Parshas Vaeira[1]

1^st Mamar “Vaeira El Avraham …”

1. Vaeira El Avraham:[2]
2. Every Jew contains aspects of the forefathers although not of the tribes:

The word of Vaeira which opens the Parsha can be interpreted in two ways, one in past tense, that I have shown, and the second in future tense, that I will show. Both of these understandings are true. Hashem revealed Himself in the past to our forefathers, although to a certain extent he also constantly reveals Himself to us, the descendants of the forefathers, as all of the Jewish people contain aspects of the forefathers within them as an inheritance. Accordingly, the word for Vaeira is also in future tense which means that it is constant. Every Jewish soul in every generation contains this inheritance in a quality and quantity that is commensurate to his soul level. It is for this reason that every single Jew recites in the prayers “the G-d of my forefather, Avraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” This is in contrast to the 12 tribes, the righteous children of Yaakov which all represent great divine revelations, of which their aspects are not inherited to the soul of every single Jew. In fact, some Jews do not contain these aspects at all. This is in contrast to the aspect of the forefathers which must be contained within every single Jew, being that the forefathers are the source and root of all the souls of Israel.

• The Divine lesson: Being of importance and great lineage is a matter of pride for every individual. How often have we heard people say “I am a descendent of this famous sage, Tzadik, Rebbe, or famed Chassid.” This indeed is something for them to be proud of and try to live their life as a continuation of the life of their ancestors and make them proud of who they are. However, sometimes this creates a feeling of disconnect and aristocracy over those who do not have any special lineage to which they can be traced. Those of special lineage either view themselves, or are viewed by others, as the elite due to their lineage, which often creates a low class of those who are not. The above teaching emphasizes that there is no room for a Jew to feel that he has no righteous lineage to trace back to, as in truth every single Jew has lineage dating back to the forefathers and inherits their spiritual greatness, each to his level. There is no greater lineage than this. The Rebbe throughout his life was very dismissing of anybody who would say that he’s just a simple Jew, or that he is no connection to Judaism, as he traces back to the forefathers which is the greatest lineage possible. Hence, all Jews are considered Gezhe, of worthy and noble ancestry. Let’s stop with the elitism over other fellow Jews as it doesn’t lead to anything productive for them, and it is rather to be used to demand from oneself to live up to the expectations of his forebears.

1. The Galus is similar to a pregnancy while Geula is like birth:

In Scripture, in the books of the prophets, we find that the exile is compared to pregnancy while the redemption is compared to giving birth. A quite well-known concept is the concept of Chevlei Moshiach which literally means the birth pangs of the Messiah, and represents the pain and suffering that we will face at the end of our exile, directly prior to the redemption, similar to the pain of giving birth. The message behind the analogy of exile and redemption to pregnancy and birth is to teach us that they contain the following similarities:

The fetus doesn’t see or hear and its head is as if it’s dead: Rebbe Smilaiy taught us that a fetus in the womb of its mother is similar to a folded booklet with its head between its knees and its heels on its backside and it eats all that its mother eats, and its mouth is closed and stomach is open. When the child is born all of his closed orifices open, and his open orifices close. This teaching of Rebbe Simlaiy is coming to say that during pregnancy, although the child contains all of the limbs of a regular human, the senses of the child are not active. He does not have any use of his emotions within his heart or any use of his intellect within his mind as he does not think or feel anything. He has eyes which do not see and ears which do not hear. Even the food that he eats does not go through his mouth but rather straight to his stomach through the umbilical cord for the purpose of helping his body to grow. The food does not go through the mouth as it is not necessary at this moment for the child to receive energy in his heart and from his heart to his mind to be able to breathe, as he survives from the oxygen of his mother through the umbilical cord. All in all, the fetus does not have a soul of life until he enters the world and only then does he take his first breath and cry, as our sages state that the cry of the infant after it sticks out its head is a sign of birth. However, prior to this point, its head and his respiratory organs are of no usage and are considered as if they are dead for which reason the head of the fetus rests between its knees being that it does not have any life.

