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Isaac develops and puts into play the
revolutionary idea that even ordinary human beings can have a
relationship with G-d; a giant step forward in an era where
relationships with the Divine were still considered solely the
province of the righteous. In contrast, at this time the
relationship between man and his fellow man was still ruled by a
utilitarian functionality
that continued to prevail until Jacob appeared on the scene.
The developmental stages describing man's relationship with himself (awareness and
self-consciousness), man's relationship with G-d, and, last but not least, mutuality or
reciprocity in the relationship between man and his fellow man, have been described
elsewhere. The relationship between man and himself, it should be emphasized, does not
function independently of all others; it seems to be an aspect of the very essence of man's
relationship with his fellow man. The principle "and you shall love your fellow man as
you love yourself" encapsulates the existing order of relationships. The first step to be
taken is initiating a relationship with the other in which the value of kindness is the
motivating force.
Following the "kindness of Abraham," the
gevurah (might or strength) of Isaac took center stage in
determining how the intimate bond
between man and G-d was to take
place. Only when Jacob appeared on the scene did love become the motivating emotion
engendering an intimate relationship with the other; only after identifying with the other
does man develop the ability to identify with himself as well. Our Torah portion limits
itself to discussing Isaac's relational level. Isaac the archetypal sacrificial offering, the
father of selfless devotion believed that everyone should have access to a relationship
with G-d, each on his own level. This relationship should not be the exclusive province of
the holiest of holy individuals.
The problem of
the chicken and the egg:
Which is the cause, and which is the effect?
Does G-d's love for mankind engender their love for Him, or does their love for Him lead
to His love for them? Isaac contends that G-d's love leads to mankind loving Him.
Rebecca contends that mankinds' love leads to divine worship. Both agree that the love
of G-d and the love for mankind descended into this world firmly attached to one another
in a bond that can never be sundered.
Isaac understands that
in order to direct the ordinary man toward the supernal heights, his
attachment to the earth -- to existential reality which he perceives
to be the basis for and focal point of his existence -- must not be
underestimated. Abraham, his father, who had an identical goal, only
succeeded in awakening mans' awareness of the supernal dimension
through indirect means, through his kindness. When thanked for his,
hospitality Abraham channeled his guests' gratitude away from himself and toward the
cause of all causes, the supernal source of all kindness and abundance. Isaac, taking the
next step, attempts to penetrate mans' consciousness by linking mans' sense of bondage
to the earth with the supernal dimension, constructing an edifice where the lower realm is
dependent upon the supernal one.
Rebecca's love for Jacob stems from her own bitter family background. In her father's
house she experienced negative behavior, starkly contrasted by the teachings of her
husband's house. Rebecca had difficulty believing that sweetness could be distilled from
bitterness, sweetness derived from strength. The greatest of the biblical commentators do
not clarify whether Rebecca informed her husband about the twins' characters revealed to
her when she went to inquire at the Academy of Shem and Ever about the children
struggling in her womb.
Shem revealed to her
that with her aid, henceforth, good and evil would be separated;
each would receive a permanent and typical worldly expression. One
child would be born under an entirely good omen,
while the other would be destined to represent evil. Rebecca was
correct to waive this opportunity to make her mark on the future;
she was only appeased when she was promised that the separation of
good and evil would be accompanied by a bond of mutual
dependency
between them, a dependency that would
metamorphose into the enslavement of the weak by the strong. Learning this, Rebecca
intuited that this was not an arbitrary decree, but rather an ideal solution. Henceforth, evil
would be charged with serving as a reminder of iniquity, a guardian of the good. When
the voice is the voice of Jacob, the hands of Esau do not govern; rather, they serve the
good. When the good falls into a degenerative lethargy, the anger of Esau is unleashed to
harass it and waken it from its deep sleep, functioning as a reminder of iniquity. From
this point on, Rebecca perceived her role to be that of strengthening and protecting Jacob.
