Chasidut su Isaia 27:78
Flames of Faith
Tzaddik-hood is also relevant due to ibbur neshamah, “soul impreg- nation,” which happened to Pinchas. According to the Zohar, Pinchas was impregnated with the souls of Nadav and Avihu94Zohar, Parashas Pinchas, pg. 213b. See also the writings of the Ari, Sha’ar Ha-Gilgulim, Hakdamah 32, that Pinchas really had four different souls within him: he was born with one soul, then he received the soul of Nadav and Avihu, later on he received the soul of Eliyahu Ha-Tishbi, and the soul of Elijah from Benjamin. as a reward for his bravery that saved the Jewish nation. The Torah, therefore, describes him as “Pinchas son of Elazar, son of the priest Aaron.” The seemingly misplaced comma after the word Elazar indicates that Pinchas was the son of Elazar by virtue of his own soul and also the son of Aaron the High Priest due to the souls of Nadav and Avihu (Aaron’s sons who had died earlier) that had entered his body.95Another example of ibbur neshamah is found in the writings of the Me’or Enayim (Rabbi Menachem Nachum Twersky of Chernobyl, 1730-1797). The Me’or Enayim explained that the reason why there is a powerful urge to share good news is ibbur neshamah. At the moment when one brings good tidings, the soul of Elijah the prophet, the Mevasser Tov, the person who will bring the news of the ultimate redemption, enters into one’s soul.
Using this principle one can understand why Serach bas Asher was counted as two individuals in the count of the members of Jacob’s family that went down to Egypt (see Bereishis Rabbah, Parashas Vayigash 94:9). Since she brought the good news of Joseph’s survival to Jacob, she had two souls, her own and the soul of Elijah, so she was counted twice. Perhaps it was this soul of Elijah within her that caused her to enter Heaven alive, as Elijah did. (The Targum Yonasan, Parashas Vayigash, writes that Serach entered Heaven while still alive.)
Serach’s added soul teaches an important lesson about exile. Exile is not a permanent state. At the onset of Jewish subjugation a member of the community harbored the soul of Elijah, the harbinger of redemption. Thus the light of redemption started to glow with the beginning of exile to comfort the Jews and inform them that their salvation was already set in place, and it only had to be revealed. The full spelling of the letters of Serach’s name is sin, yud, nun, then resh, yud, shin, then ches, yud, tav, which has the gematria 1288, same as the phrase, Yittaka be-shofar gadol u-vau ha-ovdim, “[On that day the ultimate redemption] will be heralded through a great shofar and the lost ones will come [to God’s home in Jerusalem]” (Isa. 27:13). This correlation further indicates that Serach had the soul of Elijah who, like the great shofar, sounds the call of the ultimate return to Israel (Emunas Etecha, Parashas Vayigash, 5756).
Using this principle one can understand why Serach bas Asher was counted as two individuals in the count of the members of Jacob’s family that went down to Egypt (see Bereishis Rabbah, Parashas Vayigash 94:9). Since she brought the good news of Joseph’s survival to Jacob, she had two souls, her own and the soul of Elijah, so she was counted twice. Perhaps it was this soul of Elijah within her that caused her to enter Heaven alive, as Elijah did. (The Targum Yonasan, Parashas Vayigash, writes that Serach entered Heaven while still alive.)
Serach’s added soul teaches an important lesson about exile. Exile is not a permanent state. At the onset of Jewish subjugation a member of the community harbored the soul of Elijah, the harbinger of redemption. Thus the light of redemption started to glow with the beginning of exile to comfort the Jews and inform them that their salvation was already set in place, and it only had to be revealed. The full spelling of the letters of Serach’s name is sin, yud, nun, then resh, yud, shin, then ches, yud, tav, which has the gematria 1288, same as the phrase, Yittaka be-shofar gadol u-vau ha-ovdim, “[On that day the ultimate redemption] will be heralded through a great shofar and the lost ones will come [to God’s home in Jerusalem]” (Isa. 27:13). This correlation further indicates that Serach had the soul of Elijah who, like the great shofar, sounds the call of the ultimate return to Israel (Emunas Etecha, Parashas Vayigash, 5756).
