; and at fifteen for Talmud," from which it follows that the hours of the service of prayer are not included in this reckoning.
This requires explanation. From the fact that the Patriarchs "saw one another" only fifteen years, as Rabbi Yehudah HaChassid writes, "for fifteen years they studied… fifteen hours" [for Yitzchak was born when Avraham our father was a hundred years old, and Yaakov was born when Yitzchak was sixty, when Avraham was a hundred and sixty; and the years of Avraham's life were one hundred and seventy-five, so that only for fifteen years (at the end of Avraham's life) were all three Patriarchs together] — it is understood that there is a special elevation in these fifteen hours in which they studied Torah together (corresponding to the fifteen years they saw one another), compared with the other hours of the day.
According to the Chida's explanation in Midbar Kedmos, that the fifteen hours are hours of Torah and prayer and the remaining nine hours were for the needs of the body, the elevation of these fifteen hours is understood. Although it is simple that even the physical needs of the Patriarchs were done for the sake of Heaven in utter perfection [as the Alter Rebbe writes in Tanya that "the Patriarchs… all their days never ceased even for one moment from binding their minds and souls to the Master of the worlds," and elsewhere he specifies and explains that they were "on the level of a chariot in all their deeds, even in their sleep"], this nevertheless cannot be compared with the elevation of occupation in Torah and prayer itself.
But according to his explanation in the commentary on Sefer Chassidim, that the remaining nine hours are the time of occupation in prayer, it is not understood: why should the fifteen hours of Torah study differ so greatly from the nine hours of occupation in prayer, to the point that therefore they "saw one another" only fifteen years (like the number of fifteen hours of day and night in which they studied Torah together)?
2. The explanation of this may be stated according to Chassidus:
It is known that the three Patriarchs, Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, correspond to the three pillars on which the world stands: Torah, service and acts of kindness. The main service of Avraham was acts of kindness; of Yitzchak, service (as our Sages said that Yitzchak was "an unblemished burnt offering"); and Yaakov's concern is Torah, as it is written, "And Yaakov was a wholesome man, dwelling in tents." So too they are divided in the service of the emotions: Avraham's attribute is kindness and love; Yitzchak's attribute, severity and awe; and Yaakov's, beauty and mercy.
According to this, that the Patriarchs "saw one another" and were together for fifteen years indicates the joining of all of them together. Although each of these three modes of service is separate from the other, the three Patriarchs joined together to serve G‑d. This is not only a physical joining, but a joining together of the modes of serving G‑d.
That is why their joining was only regarding Torah study, for this joining together of three separate services exists only at the level of Torah study, as these matters and services are at the level of Torah, in which "both these and those are the words of the living G‑d." But in actual service, in the service of the emotions, and all the more so in actual deed, there cannot be an equality of all these kinds and modes of service.
This is also the reason for the difference: that the Patriarchs studied Torah together fifteen hours a day was expressed in the physical life of the Patriarchs, who lived together fifteen years; while that they served G‑d all twenty-four hours of the day is only hinted, in that there are "twenty-four verses with Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov in one verse in order." For the joining of (the service of) the three Patriarchs at the level of Torah study was actual; but their joining together in the service of G‑d during all twenty-four hours of the day exists only as it is in the Torah ("twenty-four verses with Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov in one verse in order"). In actual deed, in their serving G‑d twenty-four hours a day, the service of one did not resemble that of the other, and so forth.
3. The explanation of the matter: the Torah, even when given below, is His wisdom, may He be blessed, as it is Above. And just as with Him, may He be blessed, all the attributes dwell together in complete unity, for all of them are a detail in the revelation of His perfection, and He "includes them together," so too in His Torah, where there is no contradiction among all the kinds of service, for His wisdom requires all of them ("both these and those are the words of the living G‑d"). But in actual service, from the standpoint of man, since every created being is an existence, each different service (and attribute) is opposed to another, and therefore there is a contradiction among the kinds of service.
So too from the standpoint of man himself: in the intellect of man there is not so much division as in the emotions of the heart. As we see, it is hard for a person to feel closeness (love) and distance (awe) toward one thing at one time; but in the intellect, one person can grasp at one time opposite reasonings on one matter, both reasons to convict and reasons to acquit. So too in service: when a person is occupied in understanding the differences among the modes of service, there can "lie" in his intellect the understanding of services utterly different from one another; but when it comes to deed, he is limited specifically to one line.
