ציטירנדיקער פּירוש אויף בראשית 28:16

היש ה' בקרבנו אם אין, “if the Lord is in our midst or not?” Actually instead of the word אם אין, “if nothing,” we would have expected the expression אם לא, “if not?” This is the way the Torah expresses such alternatives in 16,4 for instance, where G’d had explained that the daily manna ration was designed to test whether the Israelites had faith in Him “or not.” The Torah was concerned to allude to the attribute אין, which is also known as יראה, an attribute second to which is the one called יש, or in more familiar terms חכמה (compare commentary on 16,24). This is the reason you find the name ה' immediately next to the word יש to show you how closely these two attributes are associated with one another. Yaakov had first realized this after his dream with the ladder when he awoke and said אכן יש ה' במקום הזה, (Genesis 28,16). This is the attribute Solomon had in mind when he said in Proverbs 8,21 להנחיל אוהבי יש “and to let those who love Me inherit יש.” You have learned already that the two emanations (attributes) חכמה and יראה cannot really be separated from one another. The teachers of the Mishnah have already alluded to this when they said (Avot 3,17) “where there is no יראה there can also not be any חכמה, and where there is no חכמה, there cannot be any יראה. The two attributes are inseparably intertwined with one another. Israel’s sin at Refidim was that they tried to separate חכמה and יראה. This is a sin of a heretical nature. This is why they were punished immediately by the attack of Amalek who represents heresy of the worst kind.

It is well known that drinking wine induces three phenomena, sleep, grossness of the spirit and a confused mind. If one falls victim to even a single one of these phenomena one cannot perform one’s duty as a judge or expert in Torah rulings.
Our Parshah actually contains allusions to all three of these phenomena. The fact that drinking wine induces sleep is such a well known phenomenon that it does not need to be proven by examples; the alcohol in the wine rises to the brain in the form of moist and warm vapor. This in turn induces sleep; hence the words “when you enter the Tent of Meeting” are also a warning not to go to sleep inside the holy precincts, especially within the Sanctuary. This is why Yaakov was so upset when he awoke after his dream with the ladder, exclaiming: “how dreadful! This must be the gateway to heaven and I was unaware of it” (Genesis 28,16). Yaakov clearly implied that had he been aware of the sanctity of the site, he would never have gone to sleep in that place. He would not even have lain down there. This is also the meaning of Samuel I 3,3 ונר אלו-הים טרם יכבה ושמואל שוכב בהיכל ה'. The meaning of this line is: “Samuel lay down to sleep before the light went out in the Sanctuary.“ [The author means that this verse most certainly does not mean that Samuel lay down to sleep in the Sanctuary before the lamp went out.] If proof were needed for our interpretation it is found in the separating tone-sign etnachta under the word שוכב.
It is also not appropriate to sit down in the Sanctuary. The Priest is to perform all procedures standing up. We know this from Deuteronomy 18,7:ושרת בשם ה' אלוהיו ככל אחיו הלוים העומדים שם לפני ה'; “he is to minister in the name of Hashem, his G’d, like all his brethren the Levites who stand there in the presence of the Lord.” The word לעמוד לשרת in verse 5 of that same chapter in Deuteronomy further underlines the fact that the Priests had to be standing when performing service in the Temple.
The fact that drinking wine results in grossness of spirit is due to the heating up of the powers residing in the heart which results in grossness. This is alluded to when the Torah refers to the need to distinguish between the sacred and the profane. When one is in a state of spiritual grossness one does not consider that some things are holy whereas others are not but treats all of them as being on a comparable spiritual level, making no distinctions.
The fact that drinking wine may result in one’s mind becoming confused is because the vapors or fumes generated by the wine rise to the brain. They create a barrier between the area where the independent intelligence is located and the area activating other bodily functions. The comparable example would be clouds in the sky forming a barrier between the light of the sun and our terrestrial world. Just as the surface of the earth is darkened by the failure of the rays of the sun to break through the clouds, so the power of the intelligence is prevented from making itself felt when blocked by the vapor or fumes created by the wine one has drunk.
When the Torah speaks about the Priests having the task to instruct the Children of Israel in the statutes, etc., these words were added because such instructions presuppose that the instructor is of sound mind at the time he lectures. Drinking wine might interfere with that.
Solomon roundly condemned the intake of too much wine as he wrote in Proverbs 23,31: “do not look at wine because it is red.” Our sages explain Solomon’s warning there to mean that too much wine results in one’s inhibitions becoming loosened, one’s libido becoming aroused (compare Vayikra Rabbah 12,1 [The reading of the words כי יתאדם would be emended to כי יתאוה דם, it arouses the libido in one’s blood. Ed.].
The balance of the verse we quoted from Proverbs concludes with Solomon saying כי יתן בכוס עינו יתהלך במישרים, “when he (only) looks at the cup he will walk upright,” are understood as follows: the word עינו is similar in meaning to the word עין in עין הבדולח, “like the colour of crystal” (compare Numbers 12,7 where the Torah describes the appearance of the manna). The word for cup, כוס, in that verse is spelled כיס, “pocket,” instead of in the usual way. Solomon may hint that he who is seduced by the attractive looking cup of wine will experience financial loss because of the folly which the wine-intake will lead to.
The matter is not unlike the seduction of Chavah by the serpent who also relied on the exterior eye appeal of the fruit of the tree of knowledge. It induced overpowering curiosity in Chavah to taste that fruit. The Torah had described the tree as “good to eat, a desire-arousing phenomenon for the eyes, and lovely as a source of enlightenment” (Genesis 3,6). As a result, It brought death in its wake. Similarly, wine, though alluring at first both in appearance and taste eventually causes the death of those who indulge.
Our sages (Tanchuma Shemini 5) state that “just as the earth was cursed on account of the serpent, seeing that the Torah writes; (Genesis 3,17) “the earth is cursed because of you,” so a third of the earth was cursed on account of wine as the Torah writes: “Noach awoke from his sleep” (Genesis 9,24), followed by “cursed be Canaan,” [Noach’s first grandson from his third son (Genesis 9,25)].

