Musar zu Bereschit 23:76

In the Tosephta d'Zohar (page 4 on Chayey Sarah, Sullam edition), we read as follows: "Hail to the person who humbles himself in this world for he will be correspondingly more distinguished and highly regarded in the world to come." He who tries to appear as great in this world, will become insignificant in the world to come. The Torah writes: ויהיו חיי שרה מאה שנה, beginning with a great number, i.e. 100, and continues by describing this in the singular not שנים, but שנה. This is a hint of how someone should humble oneself. On the other hand, when the Torah refers to the smallest unit of her years, i.e. שבע שנים, we have the word "years" in the plural, i.e. שנים. This is an allusion to the type of person who tries to emphasize his importance in this world.

It is a great מצוה to bury the dead and to eulogize them, and to take special pains to eulogize a Torah scholar and to weep for his passing. Abraham taught us this as the Torah reports: ויבא אברהם לספוד לשרה ולבכותה, "Abraham arrived to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her" (Genesis 23,2). Even though this commandment is not enumerated as a separate positive commandment in the 613 commandments, it is included in the general commandment והלכת בדרכיו, "endeavor to emulate G–d's ways; just as He buries the dead, (quoting G–d burying Moses in Deut. 34,6) so you too are enjoined to bury the dead," as we have discussed at the beginning of פרשת וירא.

I shall now explain all these matters step by step. Regarding the statement that Abraham and Sarah were the תקון for Adam and Eve, the Zohar on this portion (page 34 Sullam edition) writes as follows: Rabbi Shimon said that when Abraham entered the cave of Machpelah to bury Sarah, Adam and Eve arose as they did not want to remain buried in there. They complained that they had suffered sufficient disgrace in the world beyond the grave where they were now having to face G–d, because they had been guilty of bringing sin into the world. Now they should suffer additional shame when constantly having to face a pair of humans so much better than they? Abraham replied that he was prepared to pray to G–d on Adam's behalf so that he would cease to suffer embarassment before G–d in the future and so that G–d would forgive Adam his sin. Immediately after that Abraham buried his wife Sarah. What is the meaning of the words ואחרי כן, "after that.” in 23,19? It means that Abraham proceeded to bury Sarah as soon as the dialogue between him and Adam was over. The Torah writes that אברהם קבר את שרה, instead of אברהם קבר לשרה. This means that he also reburied חוה. After that the minds of Adam and Eve were put at rest. This is the meaning of אלה תולדות השמים והארץ בהבראם "and these are the generations of heaven and earth" (Genesis 2,4), meaning that those created as a mixture of heaven and earth endure only by the grace of Abraham (the letters in the word בהבראם). Adam and Eve, of course, were not descendants of man; they were created by G–d. Their continuity was assured through Abraham, their תולדות are through אברהם. We have further proof from Genesis 23,20 which describes the field of Machpelah “ויקם” as a hereditary possession for Abraham. Until that time, as is apparent, Adam and Eve had not had a firm hold on the world beyond the grave. The word ויקם is derived from קיום, a permanent existence. Thus far the Zohar. Abraham assured Adam's permanent status in the hereafter; Sarah did the same for Eve.

I shall now explain all these matters step by step. Regarding the statement that Abraham and Sarah were the תקון for Adam and Eve, the Zohar on this portion (page 34 Sullam edition) writes as follows: Rabbi Shimon said that when Abraham entered the cave of Machpelah to bury Sarah, Adam and Eve arose as they did not want to remain buried in there. They complained that they had suffered sufficient disgrace in the world beyond the grave where they were now having to face G–d, because they had been guilty of bringing sin into the world. Now they should suffer additional shame when constantly having to face a pair of humans so much better than they? Abraham replied that he was prepared to pray to G–d on Adam's behalf so that he would cease to suffer embarassment before G–d in the future and so that G–d would forgive Adam his sin. Immediately after that Abraham buried his wife Sarah. What is the meaning of the words ואחרי כן, "after that.” in 23,19? It means that Abraham proceeded to bury Sarah as soon as the dialogue between him and Adam was over. The Torah writes that אברהם קבר את שרה, instead of אברהם קבר לשרה. This means that he also reburied חוה. After that the minds of Adam and Eve were put at rest. This is the meaning of אלה תולדות השמים והארץ בהבראם "and these are the generations of heaven and earth" (Genesis 2,4), meaning that those created as a mixture of heaven and earth endure only by the grace of Abraham (the letters in the word בהבראם). Adam and Eve, of course, were not descendants of man; they were created by G–d. Their continuity was assured through Abraham, their תולדות are through אברהם. We have further proof from Genesis 23,20 which describes the field of Machpelah “ויקם” as a hereditary possession for Abraham. Until that time, as is apparent, Adam and Eve had not had a firm hold on the world beyond the grave. The word ויקם is derived from קיום, a permanent existence. Thus far the Zohar. Abraham assured Adam's permanent status in the hereafter; Sarah did the same for Eve.

Ephron, or rather the people of his town also hinted at that fact when they said in 23,15 נשיא אלוקים אתה בתוכנו, "you are a prince in our midst." They realized that while Abraham represented the essence of what was good, Ishmael represented the קליפה on the "right," Esau that on the "left." We here view grandchildren as being in the same class as children. Isaac, who is described in the grace after meals as the recipient of the blessing מכל, has only one קליפה, Esau attached to him. Jacob, on the other hand, is totally free of any קליפה sticking to him. He represents the tree of life in the centre of the garden.

The moral lesson is that just as strangers must not take for granted their right to live in their host country, so Jews must not take for granted their entitlement to the Holy Land not even after they have settled there. When our sages criticise Jacob of whom the Torah said: וישב יעקב בארץ כנען, "Jacob settled down in the land of Canaan," this is exactly what they had in mind. The fact that the Torah underlines in that very verse that Jacob's fathers had only sojourned there, only reinforces our sages' criticism (compare Genesis 37,1 and Bereshit Rabbah 84,1). An allusion to the fact that the tendency of Jews who display a vested interest in their residence in the Holy land can be counter-productive is found in the description of the land by the spies as ארץ אוכלת יושביה היא, "It is a land that consumes those who settle in it" (Numbers 13,32). This is expressed more forcefully in connection with someone selling his house in the Holy Land permanently. The Torah states clearly that the land cannot be sold permanently by ignoring the laws of return to the original owners in the Jubilee year, when G–d goes on record in Leviticus 25,23: כי גרים ותושבים אתם עמדי, "For you are strangers and settlers with Me." The moment Jews want to treat the Holy Land as the Gentiles treat their soil, i.e. for merely secular enjoyment, the land is liable to react by "consuming" those who presume to "own" it. The spies portrayed the land of Canaan in a derogatory manner and thus profaned something sacred; their mouthings had no effect on the land. The Torah has seen fit to quote their words in order to instill in us a positive teaching:

The Tziyoni writes in a gloss on פרשת בראשית that the reason we are to be so careful with observing the details of the legislation of צרעת, blemishes of the skin, the clothes, or the house, is that we are dealing here with inner blemishes, i.e. sins, which have become visible externally. G–d has been very kind in externalizing the effect of these sins so as to give the afflicted person an opportunity to repent and rid himself of the pollutant of the serpent which his sins are due to. The priest is the only one who can effect a cure because the priesthood originated in the "right" side of the diagram of emanations in the emanation חסד, whereas the pollutant of the serpent has its origin in the "left" of the diagram of emanations, the side from which Samael originates. Nowadays, when we do not have priests who can perform the steps leading to the rehabilitation of an afflicted person (including the sacrifices he has to bring at the end of the period of his isolation as outlined in Leviticus 14,2-32), repentance is the only instrument by which we can cleanse ourselves. The right hand of G–d is always stretched out to welcome penitent sinners.

When the sons of Chet addressed Abraham by saying: "You are a prince of G–d in our midst" (Genesis 23,7), what they meant was that the personality of Abraham had made a deep impression on their תוכיות, internality. They felt that their own spiritual roots had become purified through having an Abraham in their proximity. They were convinced that this augured well for their future and eventual salvation, and they thanked Abraham. When our Bereshit Rabbah 43,5 explains the words עמק שוה in Genesis 14,17, by saying that all the nations agreed (השוו) to crown Abraham there as their king, this describes Abraham as being freed, set apart from the קליפות. Abraham personally represents the spiritual level of ישראל; he achieved a higher level than all the other patriarchs. The statement that his name was ישראל indicates his spiritual level as being on a very high plateau enabling him to penetrate to the most rarefied Celestial Regions. The name אברהם, on the other hand, describes his being the (spiritual) father of a multitude of nations, כי אב המון גוים נתתיך, something that was acknowledged when the sons of Chet said שמענו אדני, נשיא אלוקים אתה in 23,6. He had also been called Abram, for it was still at that time that Ishmael issued from him. We see that the dimension of אב המון already began to take practical form while Abraham was still Abram. This dimension was reinforced with the birth of Isaac, who in turn produced an Esau who incorporates all the קליפות.

