Kindness Comes into Days: The Torah Within

18aOr we may say that in “Avraham was old …” the holy Torah teaches us the ways of the tzaddikim: how one should conduct himself to arouse compassion, kindness and flows of blessing for the world. We begin with the verse “These are the offspring … behibar'am, when they were created.”¹ Chazal expounded behibar'am (בהבראם) as beheh bera'am (בה׳ בראם), “with the letter hei He created them”: this world was created with the hei, for “with Yah (יה), Hashem formed the worlds”: the worlds were formed with the two letters of Yah, yud and hei, and this world with the hei.² They also expounded behibar'am as be'Avraham (באברהם), “through Avraham” [the same letters in another order].³

18bThe two midrashim agree, in the way I have explained Chazal's saying “At first it arose in thought to create it with the attribute of judgment; He saw that the world could not endure, and He joined to it the attribute of compassion.”⁴ Heaven forbid that anyone think of any change in the Creator, Who is One, simple and true. Rather, it seems that Chazal meant this: the upper world was in truth created with the attribute of judgment. That is “At first … it arose in thought”: first, in the world of thought, which is the upper world, He created it with the attribute of judgment. “He saw that the world could not endure”: but this world, He saw, could not endure with judgment, and so “He joined to it the attribute of compassion,” for “the world is built on kindness.”⁵ This explains Chazal's “with the hei He created them”: this world, which could not endure without compassion, was created with the hei. And it also hints at “through Avraham,” who is the attribute of chessed, kindness.

19These kindnesses are aroused by the tzaddikim, who draw kindness down into this world, as I have explained the verse “Gomel nafsho ish chessed, the man of kindness benefits his own soul.”⁶ Gomel is the same word as vayigamel, “was weaned,” said of Yitzchak:⁷ the verse speaks of one who weans his soul from physical desires. “A man of kindness” is a master of the kindnesses: they are in his hand, to draw them down to all Israel. And the main way is through the Torah: by studying it for its own sake, he is able to bring down blessing.

20aThat is “Avraham was old, coming into days.” “Avraham” is the attribute of chessed. “Old,” zaken, hints at the holy Torah, for at Mount Sinai the Holy One, blessed be He, appeared as an old man full of compassion.⁸ And “days” hints at this world, which is called “days” because it exists in time. So the verse is to be read: “Avraham,” the kindnesses, “came into days,” into this world, through the zaken, the holy Torah. “And Hashem blessed Avraham bakol, with everything”: Hashem, the Name Havayah, brings the attribute of chessed into accord and unity with the world called kol, “all,” and so all the worlds are in unity.

20b“Avraham said to his servant”:⁹ the kindnesses, as it were, speak to the tzaddik, for “his servant” is the tzaddik, the faithful servant. “The elder of his house”: the holy Torah is hidden within every person. Before a person comes into the world, he is taught the whole Torah; then an angel comes and strikes him on the mouth, and it is forgotten.¹⁰ Why all this? So that Hashem's Torah will be in a person in potential, hidden. Afterward, when he studies Torah for its own sake, he attains the truth of the Torah inscribed in him. So the Torah has been in a person since before he came into the world, and that is why the Torah may be called zaken, “old.” That is “the elder of his house”: he attains the hidden Torah that is in his own house.