Musar sur La Genèse 3:15

Since holiness exists only in the Holy Land, we are commanded to "depart from evil," i.e. to destroy all the sites where the Gentiles have worshiped This commandment applies only inside the boundaries of ארץ ישראל. Our sages (Chulin 13b) have alluded to this mystery when they said that Gentiles in the rest of the world are not considered as idol worshipers. This means that idol worshipers who live in the land of Israel which is under the direct rule of G–d serve Him in an inadequate manner, are heretics. This is what is called idol-true worship. The Gentiles who live in the rest of the world – which is under the authority of negative forces, חיצוניות, however – do not reject the authority under which they live. Just as it is a serious sin to destroy even a single stone of the Holy Temple, so it is a great מצוה to destroy – and never to rebuild – an עיר הנדחת, a city within the boundaries of ארץ ישראל the majority of whose inhabitants have turned to idol worship. Its very site has become defiled. Whatever applies to such a city applies to the מסית ומדיח, those that have seduced their fellow-Jews to turn to idol worship. Uprooting such cities or people is equivalent to uprooting the residual pollutant of the original serpent. Just as G–d cursed the serpent immediately (Genesis 3,14) without making any allowances or even asking why the serpent had seduced Eve, so we too have to deal with such phenomena without our customary recourse to finding every possible merit to save the transgressor from judicial execution. The commandment not to love the seducer enjoins us to emulate G–d's conduct in this respect. Since Genesis 3,15, G–d has made the animosity between human beings and serpents a natural phenomenon, something that we need not, or better should not strive to overcome. The false prophet similarly is part of the phenomenon of the pollutant of the serpent rearing its ugly head.

In the Zohar on Parashat Terumah [it is taught]: 'One who luxuriates at his table and delights in those foods ought to call to mind and to feel concern for the holiness of the Holy Land and for the Temple of the King that has been destroyed. In consideration of the sadness that one feels at one's table--in the midst of the joy and celebration [lit. drinking] there--the Holy Blessed One accounts it to one as if one has rebuilt His House and rebuilt all the ruins of the Temple. Happy is one's portion!' (Zohar 2:157:2). Therefore it is customary to recite the Psalm 'By the waters of Babylon' (Psalms 137) before Grace after Meals, particularly since the table corresponds to the (Temple) altar, while, through our many sins, the altar itself is no longer. One should call to mind [the teaching], 'Woe to the children who have been banished from their Father's table' (Talmud Berachot 3a). The banishment from the Table (shulchan, sh.l.h.n) was caused by the power of the Snake (lenachash, l.n.h.sh), as is taught in the Zohar [about the word] Eichah ('.y.kh.h, 'Alas;' the name of the Book of Lamentations): 'I shall set enmity' (Eivah, '.y.b.h) (Genesis 3:15), an anagram for א׳יכה י׳שבה ב׳דד ה׳עיר 'Alas, the city sits solitary' ('.y.b.h) (Lamentations 1:1). On Shabbat and Festivals one recites the Psalm 'When the Name restores the fortunes of Zion' (Psalms 126).

The verse (26,5) we have just quoted contains ten words corresponding to the Ten Commandments. When you examine the wording of the Ten Commandments you will find that it contains 172 words, the same as the numerical value of the word עקב, as pointed out by Baal HaTurim. You may ask: If this is so why was יעקב not called עקב? The answer is already alluded to when we read about Jacob's birth, when he is described as holding on to עקב עשו, the heel of Esau (25,26). The last three letters in Jacob's name are an indication that the sanctity, holiness expressed by the letter י in his name will prevail in the world only at the end of history, at the עקב, or סוף. The heel of Esau, however, the one that Jacob held on to, is symbolic of the serpent which hisses: it is the end of life, signifies darkness and death, as we have explained earlier. When the enmity that exists between the serpent and man is described in the Torah in Genesis 3,15: הוא ישופך ראש ואתה תשופנו עקב, "He (man) will strike at your head, and you (the snake) will strike at his heel," the Zohar writes on this verse that the word ראש refers to the first letter in the name יעקב, an allusion to the Ten Commandments. If Jacob observes the Ten Commandments, then he can successfully strike at the ראש, the head of the serpent and all that the serpent represents; but והיה כאשר תריד (Genesis 27,40) "when you will backslide in your service of G–d," then you (the snake) will strike at עקב, the part of the name יעקב when detached from the י and all that this letter stands for." If Jacob had not had the letter י in his name his name would have been associated only with elements derived from the סטרא אחרא, the negative side of the diagram of the emanations. When the Torah reports that וידו אוחזת, that "his hand was holding on to," the letters in the word for "his hand,” i.e. ידו, are the same as the letter יוד. The potential contained in the name יעקב, enabled Jacob to become ישראל, a name that was accorded to Jacob only after his successful refinement through harassment at the hands of Esau. The name ישראל is the pinnacle that the spiritually most refined people can achieve. It indicates that he had been able to contend with Heavenly forces and to prevail (Genesis 32,29). Onkelos translates this verse: "You have fought before G–d with man and have succeeded."