When the sons of Chet addressed Abraham by saying: "You are a prince of G–d in our midst" (Genesis 23,7), what they meant was that the personality of Abraham had made a deep impression on their תוכיות, internality. They felt that their own spiritual roots had become purified through having an Abraham in their proximity. They were convinced that this augured well for their future and eventual salvation, and they thanked Abraham. When our Bereshit Rabbah 43,5 explains the words עמק שוה in Genesis 14,17, by saying that all the nations agreed (השוו) to crown Abraham there as their king, this describes Abraham as being freed, set apart from the קליפות. Abraham personally represents the spiritual level of ישראל; he achieved a higher level than all the other patriarchs. The statement that his name was ישראל indicates his spiritual level as being on a very high plateau enabling him to penetrate to the most rarefied Celestial Regions. The name אברהם, on the other hand, describes his being the (spiritual) father of a multitude of nations, כי אב המון גוים נתתיך, something that was acknowledged when the sons of Chet said שמענו אדני, נשיא אלוקים אתה in 23,6. He had also been called Abram, for it was still at that time that Ishmael issued from him. We see that the dimension of אב המון already began to take practical form while Abraham was still Abram. This dimension was reinforced with the birth of Isaac, who in turn produced an Esau who incorporates all the קליפות.

The symbolisms expressed by the use of בת-אחות-אם "daughter-sister-mother" relationship between G–d and the Jewish people, or the matriarchs and G–d, which we have described on page 137 and later, may be alluded to in the way the Torah divides the number of years Sarah lived into three distinct periods, i.e. "one hundred years, twenty years and seven years" (Genesis 23,1). Bereshit Rabbah 58,1 explains that Sarah was as beautiful at twenty as she had been at seven years of age, whereas she was as free from sin at a hundred years of age as she had been at twenty. The number seven may allegorically be explained as referring to the seven days of Creation (including the Sabbath) before the original light was withdrawn. This association gives Sarah the אם כל חי, "Mother Superior" image. When the Torah was given to the Jewish people and the serpent's pollutant was neutralised, the world was restored to a state when כתנות אור, garments woven of light, could have been worn. The passage dealing with the creation of light in Genesis 1, 3-5, mentions the word אור, light, five times, an allusion to the five Books of Moses, as pointed out in the Midrash. The Zohar sees in the verse commencing with Hashem Hashem in Exodus 34,6 an allusion to the number twenty, i.e. the Ten Commandments and the ten directives by which the universe was created. These complemented each other. When you spell the two letters Yud as words, i.e. יוד, their combined value is also 20. This idea is reflected in the "twenty years" the Torah here speaks of. Although the universe did not actually revert to the condition it had been in prior to withdrawal of the אור בראשית, the original light, the precondition existed, and, but for the sin of the golden calf, Israel would have achieved that status through Torah study and observance, and the original light would have been revealed to them. At the moment the Torah was revealed, the light appeared to them just as it had been during the seven days of Creation. This is the deeper meaning of Proverbs 7,4: אמור לחכמה אחותי את, "Say to wisdom 'you are my sister.'" Israel, due to the Revelation and Torah study, was on the level we have described as אחות. Afterwards, when the people made the golden calf, they ruined even that level of closeness to G–d with the result that the כ in 23,2 became reduced in size. When the Temple, which was one hundred cubits high, was built, this provided some degree of rehabilitation for the opportunity lost through the golden calf. [The Temple the author refers to must be the one of Herod; Solomon's Temple was only thirty cubits high. Ed.] When Bereshit Rabbah 58,1 on our verse next compares Sarah's innocence at one hundred to her innocence at twenty, this is an allusion to the partial rehabilitation during the period of the second Temple. There were public offerings which achieved atonement for the people. Nonetheless, the people were only on the level of בת, (the lowest of the three levels described on pages 137/138). This is why we find Israel referred to as בת ציון, בת ירושלים in Isaiah, Lamentations and elsewhere. The small letter כ in the word ולבכותה is a clear allusion to the aforegoing. When you remove the letter כ completely, you are left with the word לבתה, "to her daughter," i.e. the word בת, daughter. When the Temple was destroyed, the letter ק was also reduced in size, as pointed out by the Baaal Haturim in his commentray on Genesis 27,46 where Rebeccah expressed disdain for her own life if Jacob, too, were to marry a Canaanite girl. The cause of Rebeccah's desperate outcry, according to Baa l Haturim, was that in her mind's eye she saw the destruction of the hundred-cubit high Temple. When the Temple was destroyed the Jewish people forfeited even the status of בת in their relationship with G–d. For some time after that the most they could achieve in the way of direct communication with G–d was the בת קול, an echo of their former relationship. Nowadays, due to our sins, we do not even experience that form of communication with G–d. This situation will not improve until the Messiah will come, hopefully very soon. At such a time, אור חדש will shine over Zion.

