Another Saying: The Spiritual Within the Physical

17“And Rivkah said to Yaakov her son, saying …”: the early commentators have already remarked on the word lemor, “saying.” Everywhere else it is explained as “to tell someone else,” but here it makes no sense. And lemor comes twice in this one verse.

18It seems to me that we can explain the first lemor, and that will answer the second as well. The sefarim ask how it could even enter Yitzchak Avinu's mind to bless Esav and not Yaakov. They explain that he truly did want to bless Esav, but in this world, with physical blessings, while Yaakov he wanted to bless in the World to Come. And Yitzchak wanted all four exiles to be under Esav's hand: this world, in which Israel's exiles would be lived out, was to be Esav's. Rivkah Imeinu, however, wanted to sustain Israel in exile, so that it too would have a little in this world. The way of the tzaddik is that even when he speaks of physical things, his intent is in the upper worlds, toward the spiritual. That is “And Rivkah said to Yaakov her son, lemor.” When she told Yaakov to receive physical blessings from his father, her intent was in the upper worlds, for the sake of the spiritual within the physical, for there is nothing physical without spiritual sparks in it. This is what lemor, “to say,” means here: her intent was toward another saying, the one for the sake of the spiritual.

19“… speaking to Esav your brother, lemor.” Rivkah was very much afraid that Yaakov would not want to receive the physical blessings, for a tzaddik has no desire for physical things. So she told him that the words “I heard your father …” were also lemor. When your father speaks of blessing Esav with physical things, he too intends to say another saying, for the sake of the spiritual, so that the physical too will have spiritual sparks. For nothing physical in the world has life without holy sparks from the upper worlds, the fragments of holiness scattered in the world.

20This is what Esav meant when he said to Yaakov: “I have rav, much.”¹ I have explained that he told him: rav, “much,” that is, this world, is mine. My share is this world, the world of separation, and that is why it is called rav, the many. You have no share in this world: “Let what is yours be yours,” your share, the World to Come, which belongs [to you], let that be yours, and not this world. Yaakov Avinu answered him, “I have kol, everything.”² Kol (כל), “everything,” hinted to him at the kolelus (כוללות), the all-embracing whole within the physical: the life force that keeps it in existence belongs to me. As we saw with Rivkah's lemor, there is nothing physical that has life and existence without holiness. If I take my share, the holy sparks within the physical, you will be nullified completely, like the dust of the earth. So I too have a part in your share, this world, because you hold a share of mine, part of my spiritual portion.

21This is the meaning of “All my bones shall say, ‘Hashem, who is like You?’”³ “All my bones” are the physical things I speak of, and they too have that same intent, “Hashem, who is like You?” My intent is toward the upper worlds, to bring about many works there, healings and flows of blessing. As Chazal said: “Among the nations there is none like You, but in Israel there is one like You. The Holy One, blessed be He, revives the dead, and so does the tzaddik, as we find with Elisha.” So too “This is my resting place unto eternity.”⁴ Dovid HaMelech said that even this rest of mine, as I dwell below, is adei ad, “unto eternity”: it reaches toward the upper worlds. As we said, even in the physical, the tzaddik's intent is for the spiritual on high. Understand this.