The Nimshal – In exile our souls are similar to the fetus: The physiological state of the fetus while it’s in its mother’s womb is paralleled during exile, for which reason the exile is compared to pregnancy. During exile, our minds and hearts become blocked and numbed from having comprehension of G-dliness, and emotions towards G-d. We lose our spiritual sensitivity and it is as if our heart and mind does not work. This is in contrast to times of redemption in which there is revelation of G-dliness to the lower worlds. During exile, the belief in G-d’s existence does not prevent one from viewing the world as if it is its own independent entity, and from acting accordingly with a fattened heart. One does not recognize that G-d fills the entire earth and that nothing exists but Him. We have eyes which do not see and we have ears that do not hear. Even the Mitzvahs and good deeds that we fulfill do not give revelation of G-d to our mind and heart so that they be conscious of Him, and so we know G-d and serve Him with a complete heart with love and passion. Rather, the Mitzvah’s are performed robotically and habitually without feeling and desire, with a cold performance of action alone. This is the main spiritual exile, that we do not experience G-dliness.

The birth and redemption: The entire purpose of the days of the Messiah is so we reach a state of birth, in which the light of G-d be revealed within the depths of the heart of every Jew and the glory of G-d be revealed to all flesh and blood, as it states in the prophets, “you will see eye to eye.” Now, this experience of the future is dependent on our action and toil during the times of exile through arousing the hidden love that is certainly found within the heart of every Jew, to the point that even now one arouses in the consciousness of his heart a passionate desire to cleave to G-d.

During exile we naturally see G-d’s unity but with effort can experience it: During the times of redemption we will fully recognize and experience the oneness of G-d and how everything is truly nullified to Him, Hashem Echad. However, during the times of exile G-d’s unity is not revealed, and everything appears as if it is a separate existence from Him. The reason for this is because during exile Hashem has removed His revealed presence from the earth and elevated it to up high. However, in truth, the essence of G-d has never left us and remains in the world even during exile. It is this essential presence of G-d that exists even today which gives the Jewish people the ability to experience and draw down G-d’s unity even now. This in fact is the entire purpose of all of our work in this world, to make for G-d a dwelling place below through us performing the service of Iskafya and Ishapcha and recognizing His unity and oneness even within the darkness of exile and concealment.

• The Divine lesson: In what has become one of the Rebbe’s most famous, and disturbing talks, is his public bemoaning on the 28^th of Nisan in the year 1991 of the fact that the Jewish people are still in exile and that he has failed his mission to bring the redemption. The Rebbe bemoaned over the fact that his followers don’t truly care for the redemption and have not done enough to usher its coming. They scream and shout slogans that express their desire for the redemption but don’t really mean it from the bottom of the heart and do it simply due to the command and instruction from on high [i.e. the Rebbe]. The Rebbe then charged his followers to change course and do everything in their capability to usher in the redemption. As expected, this alarming talk sent panic throughout his followers and led to various gatherings to discuss what they can do to usher in the redemption. Many ideas and pieces of advice were thrown around, some of which went into practice. However, there seems to be one very fundamental and basic idea that perhaps was missed, although was emphasized by the Mashpia of Ohalei Torah, Reb Mendel Morozov to his students on the evening of that talk. In the talk the Rebbe mentioned that the main problem is not just that we are found in exile, but that we are found in an internal exile in matters of service of G-d. What does this mean? It means exactly what the Alter Rebbe taught us above, that our eyes don’t see and our ears don’t hear, that our minds and hearts remain numb and insensitive to G-dly feeling and comprehension. That we don’t arouse a passionate love and desire for G-d to make our heart and mind work for Him. That is the spiritual exile. It is this point that Reb Mendel Morozov emphasized to his students, that we must start practicing the philosophies of Chabad Lubavitch with regards to the service of prayer, and toil our minds and hearts during prayer to the point that we feel G-dliness. The temporary leave of exile by each Jew during prayer ushers in the permanent redemption for the entire Jewish people. A true passion and desire to feel revelation of G-dliness leads to a true and passionate cry of “Ad Masaiy” and expresses one’s true yearning to see and experience G-d, which is the entire point of the redemption. Simply screaming the slogan because it means a lot to your Rebbe misses the entire purpose of why one should want the redemption and hence does not produce the result, which is the actual redemption in a revealed way. [We can equally say based on this, that the screaming of various slogans which express the longevity of the Messiah, such as Yechi Hamelech, are only true to their purpose when they also express the above desire and passion to experience G-d once again during the redemption, and not simply to add life to the leader and Rebbe and see their Rebbe again in the resurrection.[3]]