The symbolisms expressed by the use of בת-אחות-אם "daughter-sister-mother" relationship between G–d and the Jewish people, or the matriarchs and G–d, which we have described on page 137 and later, may be alluded to in the way the Torah divides the number of years Sarah lived into three distinct periods, i.e. "one hundred years, twenty years and seven years" (Genesis 23,1). Bereshit Rabbah 58,1 explains that Sarah was as beautiful at twenty as she had been at seven years of age, whereas she was as free from sin at a hundred years of age as she had been at twenty. The number seven may allegorically be explained as referring to the seven days of Creation (including the Sabbath) before the original light was withdrawn. This association gives Sarah the אם כל חי, "Mother Superior" image. When the Torah was given to the Jewish people and the serpent's pollutant was neutralised, the world was restored to a state when כתנות אור, garments woven of light, could have been worn. The passage dealing with the creation of light in Genesis 1, 3-5, mentions the word אור, light, five times, an allusion to the five Books of Moses, as pointed out in the Midrash. The Zohar sees in the verse commencing with Hashem Hashem in Exodus 34,6 an allusion to the number twenty, i.e. the Ten Commandments and the ten directives by which the universe was created. These complemented each other. When you spell the two letters Yud as words, i.e. יוד, their combined value is also 20. This idea is reflected in the "twenty years" the Torah here speaks of. Although the universe did not actually revert to the condition it had been in prior to withdrawal of the אור בראשית, the original light, the precondition existed, and, but for the sin of the golden calf, Israel would have achieved that status through Torah study and observance, and the original light would have been revealed to them. At the moment the Torah was revealed, the light appeared to them just as it had been during the seven days of Creation. This is the deeper meaning of Proverbs 7,4: אמור לחכמה אחותי את, "Say to wisdom 'you are my sister.'" Israel, due to the Revelation and Torah study, was on the level we have described as אחות. Afterwards, when the people made the golden calf, they ruined even that level of closeness to G–d with the result that the כ in 23,2 became reduced in size. When the Temple, which was one hundred cubits high, was built, this provided some degree of rehabilitation for the opportunity lost through the golden calf. [The Temple the author refers to must be the one of Herod; Solomon's Temple was only thirty cubits high. Ed.] When Bereshit Rabbah 58,1 on our verse next compares Sarah's innocence at one hundred to her innocence at twenty, this is an allusion to the partial rehabilitation during the period of the second Temple. There were public offerings which achieved atonement for the people. Nonetheless, the people were only on the level of בת, (the lowest of the three levels described on pages 137/138). This is why we find Israel referred to as בת ציון, בת ירושלים in Isaiah, Lamentations and elsewhere. The small letter כ in the word ולבכותה is a clear allusion to the aforegoing. When you remove the letter כ completely, you are left with the word לבתה, "to her daughter," i.e. the word בת, daughter. When the Temple was destroyed, the letter ק was also reduced in size, as pointed out by the Baaal Haturim in his commentray on Genesis 27,46 where Rebeccah expressed disdain for her own life if Jacob, too, were to marry a Canaanite girl. The cause of Rebeccah's desperate outcry, according to Baa l Haturim, was that in her mind's eye she saw the destruction of the hundred-cubit high Temple. When the Temple was destroyed the Jewish people forfeited even the status of בת in their relationship with G–d. For some time after that the most they could achieve in the way of direct communication with G–d was the בת קול, an echo of their former relationship. Nowadays, due to our sins, we do not even experience that form of communication with G–d. This situation will not improve until the Messiah will come, hopefully very soon. At such a time, אור חדש will shine over Zion.