And more subtly: it is known that the intellect is called "nothing" compared with the emotions, which are "something." For the nature of intellect is to grasp and comprehend the concept as it truly is, without any mixture of the existence and state of the person comprehending. The content of the emotions, however, is the opposite: his relation to what is outside him, that is, the effect of the thing on the person who feels it, whether to draw close to it (love) or to draw away from it (awe).
So it is in the service of G‑d: the service of the emotions is the person's feeling, that he loves G‑d because "the nearness of G‑d is good for me," and therefore he wants to draw close to Him, may He be blessed (and likewise with awe and the like). But the service of the intellect is what "goes out" of the bounds of his own existence and grasps and comprehends His wisdom as it is.
Therefore, in a person's emotions, which are bound up with "his existence," division is forceful; but in the intellect, by which a person comprehends what His wisdom requires, there can be a joining of all kinds of service together.
4. It may be said that the reason why the joining of the services of the three Patriarchs is only in their Torah study (intellect) is that they lived before the Giving of the Torah, before the annulment of the decree between the "upper" and the "lower." As explained in the Midrash, before the Giving of the Torah there was a decree that "the heavens are the heavens of the L‑rd, and the earth He gave to the children of man": the upper should not descend to the lower, and the lower should not ascend to the upper. At the Giving of the Torah the decree was annulled, and the possibility was given to join the "upper" and the "lower," G‑dliness with the physicality of the world.
And just as there is the annulment of the "decree" in the world as a whole, so there is also in man himself, not only between his soul and his body (the spiritual and physical in him), but also within the soul of man itself. The service of the intellect, understanding and comprehension, in which truth shines as it is from the standpoint of His wisdom, is the level of the "upper" in man. And the service of the emotions, man's feeling, bound up with his existence, is the level of the "lower" (within his soul itself).
This is the "annulment of the decree" in man's soul: before the Giving of the Torah there could not be a true joining of "intellect" and "emotions," such that the self-nullification that comes from the service of the intellect should be drawn down and felt also in a person's emotions. Only after the annulment of the decree at the Giving of the Torah was the power given that the same self-nullification in the intellect, through which a joining and intermingling of opposite services is possible (as above), should be drawn down also into the emotions, in such a way that even in actual service one can serve G‑d in all kinds of service (as stated in the Sifri on the verse "And you shall love the L‑rd your G‑d," that both love and awe are required of a person, although "there is no love in the place of awe and no awe in the place of love except in the attribute of the Holy One, blessed be He" — meaning that a person is given the power to join the two opposites of love and awe together, "love in the place of awe and awe in the place of love").
5. According to this we can explain more deeply the difference between the two explanations in the Chida — whether the nine hours are the hours of occupation with the needs of the body or the hours of the service of prayer — as two ways of regarding the service of the Patriarchs: whether their service as a whole (both of soul and of body), or only their spiritual service (the service of the soul itself):
The first explanation, that the nine hours are the hours of the body's needs, refers to the Patriarchs' service as a whole. That the service of the Patriarchs (together) was only fifteen hours a day is because, since they lived before the Giving of the Torah, their main service was only in spirituality and not in physicality (as explained in several places). Although it is simple (as above) that their bodily needs too were done in utter perfection (up to the self-nullification of a "chariot"), this is nevertheless not at all comparable to the level of their service from the standpoint of their spirituality. Their tremendous cleaving to G‑d from the standpoint of their spirituality could not be drawn down openly and actually into their physicality.
That is what is meant by "they studied the Torah every day… (only) fifteen hours," which according to this explanation means Torah and prayer (as above, section 1), which is the spiritual service of the Patriarchs, "the awe and love in the mind and heart" (and it is known that they are the level of Kah (fifteen) in the Divine name).
The second explanation, however, that the remaining nine hours are the hours of the service of prayer, refers to the spiritual service itself of the Patriarchs. The difference between upper and lower there is "mind" and "heart," Torah and prayer, and the joining of all the Patriarchs together is only at the level of the intellect and not in the emotions of the heart, as explained above at length.
6. Now Parshas Toldos (which relates the beginning of Yaakov's life, the time when the Patriarchs "saw one another") falls at the beginning of the month of Kislev or on the Shabbos that blesses the month of Kislev — the month that belongs (especially) to the revelation of the teachings of Chassidus. As is known, the month of Sivan, the third of the summer months, is the time of the revelation of the revealed Torah, and the month of Kislev, the third of the winter months, belongs to the revelation of the teachings of Chassidus [to the point that this month holds several special days in the history of Chassidus, such as the yahrtzeit of the Maggid (19 Kislev); the festival of redemption of the Alter Rebbe (19 Kislev) and of the Mitteler Rebbe (10 Kislev); the birthday and yahrtzeit of the Mitteler Rebbe (9 Kislev), and more. The days of Chanukah at the end of the month likewise belong to the inner dimension of the Torah, for the main miracle of Chanukah is the miracle of the cruse of oil, and "oil" in the Torah is the most hidden secrets of the Torah].
And here we see a wondrous thing: just as the fathers of the world, Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, were together in this world fifteen years, so it is with the "fathers of Chassidus," the Baal Shem Tov, the Maggid and the Alter Rebbe, who were together in this world fifteen years (for the Alter Rebbe was born in the year 5505, and the Baal Shem Tov passed away in the year 5520).
One may add another wonder: it was mentioned above that with the Patriarchs there were two matters — the fifteen hours they studied Torah (hinted in the fifteen years they saw one another), and that they served G‑d all twenty-four hours of the day (hinted in the "twenty-four verses in which Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov are said in one verse in order"). And we find a parallel in the "fathers of Chassidus": the fathers of general Chassidus were together in this world fifteen years (as above), whereas the "fathers" of the teachings of Chabad Chassidus, the Alter Rebbe, the Mitteler Rebbe and the Tzemach Tzedek, were together in this world twenty-four years (for the Tzemach Tzedek was born in the year 5549, and the Alter Rebbe passed away in the year 5573).
According to what was explained above about the service of the Patriarchs (before the Giving of the Torah), the content of the matter may also be explained, by first noting the words of the Rebbe (Rashab), of blessed memory, explaining the order of the revelation of the teachings of Chassidus. Just as before the Giving of the Torah there had to be the introduction of the service of the Patriarchs, in spiritual service, but "nevertheless this is not the actual drawing down of the Torah… and afterward the Torah was given at Sinai enclothed, and through this the level of the Essence was drawn down… Through the Torah enclothed in matters below, the Essence is drawn down" — so it is in the revelation of the teachings of Chassidus. First there was "the revelation of the Baal Shem Tov [and the Maggid]… a revelation of the inner dimension of the Torah… not in the mode of enclothement… and the world could not receive it. It was a very lofty and exalted service, but this is not the revelation of the very essence of the inner dimension of the Torah. And it came through our master, of blessed memory, enclothed in comprehension, and through this the level of the Essence was drawn down…"
The matter has been explained in several places: this is the main innovation of the teachings of Chabad Chassidus. Through the matters of Chassidus being explained in Chabad teachings in such a way that they are comprehended in a person's intellect and understanding, the light of Chassidus is drawn into his inner being, in the refinement and purification of his animal soul and his portion in the world, until it permeates all his matters, even his physical matters [similar to the innovation of the Giving of the Torah, the joining of upper and lower].
This is hinted in the fact that the fathers of general Chassidus were together fifteen years, whereas the fathers of Chabad Chassidus were together twenty-four years. The teachings of general Chassidus, which are a "revelation not in the mode of enclothement," on the level of an encompassing light, are mainly spiritual service (like the service of the Patriarchs before the Giving of the Torah), "the awe and love in the mind and heart," the level of Kah (fifteen) in the soul.
But through Chabad Chassidus the light of Chassidus is drawn into all parts of a person (as in the saying of the Rebbe my father-in-law, that even the heel of the foot should be "a Chassidishe heel"), until it permeates all his matters, even his physical matters (as above). Through this the power is given to live a Chassidic life during all twenty-four hours of the day, until even during sleep it should be discernible about him that "a Chassid is sleeping."
So too regarding the general "figure" of the entire Jewish people through all the generations: through the teachings of Chabad Chassidus the power is drawn down that the light of Chassidus should permeate even the darkness of the generation of the "heels of Moshiach," specifically the level of feet and heels. Through this we merit "And it shall be, because (eikev) you will listen… and the L‑rd your G‑d will keep for you the covenant…": when even on the level of the "heel," the generation of the heels of Moshiach, there is "you will listen," the Holy One, blessed be He, keeps "the covenant and the kindness that He swore to your fathers," the true and complete Redemption through our righteous Moshiach, immediately, truly.
(From a talk of Yud-Tes Kislev, 5722)
Key Lesson
The Patriarchs could unite their opposite paths only in the study of Torah; before Sinai, that unity could not reach feeling and deed. Chabad Chassidus does what the Giving of the Torah did: by bringing the light into comprehension, it carries it through all of a person, for all twenty-four hours, even to his sleep and to the "heel." That is how even the darkness of our generation is lit.