Chasidut su Genesi 33:76
Kedushat Levi
The prophet Isaiah 40,10-11 teaches us something about different levels of holiness. The prophet writes as follows: הנה א-דוני אלוקים בחזק יבוא וזרועו משלה לו, הנה שכרו אתו ופעולתו לפניו. כרועה עדרו ירעה בזרועו יקבץ טלאים ובחיקו ישא עלות ינהל.. ”Behold, the Lord G’d comes in might, and His arm wins triumph for Him; see, His reward is with Him, His recompense before Him. Like a shepherd He pastures His flock; He gathers the lambs in His arms, and carries them in His bosom, He drives the mother sheep.”
When we conduct ourselves in a holy spirit then all the largesse of the Lord that we experience contains holiness, so that in effect, even when eating our daily bread, we are participating at a meal served on a celestial table, the table of He Who owns the earth and all there is on it.
Even though, as we have learned (based on a Midrash on Genesis 33,13) Yaakov and Esau agreed to divide the universe between them, Esau becoming heir to the earth and all its material blessings, while Yaakov reserved for himself the world to come a world of disembodied creatures, this did not mean that G’d cannot provide largesse of a material kind for His people to be enjoyed while their souls inhabit their bodies. When the prophet says: “Behold the Lord comes in might,” he refers to G’d giving us the Jewish people something that according to the division of Esau and Yaakov we did not have a legal claim to. [Esau is not being deprived by anything that G’d gives to us the Jewish people, through His largesse. Ed.] The simile of the shepherd used by the prophet, is reminiscent of a statement in the Talmud Baba Metziah 5 according to which it is natural for a shepherd who tends sheep that are his own, to treat them with even more care than he does the sheep belonging to others. There is therefore no reason why G’d should not treat His people with especial concern.
When we conduct ourselves in a holy spirit then all the largesse of the Lord that we experience contains holiness, so that in effect, even when eating our daily bread, we are participating at a meal served on a celestial table, the table of He Who owns the earth and all there is on it.
Even though, as we have learned (based on a Midrash on Genesis 33,13) Yaakov and Esau agreed to divide the universe between them, Esau becoming heir to the earth and all its material blessings, while Yaakov reserved for himself the world to come a world of disembodied creatures, this did not mean that G’d cannot provide largesse of a material kind for His people to be enjoyed while their souls inhabit their bodies. When the prophet says: “Behold the Lord comes in might,” he refers to G’d giving us the Jewish people something that according to the division of Esau and Yaakov we did not have a legal claim to. [Esau is not being deprived by anything that G’d gives to us the Jewish people, through His largesse. Ed.] The simile of the shepherd used by the prophet, is reminiscent of a statement in the Talmud Baba Metziah 5 according to which it is natural for a shepherd who tends sheep that are his own, to treat them with even more care than he does the sheep belonging to others. There is therefore no reason why G’d should not treat His people with especial concern.
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Kedushat Levi
It is known in kabbalistic circles that a righteous person, a צדיק, is also referred to as בן, “son.” When the Jewish people conduct themselves in the manner desired by G’d, the Torah quotes G’d as referring to them as בנים, “sons, children.” (Deuteronomy 14,1) What distinguishes a righteous person from normal people is that he does not suffer from an insatiable appetite for the comforts and allures that this world has to offer, but is content with what he has been granted by his Creator. This is another way of describing him as possessing כל, everything. He does not feel that he lacks anything. This is especially true of the type of righteous people who spend their days asking G’d to dispense His largesse to others whom they perceive to be in need. Their concern for others instead of their asking G’d for more for themselves, stamps them as having been blessed בכל, “with everything.” Moreover, it is to be assumed that people who concern themselves with the needs of their peers all the time, are clearly content that G’d has already given them all that they require for themselves.
It is appropriate for every good Jew to emulate Avraham’s example in this respect, and this is why the same expression, i.e. מכל in the case of Yitzchok (Genesis 27,33), and כל in the case of Yaakov, (Genesis 33,11) has been used by the Torah to document that if Avraham was the “father” of this attitude, his children, i.e. descendants, have emulated him, so that the term בת as we explained several times, is a reference to the container from which the largesse of G’d is dispensed. What the sages meant when they said that G’d had blessed Avraham with a בת, is that his descendants had cultivated this virtue of his, of being concerned first and foremost with the needs of others. In psalms 21,3 David expresses his gratitude to G’d Who has granted him all of his aspirations. He too had emulated this virtue that his people’s founding father had been able to implant in his offspring.
It is appropriate for every good Jew to emulate Avraham’s example in this respect, and this is why the same expression, i.e. מכל in the case of Yitzchok (Genesis 27,33), and כל in the case of Yaakov, (Genesis 33,11) has been used by the Torah to document that if Avraham was the “father” of this attitude, his children, i.e. descendants, have emulated him, so that the term בת as we explained several times, is a reference to the container from which the largesse of G’d is dispensed. What the sages meant when they said that G’d had blessed Avraham with a בת, is that his descendants had cultivated this virtue of his, of being concerned first and foremost with the needs of others. In psalms 21,3 David expresses his gratitude to G’d Who has granted him all of his aspirations. He too had emulated this virtue that his people’s founding father had been able to implant in his offspring.
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