Chasidut su I Re 17:2
וַיְהִ֥י דְבַר־יְהוָ֖ה אֵלָ֥יו לֵאמֹֽר׃
E la parola dell'Eterno venne a lui dicendo:
Noam Elimelech
And that is what our sages of blessed memory said “whoever enjoys Shabbat is given an inheritance (nachalah) without limit” that is to say, the righteous person that is always in the aspect of love, and enjoys the Shabbat and they enjoy each other, because that [righteous] one is always in the aspect of love [just] like the Shabbat, “is given an inheritance [nachalah] etc” that is, nachal H’, which is the higher river [nachal] from which the righteous person makes the Flow (Shefa) continue to Israel. And this is what we find regarding Eliahu HaNavi z”l, “and he sat by Nachal Karit and the crows brought bread for him” (I Kings 17:2). And it is important to ask why did G!d chose the crows, which are cruel to their young, to bring bread to him? And according to our previous words “and he sat by Nachal” that he was continuing the Flow from the Higher River, and the ways of the crows, which are the husks (kelipot) is to tear at the flows, and this is the hint (remez) that “the crows brought him bread” that is to say that even the husks agreed with him. And this is “whoever enjoys is given Nachalah etc”, as we said before, to continue the Flows from the River of G!d “without limit” that is to say without any prosecutor nor preventer.
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Kedushat Levi
Genesis 25,17. Concerning Rashi’s comment based on Rabbi Chiya that the reason that the lifetime of Yishmael was listed in the Torah is to show that Yaakov spent 14 years hiding in the academy founded by Shem and subsequently headed by his great-grandson Ever; surely it is strange that this piece of information was of such significance that the Torah had to write about it, albeit as an allusion! Why did the Torah not simply write that Yaakov hid there instead of adding a paragraph of seven verses detailing Yishmael’s descendants?!
The intention of the Torah was to illustrate the influence of a tzaddik in elevating people in his immediate proximity to a spiritually higher level. It also demonstrates that when a tzaddik loses this ability to elevate his environment spiritually he has to go into hiding instead, as through his failure he arouses G’d’s wrath at the wicked and his remaining in their environment would expose him to the judgment G’d has in store for them. Isaiah 26,20 makes this point when he writes: חבי כמעט רגע וגו', “hide for a brief moment and lock the doors behind you!” (Compare the Zohar’s I 182, comment on this verse) This was also the reason why Elijah hid during the years of famine that he had decreed (Kings I 17,2) so that the ravens had to bring him food. At that time it was beyond Elijah’s powers to spiritually elevate the people of his generation. Eventually, as described in the same Book, Elijah was commanded by G’d to come out of hiding, as by that time the ground had been prepared for his message to resonate among some of the people. His success is recorded in King’s I 18,39, although, alas it was short-lived. It is a fact that for a while at least, Yaakov’s encounter with Esau resulted in a spiritual elevation of his brother Esau, who even wanted to share the world with him. The reason why Yaakov succeeded partially with Esau though failing with Yishmael, was that Esau was his twin brother, as opposed to Yishmael who was only his uncle. [Esau voluntarily vacated the land of Israel (Canaan) in order not to compete with his brother. (Genesis 36,6-8) Ed.] When the Torah lists the years Yishmael lived, it was to inform us that he lived that many years only on account of his nephew Yaakov’s merit. If Yaakov had been able to bring about a spiritual reawakening of his uncle, he would not have had to hide.
The intention of the Torah was to illustrate the influence of a tzaddik in elevating people in his immediate proximity to a spiritually higher level. It also demonstrates that when a tzaddik loses this ability to elevate his environment spiritually he has to go into hiding instead, as through his failure he arouses G’d’s wrath at the wicked and his remaining in their environment would expose him to the judgment G’d has in store for them. Isaiah 26,20 makes this point when he writes: חבי כמעט רגע וגו', “hide for a brief moment and lock the doors behind you!” (Compare the Zohar’s I 182, comment on this verse) This was also the reason why Elijah hid during the years of famine that he had decreed (Kings I 17,2) so that the ravens had to bring him food. At that time it was beyond Elijah’s powers to spiritually elevate the people of his generation. Eventually, as described in the same Book, Elijah was commanded by G’d to come out of hiding, as by that time the ground had been prepared for his message to resonate among some of the people. His success is recorded in King’s I 18,39, although, alas it was short-lived. It is a fact that for a while at least, Yaakov’s encounter with Esau resulted in a spiritual elevation of his brother Esau, who even wanted to share the world with him. The reason why Yaakov succeeded partially with Esau though failing with Yishmael, was that Esau was his twin brother, as opposed to Yishmael who was only his uncle. [Esau voluntarily vacated the land of Israel (Canaan) in order not to compete with his brother. (Genesis 36,6-8) Ed.] When the Torah lists the years Yishmael lived, it was to inform us that he lived that many years only on account of his nephew Yaakov’s merit. If Yaakov had been able to bring about a spiritual reawakening of his uncle, he would not have had to hide.
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