1. The purpose of a sacrifice; to offer one’s soul to G-d:

Many rightfully question the purpose of offering sacrifices onto the altar as a form of atonement for one’s transgressions and sin. We sin and the animal has to suffer as a result? So, in truth the entire purpose of the offering is for one to also offer towards G-d his own animal soul that is found within him, at the time that he offers the physical animal. He is to intend to remove all of the spirit of impurity from the earth and burn all of one’s forbidden thoughts and lusts, passions, and desires until they are all consumed in the fire of the altar of G-d. Today we no longer have a temple and thereby can no longer offer sacrifices to nullify and remove the complete control of our animal souls. Nonetheless, we are able to somewhat remove and weaken the control of our animal soul through prayer which was instituted by our sages in correspondence to the offerings. Even today we are able to draw onto our souls the light of G-d through abstaining from performing evil and in its stead performing good. This makes our souls an abode for the light of G-d to reside upon it and become revealed within it.

1. The great scream of the future; regret and subsequent joy:

Of the future era scripture states that we will come with tears and cry. Why will we cry in the future when there will be no more death and suffering? This is a cry of pain and passion. It is a cry of pain as we will look back to our past during the times of exile and the sad state of concealment from G-dliness that we lived and acted in. This will arouse a great compassion for our souls, and a scream from the depth of our heart to see and experience G-d. This is the beginning of the joy that we will have with G-d in the future.

1. Feeling sorry for one’s past creates the experience of one’s future:

The arousal of mercy and compassion for the ways of one’s past is a prerequisite for arousing a feeling of love for G-d and is what turns the love to be true and real and lasting. When the joy and love for G-d comes automatically without first arousing a feeling of remorse and mercy for one’s soul, then the feeling is limited and is not a true feeling of joy. The idea of first feeling the pain of having been distanced from G-d and then feeling the joy in His closeness is similar to the birth of a child in which first the child cries and then is given milk.

1. The main joy comes from the fact that G-d chose us from amongst the nations:

The main joy and pleasure that one is to experience is from the contemplation that G-d chose us from amongst all the other nations and has brought us close to serve Him. [This is the idea of G-d breast-feeding the Jewish people, which is an emotional closeness between parent and child, and] therefore the sages state that the nipples are in the place of Bina.

1. The difference between the divine service of Moshe and the forefathers:

Hashem states that He did not make His name Havaya known to the forefathers. This hints to the difference in divine service between Avraham and Moshe. Our sages state that Avraham fulfilled the entire Torah prior to it being given. This means that Avraham fulfilled the Mitzvah of loving G-d which is the drawing down of the light of G-d so His oneness reside below and be revealed in the lower worlds so people serve G-d with love and pleasure and a complete heart. Nonetheless, this type of service is only defined as the service of a slave in which the slave listens to the voice of his master out of love and pleasure. The same applies regarding the service of Yitzchak who served G-d with fear and trepidation. However, Moshe served G-d with a totally different form of service, as he states “Vinachnu Mah/and who are we,” which expresses absolute nullification to G-d. It is for this reason that Moshe merited to receive the Torah and have it given through him, and as our sages state, that the divine presence spoke through his mouth. On this level of Torah study, there does not exist two separate entities of man as a lover and G-d as the beloved, but rather they are all united as one, a unity of G-d and man. On this level there is no feeling of love and passion or pleasure as experienced by Avraham, as it represents absolute nullification and he hence does not feel himself at all as a separate entity and existence. On this level there is no servant and master but only master. This level of experience of unity with G-d was not given to the forefathers but only to Moshe.