Isaac "loved" Esau in the context of his mandate to teach even those on the lowly levels,
those enslaved to the material world. He desires to teach them how to reach out and grasp
the lifeline, to become connected with the supernal dimension through which in turn they
can enslave matter so that they can utilize it to serve the divine purpose. Therefore, Isaac
requested that Esau go hunting, preparing him for the divine by having him perform the
mitzvah of honoring one's parents. Rebecca is aware that the capability Isaac is
attempting to endow Esau with will not bear fruit in the near future, only at the end of
days. Until then, Esau threatens Jacob with annihilation; therefore, Jacob is in need of
Isaac's blessing of being strengthened.
Isaac does not envision reality the same way his
wife does because they are on parallel paths. Rebecca perceives that
the divine way is formed through interpersonal relationships, so
she teaches Jacob about love; Isaac toils to bring
the divine matter within the grasp of ordinary mortals, and believes
that through mans' connection to G-d, he will discover how to love
his fellow man; for the source of all love is to be found within
G-d, not within human relationships, so mankind can only learn
love's fundamentals from the supernal realm, and then apply it to
human relationships. "And Isaac was seized with a very great
trembling"
(Gen 27:33) After hearing Esau's
reaction, Isaac realized that Esau had no interest in relating to G-d, no desire to attach
himself to the Divine, and he certainly did not envision Him to be the goal toward which
all human actions are directed. In fact, the opposite was true. He was guided by a vicious
hatred stemming from competitiveness and jealousy rooted in the physical world
governed by brute force.
Isaac does not request of Rebecca that she present herself as his sister to Avimelekh as
Abraham did with Sarah. This problem never arises for he tells Avimelekh that Rebecca
is his sister. Isaac has no unmediated direct encounters with mortals; he attaches himself
to the Shekinah (divine presence). He does not even communicate directly with his wife,
Rebecca. He does not base his existence upon human relationships, but rather exclusively
upon his relationship with the Creator.
Isaac prepares the
supernal dimension (the dimension of height) for the people of the
world, and he expects nothing in return. Anyone who wishes to
partake of the feast is invited. He does not trouble to explain
himself; He only confides in himself: "For I am afraid to say she is
my wife, lest the men of the place kill me on account of Rebecca for
she is beautiful" (Gen 26:7). When Avimelekh demands an answer,
Isaac responds curtly and succinctly, making no attempt to explain
his actions: "Because I said, lest I lose my life on account of
her"(Gen 26:9). Avimelekh continues to protest, but receives no
response. When Avimelekh attempts to appease Isaac, Isaac asks in
surprise: "Why have you come to me, seeing that you have been
hostile to me"(Gen 26:27). Isaac continues to interact with society
based upon the principle of kindness
he inherited from his father;
however Isaac also introduces a new approach: attempting to bring the Creator closer to
mankind, rather than bringing mankind closer to Him.
Isaac adopts an indirect strategy for dealing with the world. At first, he attempts to dig, to
renew, the nourishing springs established by his father, but he does not succeed because
the Philistines have sealed them up. Only when he digs a new well is he greeted with
success. His path is not the one already taken. He blazes a new trail, yet unknown to the
world. A trail that even Rebecca, his wife, who loves Jacob and educates him in the path
of love, is unfamiliar with.
Jacob continues on his father's path, but he
adds another dimension to it; he converts the qualities learned in
establishing the unique relationship with G-d, into the basis for a
unique relationship with his fellow man. Jacob is charged with
descending from the supernal heights with their pure spirituality so
that he can discover and reveal the divine presence in the
existential reality. "If G-d remains with me, and He protects me on
this journey that I am taking, and He gives me bread to eat … Hashem
shall be my G-d"(Gen 28:20-21). Jacob has not issued G-d with an
ultimatum, made a condition for continued belief in Him; rather, he
has made a request: In order to perform his new role, Jacob must
deal with matter, with Esau. He is inexperienced. He is an ish tam
(a plain man, an unblemished man), a dweller of tents. He knows that
he must find his sea legs and learn to rule over matter. His
strengths do not lie in this arena; therefore, he asks the Creator
to help him find the divine presence in the midst of the existential
battle. On his own, he will not succeed. This is not his way.