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Kedushat Levi
Rabbi Yitzchok in Bereshit Rabbah 56,2 comments on this as follows: “the only reason that Avraham was able to keep his promise to the lads that he would return from Mount Moriah (alive), is that he prostrated himself there before the Lord, [something beyond what the Lord had asked of him when He commanded him to offer his son Yitzchok as a burnt offering.” Ed.] This is why hundreds of years later his descendants were redeemed from Egypt, as G’d explained to Moses in Exodus 3,12 and as the Israelites did in Exodus 4,31. This השתחויה, “prostration before the Lord,” symbolized that the person doing so abandoned any claim that he might have had to the material benefits that life on earth offers. This is also what enables G’d to “sweeten” i.e. remove the sting, of any judgments man is subjected to by the attribute of Justice. Avraham’s example of reducing himself to אין or אפס, “nothing,” paved the way for his descendants to emulate him and to be redeemed from the yoke of the Egyptians who had effectively reduced them to a similar state of having to negate the attractions this world offered to others.
The Torah itself was only given to the Jewish people because they voluntarily repeated this השתחויה, prostrating themselves before the Lord, as we know from Exodus 24,1 where all the elite of the Jewish people are reported as having prostrated themselves some distance away from Mount Sinai. [That chapter, though written after the revelation, describes events that occurred before the revelation, Ed.] The elite negating their claims on the material benefits this world has to offer, made it possible for coming so close to G’d during the revelation that He addressed them as if He were speaking to an equal. In psalms 99,9 when Moses (the author of this psalm) says: רוממו ה' אלוקינו והשתחוו להר קדשו, “Exalt the Lord our G’d and prostrate yourselves at the Mountain of His holiness;” similar verses are found in Isaiah 27,13, and Samuel I 1,19 where the wording is almost identical. Rabbi Yitzchok concludes by saying that the resurrection when it will occur, does so only in recognition of these voluntary prostrations of the Jewish people on various occasions when they demonstrated their absolute submission to G’d and His will. If we needed proof of this we find in in Isaiah 27,13 where we read והיה ביום ההוא יתקע בשופר גדול ובאו האובדים בארץ אשור והנדכים בארץ מצרים והשתחוו לה' בהר הקודש בירושלים, “it will be on that Day, when a great ram’s horn will be sounded, and the strayed who are in the land of Assyria, and the expelled who are in the land of Egypt, shall come and prostrate themselves on the holy Mountain in Jerusalem.”
The Torah itself was only given to the Jewish people because they voluntarily repeated this השתחויה, prostrating themselves before the Lord, as we know from Exodus 24,1 where all the elite of the Jewish people are reported as having prostrated themselves some distance away from Mount Sinai. [That chapter, though written after the revelation, describes events that occurred before the revelation, Ed.] The elite negating their claims on the material benefits this world has to offer, made it possible for coming so close to G’d during the revelation that He addressed them as if He were speaking to an equal. In psalms 99,9 when Moses (the author of this psalm) says: רוממו ה' אלוקינו והשתחוו להר קדשו, “Exalt the Lord our G’d and prostrate yourselves at the Mountain of His holiness;” similar verses are found in Isaiah 27,13, and Samuel I 1,19 where the wording is almost identical. Rabbi Yitzchok concludes by saying that the resurrection when it will occur, does so only in recognition of these voluntary prostrations of the Jewish people on various occasions when they demonstrated their absolute submission to G’d and His will. If we needed proof of this we find in in Isaiah 27,13 where we read והיה ביום ההוא יתקע בשופר גדול ובאו האובדים בארץ אשור והנדכים בארץ מצרים והשתחוו לה' בהר הקודש בירושלים, “it will be on that Day, when a great ram’s horn will be sounded, and the strayed who are in the land of Assyria, and the expelled who are in the land of Egypt, shall come and prostrate themselves on the holy Mountain in Jerusalem.”
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy