Chasidut su Genesi 15:5

‎Genesis 23,1. “The years of Sarah’s life were one hundred years, ‎etc.;” I believe, G’d willing, that I have understood the reason ‎why Sarah is the only woman in the Bible of whose age at the ‎time of her death we have been told. The Talmud Nedarim ‎‎64, in referring to Rachel’s outburst (Genesis 30,1) that unless her ‎husband Yaakov would give her children she considered herself as ‎‎“dead,” is quoted by Rashi on that verse saying that seeing ‎that a woman’s primary task in life is to mother children, any ‎woman who has not given birth to a live child is considered as ‎dead. We also know from Shabbat 156, that when G’d took ‎Avraham outside (Genesis 15,5) that He showed him that ‎according to the constellation of the stars, Sarai was not slated to ‎give birth to children. This ‎מזל‎, astrological prognosis of her life, ‎could be changed only due to merits she would acquire during the ‎years to come. She did indeed acquire such merits, as our sages ‎conclude from a comment they made in Shir Hashirim ‎Rabbah, 2,32 where the phenomenon of all the matriarchs ‎originally being barren is discussed. Among a variety of answers ‎offered there, one is that G’d was desirous of listening to their ‎praying to Him to be granted children, just as He is desirous of ‎listening to the prayers of the righteous, generally. In other ‎words, Sarah, (after a name change) both due to her merits and ‎her supplications, was “lifted” out of the limitations predicted for ‎her by a zodiac sign she had been born under, so that she could ‎conceive. When the Torah refers to her “life” as being 127 years ‎long, this means nothing less than that she had spent all these ‎years accumulating merits for the good deeds she performed. ‎Expressed somewhat differently, the Torah states that it was ‎Sarah, who with her good deeds gave “life” to her years.‎

And you will understand through this what our Sages taught about the faithful servant of Abraham, our father, that he was the very first of those connected to us, and the blessed Holy One raised him higher than the constellations (see Gen. 15:5 with Rashi). The verse “his servant, the elder of his household” (Gen. 24:2), they explain with, “he one in charge of my household is Dammesek Eliezer!” (Gen. 15:2), meaning that he draws [doleh] and gives drink [mashke] to others from his master’s Torah (Yoma 28b).

Again, none of this involves new ideas which eluded the earlier Kabbalists. Rather, the revelation and avodah of hasidism is to reveal that the light inheres even in the lowly, and that one can engage in a lofty avodah using the emotions and sensory inclinations, for they are holy as well and can used for self-inspiration [hitpaalut]. Therefore, every hasid is capable of self-work and becoming impassioned, and if it is difficult for him to do so with them he should utilize spiritual advice [etzot] in order to do so. As it is asked in the holy work Noam Elimelekh, Lekh Lekha: “Look upon the heavens,”³⁵⁵Genesis 15:5. ‘How a person can gaze upon the majesty of the heavens and the stars in their paths and come to a reverence, allowing him to comprehend the majesty of God?!’ And see there, how he instructs that one should envision himself as if he literally sees the Temple, built, before his eyes, and him standing in the Holy of Holies. Or as is said in Beit Aharon, that before prayer one should envision himself lying in the grave, suffering greatly, with people telling him ‘Arise and pray!,’ as we have cited in Hovat haTalmidim, chapter 9.

Therefore, the first redemption, which is the Exodus from Egypt, which includes all of the redemptions - because all of the redeemed are referred to by the name 'Egypt' as Rabbeinu z"l wrote in another place in Likutei Moharan 4. Therefore, the beginning of the redemption was in the middle of the night as it is written (Exodus 11:4) "Around midnight I will go out into Egypt". Because the essence of all the redemptions, especially the redemption from Egypt, came about through the aspect as seen above which was written in the lesson above. This was accomplished by means of divine providence which G-d drew down from the end of the earth, from the future world. At the time of the Exodus from Egypt, there was an upheaval in the constellations and then an overturning of nature, for G-d then revealed His divine providence through His awesome miracles and His overturning nature. All of this took place through the world of the future, for it came through the Yovel (Zohar I 21b, II 41b, 46b) which corresponds to the 50 gates of Binah, which corresponds to the world of the future. (Tikunei Zohar 79b). And therefore the redemption was specifically at midnight; in other words it broke the night and the darkness which are the aspect of the wisdom of nature, and it revealed divine providence in the world. Through this was the main essence of the revelation, as explained above. And this is the aspect of (Id.) “Every firstborn in the land of Egypt will die, and G-d will pass over… And save the Israelites' first born”. Because the first born is first, the aspect of knowledge, the aspect of (Proverbs 1:7) “First thing, knowledge”. In other words, the knowledge of the Other Side, which is the aspect of natural sciences, was subdued, and the knowledge of holiness, the knowledge of divine providence, the aspect of "my firstborn, Israel" (Exodus 4:22) - which is the knowledge of faith in divine providence, from which the holy offspring of the Jewish people are drawn-was increased. The Jewish people are above nature, for they are rooted in "Look to the heavens and count the stars". G-d told him this will be your offspring (Genesis 15:5), upon which our sages comment G-d lifted Abraham above the heavens (Genesis Rabbah, there). Therefore, the Jewish people are above nature, for according to nature, according to the arrangement of the constellations, Abraham should not have been able to have any children. It was only because G-d said to him "let go of your astrology", and raised him above the heavens, that he was able to have a child, as in 'that will be your offspring'. Therefore Jewish offspring are drawn from its root from beyond nature, which is represented by 'My firstborn, Israel'. Because G-d struck the Egyptian first born at midnight to subdue and break the knowledge of natural sciences, and to intensify the knowledge of divine providence, the aspect of the firstborn of Israel, as explained above.