Curiously, taking this new path he is unsure of his ability
to shoulder the brute force weaponry of Esau. His
secret weapon is his discovery that good can defeat
evil. This is the covert weapon he has brought down from
the heavens. Utilizing the voice of Jacob, to defeat Esau's evil
brute force. Grant truth to Jacob. His weapon is the measure
of truth
.
Jacob's role is founded upon an inescapable
paradox: How can man use the force of truth, the exclusive seal of
the Creator, "the seal of HaKadosh Baruch Hu is truth"? How
can the absolute be utilized in the base and delimited
world? The same truth that could not comprehend the logic
of creating man, for he is full of falsehood, harnessed by man in
his battle! HaKadosh Baruch took the truth – "Truth looks down from
the Heavens" (cf. Psalms 85:12) -- and cast it down to earth, "Truth
springs forth from the earth"(Psalms 85:12), in order to forcefully
insert this essential characteristic, the Creator's seal, into the
brute force, physical world of creation. Jacob was charged
with the impossible task, to insert the absolute into the relative
and delimited
; to insert truth into falsehood. By
doing so, falsehood and evil are prevented from spreading and polluting creation.
Henceforth, they are chained, obligated to and dependent upon the rule of truth, when and
if she takes her deserved place in the midst of the people.
Jacob does not have permission to take the easy
way out, to grasp one end and ignore the opposing one. He
must unify the two opposites. The ladder was set on the
earth but its top reached the heavens. The truth cannot be reached
by disconnecting it from the ground. The absolute and the relative
join together to form one unit. Only the human realm can countenance
this absurd encounter. Man composed of spirit and matter is destined
to carry upon his puny shoulders both the heavens and the earth. How
can he accomplish this? With the power of love.
For
love is also limitless. It incorporates within it
the mystery of the existential embrace joining good and evil
together. Love absolves all crimes. Vast torrents of water cannot
extinguish love. Love is the flip side of truth. Truth without love
is the strict measure of din (justice). If truth reverts to
its original role as daughter of heaven, it can lead to cruelty, to
the anti-thesis of the human(e). Truth cannot spring forth from the
earth without "HaKadosh Baruch Hu proactively mixing the measure of
mercy with the measure of justice," for as HaKadosh Baruch realized,
the world cannot survive under a system of strict justice. Love is
mercy's quintessential component. Love sweetens the bitterness of
justice. Solely through love can the bad be sweetened so that
sweetness can be derived from strength. Only by combining these two
most quintessential divine measures of mercy and justice can the
impossible become a reality. Jacob, the chosen patriarch, was
charged with this mission. Jacob who became the Shekhinah's chariot,
whom the Creator referred to as e-l
(god), had the strength to turn matter into spirit and
actualize the spirit without causing a separation between the two most radically
antithetical principles in Creation.
Herein
lies the mystery of the love Jacob brought down from the heavens and
actualized on earth. "And Jacob loved Rachel"(Gen 29:18); love that
was not contingent upon external justifications or proofs; love
independent of any and all considerations, even positive ones.
Isaac, his father, only fell in love with Rebecca after she passed
the tests, not only Eliezer's but also more tellingly his own. Only
after the sacred values of Sarah, Isaac's mother, were revivified
did Isaac love Rebecca. After the blessing returned to the dough:
the matter in Sarah's dough, unlike other matter, had not been
forced to separate itself from the spirit. The candles remaining lit
during the entire Shabbat: the harmonization and unification of the
antagonistic principles, the encounter between antithetical
principles, characteristic of existential reality, joining together
on the Shabbat, a taste of the World to Come, symbolizing a harmony
that Sarah, the righteous woman, radiated throughout the house the
rest of the week. The cloud resting upon the tent: the supernal dimension -- an atmosphere of
spirituality and divinity that pervaded the righteous woman's home
that only departed upon her death, leaving behind a house bereft of
its unique atmosphere, a situation rectified by Rebecca's, the new
righteous woman's, arrival. Only upon realizing this, does the verse
relate that "he [Isaac] took her [Rebecca] as his wife, and Isaac
loved her"(Gen 25:67). Isaac's love was a consequence of Rebecca's
passing the tests of values and qualities
.