2^nd Mamar “Vayidabeir Elokim El Moshe”

2. Vayidaber Elokim El Moshe:[4]
3. Why were we decreed to suffer:

In the conclusion of Parshas Shemos Moshe demanded from G-d to answer him as to why He has caused the Jewish people to suffer, “Why did you pay them with evil?” Interestingly, we do not find where G-d answered this question of Moshe. Why indeed did G-d cause the Jewish people to suffer through the Egyptian exile and slavery? What grave sin did they do that deserved such punishment? In truth, the decree for slavery and suffering was already made during the Bris Bein Habesarim and hence it seems that it is not connected to any sin at all. Why then would G-d cause suffering for no reason? The explanation is as follows: G-d desired to be revealed to the Jewish people face-to-face which is an experience that our forefathers never merited. This represented a completely new type of relationship that would exist between G-d and the Jewish people; a relationship that He never had with our forefathers. It is for this reason that the Jewish people went through a period of slavery. Prior to there being a great revelation of G-dliness there needs to be a removal of G-dliness. In Kabbalah this is known as Mati and Lo Mati, or Ratzo and Shuv. [This is similar to a slingshot that the more one pulls the string towards one’s body to further the stone will fly, or a tsunami in which first the waves of the ocean are drawn inwards and only then come back in full force. It is also similar to the state of sleep, in which one’s mind and emotions are dormant, and which allows for the person to become alert and experience intellect and emotions upon awakening.] Accordingly, the slavery in Egypt was not necessarily a punishment for the Jewish people but was a result of a concealment of G-dliness for the sake of then bringing a much greater revelation. During the state of concealment G-d was involved with the world in the level of Romemus, which is a level of greatness and prominence from which also the evil nations can derive vitality. It is this vacuum of internal G-dly revelation that gave space for the evil nations to enslave the Jewish people and not be punished for doing so. However, when the Torah was given, G-d created a unique relationship with only the Jewish people which on the contrary led to a hatred of all the other nations. The level and intensity of the exile in Egypt for 210 years was commensurate to the level of revelation that the Jewish people would receive by Matan Torah. This likewise applies towards the final exile of Edom. The reason this exile is taking so long is because it is commensurate to the great revelation that we will have in the future in the of times the Messiah.

• The divine lesson: One of the most disturbing and troubling parts of Jewish history is the fact that we have suffered so much, almost as if were chosen to suffer. Some automatically attribute this suffering toward sin and claim it is a punishment for transgression and bad behavior. However, from the above teaching we learn the while certainly some degree of our suffering and exile is due to sin, collectively, that is not its cause or purpose. During exile there is a certain amount of G-dly revelation lacking which allows the Gentile nations to take advantage of the Jewish people However, all of this is for the sake of then receiving a much greater revelation in the future. As the saying goes, “no pain no gain.” No one blames a pregnant mother for the pains and difficulty of pregnancy and claims it to be the result of some sin that she committed, but rather attribute it to the natural order which is necessary to bring about a birth and the great reward in having a child. The same applies regarding our exile, that the collective pain and suffering is not due to punishment but to bring the revelation of the redemption.

1. Every Mitzvah and Tzadik has a different Taanug:

Every single Tzaddik above on high in the garden of Eden receives a different pleasure of G-dliness. No one’s pleasure is equal to another’s, as our sages state that in the future G-d will inherit each and every Tzaddik 310 unique worlds. Each unique experience of pleasure corresponds to the unique Mitzvah’s that the Tzaddik fulfilled. Every single Mitzvah has its own unique pleasure. In addition, the fulfillment of each Mitzvah differs from one person to another. The personality of the soul of each person and its ability to experience love and fear differs from one to another. This is why we each have our own unique experience above.

[1] Torah Or pp. 55a-60

[2] Torah Or pp. 55a-56a

[3] See Sichas Beis Nissan 5748 p. 497

[4] Torah Or p. 56a-56b