This is as it is said in the Zohar (Pinchas, 216b), “Before the giving of the Torah to Israel, the entire creation was dependant upon the specific constellation that ruled over it. This was true even concerning children, life, and sustenance.⁸⁸It is written in the Gemara (Moed Katan, 28b), “One’s portion in receiving children, life, and sustenance depends not on merit, but on fate (mazal).” But after the Torah was given to Israel, they were no longer subject to the influence of the stars … For this reason, whosoever is involved in the study of Torah is free of the influence of the stars.” Before the giving of the Torah, all the effluence of God’s Divine conduct came into the world through an organized system of cause and effect. Each level would receive from the level above it, and effuse to the level below. The final recipient of this concatenation of effluence was man. Thus man received God’s effluence by way of the stars and constellations. Whether man received good or the opposite was subject to the nature and governance of his star. This was the way in which the entire creation received its effluence. However, when Israel received the Torah, they were raised above the stars and constellations. This was because they were now in possession of the Torah, and the world was created through the Torah.⁸⁹The Rashba notes (Teshuvot, 19) that one who observes the Torah is free from the dominance of the stars, yet one who does not observe the Torah is subject to the dominance of the stars. This is hinted at in the Zohar (ibid): “We learn this from Avraham, since his children would later receive the letter Hei⁹⁰Hei - ה - is the number five. in Avraham’s name, which represents the Five Books of Moses. This was hinted at even in the creation of the world, when it was said, ‘these are the generations of the heavens and the earth as they were created (BeHibaram)⁹¹(Bereshit, 2:4) In the word, as they were created – בהבראם – the letter Hei is traditionally written smaller than the normal size. The sages took this as hinting at many things, among them that God put a condition of the creation of the world that the Children of Israel would accept the Five Books of Moses. , which is the same letters as the phrase, ‘He created them with the letter Hei (beHei - baram). God said to Avraham, since this Hei was added to your name⁹²See Bereshit, 17:5. so will the heavens be placed below you. All of the stars and constellations are illuminated by the Hei.” As it is explained in the Midrash Rabbah (Lech, 44), “and He brought him outside and said, ‘look heavenward ‘. (Bereshit, 15:5) This means the God raised Avraham above the dome of the firmament so that all the goodness he receives will come directly from God.”

Genesis ‎21,1. “Hashem took note of Sarah as He had ‎promised, and He did for Sarah as He had said.” Bereshit ‎Rabbah 53,4 understands this verse as reflecting the truth of ‎what the psalmist said in psalms 119,89 ‎לעולם ה', דברך נצב בשמים‎, ‎‎“The Lord exists forever; Your word stands firm in heaven.” The ‎author of the Midrash queries, rhetorically, if David meant ‎that G’d’s word does not stand firm on earth? He explains that ‎what the psalmist had in mind was that the promise G’d made to ‎Avraham He had made in heaven, i.e. when the angel announced ‎that Yitzchok’s birth would occur at a time prearranged in ‎heaven. (In Genesis 15,5, long before the angel announced ‎Yitzchok’s impending birth, G’d had take Avram outside his tent ‎and had make him look at the heaven telling him that he would ‎father children and that the would be as numerous as the stars in ‎the heaven.) For our sages in B’rachot 7 the verse is ‎understood to make the point that even when G’d makes a ‎conditional promise, He will keep it. The Talmud there uses as its ‎proof Deuteronomy 9,14 where G’d had suggested that He would ‎trade the Jewish people who had made the golden calf for a new ‎Jewish people founded by Moses.‎