אך בעשור, “However, on the tenth, etc.” Rashi draws attention to the saying of our sages that every time the word אך or רק appears in the Torah it introduces the limitation, diminution, of some general principle mentioned previously. Nachmanides writes, that if this is so, the meaning of our verse must be that whereas on the first of that month the entire people observed a day of teruah, blowing the shofar, seeing that all of them came up for judgment on that day, by the tenth of that month only a small portion of the people still needed to ensure that their judgment too would be favourable. This day would complete the process of atonement. The meaning of the word אך in our verse then would be the same as בלבד, “excepting,” referring to something not included in the previously enunciated rule. Just as in Exodus 31,13, basically, the rule was that the construction of the Tabernacle does not override the prohibitions of performing work on the Sabbath, it exempted performance of circumcision if the eight’s day of the baby occurred on the Sabbath. The circumcision is not postponed. The meaning of the word אך in our verse is similar to when Pharaoh pleaded with Moses to pray for G’d to forgive him his sin one more time, He used the words: אך הפעם"” (compare Exodus 10,17) When we encounter the word אך again in verse 39, i.e. אך בחמשה עשר יום לחודש השביעי באספכם את תבואת הארץ תחוגו וגו', “only on the fifteenth of the seventh month when you gather in the yield of the earth, you are to celebrate, etc.”, the message is also that even though that date may occur on the Sabbath, this does not cause the first day of the Sukkot festival to be postponed. According to the plain meaning of the text, the word אך is to be understood as similar to “but in truth,” similar to the word אכן. That word appears in such a context in Genesis 28,16 when Yaakov becomes aware that G’d’s presence is manifest at the location where he had the dream of the ladder. It appears again in such a context when Moses had killed the Egyptian thinking that there had not been any witnesses, and on the morrow he found out that he had erred. (Exodus 2,14) In our verse the meaning of the word אך then is that on the tenth of the seventh month is Yom Hakippurim, on no other day. Ibn Ezra, understands the word אך here as meaning that in spite of the extremely serious nature of that day, seeing that it too has been described as a מקרא קודש, just like all the festivals, it too is a day on which (the latter part) we are to express our joy at feeling that we have been forgiven.