Without a shadow of a doubt Isaac's love for
Rebecca was contingent upon external considerations. Love untouched
by external considerations is the undiffused expression of
two hearts beating as one, of a reciprocal bond
joining two people together. An unconditional recognition,
unencumbered by any prior attainments or understandings, reached by
one human being created in the image of G-d that his or her
complement is to be found in the other. This is love which stems
from the divine source – bridging the gap between one's own Self and the Self of the other. Only this
form of love can unify two individuals caught up in the brute force condition of mortal reality
, hostages to power
struggles, jealousy, lust and honor.
Jacob taught the world
to love the truth
, the fundamental value preserving the very
integrity of Creation. On the supernal level Jacob was on, he was charged with
responsibility for this fundamental divine principle buried within Creation. Using, of all
things, love as his weapon, he had to grapple with a world saturated with hate. His path
was not easy. In Parshat Vayyetze, Laban seemingly attempts to annihilate Jacob and his
family utilizing inestimably more dangerous tools, trickery and falsehood stemming from
the principle of hate. Save me, my Lord, from those who love me. I will protect myself
from my enemies. King Yannai taught Queen Shelomit: Do not fear the Sadducees and
the Pharisees. Fear those hypocrites who act like Zimri and demand rewards as if they
were Pinhas. Trickery is not judged to be intrinsically evil, but rather as a deeply grievous
necessity, a temporary measure necessary for achieving the sacred goal. Jacob was given
the task of exposing the dangers of trickery that typically confuse people into exchanging
good for bad and bad for good. In so doing, Jacob tried to turn back the clock to the time
before Rebecca introduced the clarification distinguishing and defining good and bad so
that control over them was dependent upon the ability to distinguish between them and be
aware of their co-dependency. It was in this context that Laban wished to "uproot it all"
and return the world to the primordial formless void. (I will discuss this point further, if
G-d's so desires, in Parshat Vayyetze).
A
puzzling thing happened to love, it became so widespread that it was
cheapened, almost transformed into a doormat trampled by all who
enter. Every individual treating it as if it was his own. Thus, love
lost its heavenly aura, betrayed its sanctified origins, and was
transformed into a tool that misses the true mark. Constant,
cheapened, partial use turned love, the celestial creature that was
and still remains an infinite expression of the absolute divinity,
into part of the lust directorate within the self-preservation system
. As
if radioactive rays were used to treat a superficial abscess. Utilizing the fire of love to
form relationships between two selfish entities caused the tragedy of disappointed love,
and led to love's defamation as an illusion beyond mankinds' grasp.
The sufferings of love. Because
of the aformentioned danger, love is accompanied by suffering, the
two intertwined together as a serpent's poison is injected into the
beautiful and the good. In the longing. To teach mortal man that the
attempt to diminish or curtail the absolute and humble it in the
service of the petty selfish requirements of survival will not succeed. Love's pangs are
intended to warn the lover that love originates in the supernal dimension
; if you wish to be carried away on the wings of love to the celestial
firmaments, no experience is as successful in uplifting you, endowing you with divine
meaning and purging your soul of the impure matter adhering to it. Love in the service of
human relationships comes to re-awaken the divine within each of the lovers and
embrace even matter's needs within the sacred sphere so that it does not remain solely in
the service of matter.
Translated by Rabbi Meshulam Gotlieb
www.MGtransEd.com
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