Two Camps: Speech Brings Back Lost Thought

7aOr we may say that “And there came to me ox and donkey” speaks of levels that Hashem gives as a gift. It is written, “And God said, ‘Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth.’”¹ We may say this hints that through the holy Torah, which is called “water,”² a person will be privileged to attain a nefesh chayah, a “living soul,” that is, a lofty soul. “And let birds fly above the earth” means that he will soar in his thought through the upper worlds. Then the Torah says, “And God created the great sea creatures,” and Rashi comments: “In the words of the Aggadah, this is the Leviathan, which He created male and female.”³ We may say that in these words Rashi is hinting at an answer to two questions on the verse's wording. At first glance the word vayivra, “and He created,” is superfluous. And the wording changes: the verse should have said here too, “And God said, ‘Let there be sea creatures …’”

7bBut in light of what we have said, it is explained. The Leviathan hints at the tzaddik who cleaves to Hashem, blessed be He, and is called Livyasan, Leviathan, the same word as levayah, accompanying: joining and cleaving to Hashem. Such a level cannot possibly come to a person except from Hashem Himself [so the verse says “created”]. At first Hashem commanded that a person work by his own effort for the first level, to attain the lofty soul; that is why the verse says “And God said …” But the second level is that a person attain deveikus, cleaving to Hashem, until he can be called by the name Leviathan. His deveikus is so great that he would almost cease to exist, until Hashem cools him. This is the meaning of “He cooled the male”:⁴ “male” hints at deveikus, and Hashem cools the deveikus in him so that he does not cease to exist. “And He killed the female” hints that this tzaddik's female side, the yetzer hara, has been killed altogether. “And salted her for the tzaddikim in the time to come” hints that the tzaddikim who come after him find it easy to serve Hashem, because of what this tzaddik brought about by his deeds. Umelachah, “and salted her,” speaks of sweetening, for salt sweetens meat. In the same way this tzaddik sweetened the yetzer hara, until the tzaddikim yet to come can serve Hashem easily, without any toil or labor. And these two levels Hashem gives the tzaddik as a gift.

8This is “And there came to me ox and donkey”: this level came to me of itself, for Hashem gave it to me. Shor, ox, speaks of gazing and seeing.⁵ Once the tzaddik has wholly purified his body, Hashem grants him to see and gaze always upon His great Name, and the four-letter Name, Havayah, goes before him always. That is “And there came to me shor”: this lofty level came to me of itself, by the kindness of God, blessed be His Name. “And donkey,” chamor (חמור), hints that the body's chomer (חומר), its matter, was also thoroughly purified. “Flock …” hints at every other kind of level, as we have often said in our teachings. “And I have sent to tell my lord”: by this I bring about a drawing, to draw Esav's heart, “to find favor” in his eyes. For lehagid, “to tell,” speaks of drawing.⁶

9a“And Yaakov was afraid … and he was distressed.”⁷ When a whole tzaddik serves Hashem with simplicity and with all his heart, no nation or tongue can rule over him to harm him, Heaven forbid. So when the tzaddik sees that he is afraid and fearful, “he was distressed”: this very thing distresses him. That is “And Yaakov was afraid”: he was afraid, and so “he was distressed,” for it is not the way of a tzaddik to fear anything. And what did he do? “And he divided the people”: at once he returned in teshuvah and confessed before Hashem.

9bIn the Vidui, the confession, we say, “We and our fathers have sinned.”⁸ Why do we mention our fathers' sin? We may say that even a person who has sinned should not make himself completely wicked before the accuser, the one who prosecutes against him. He should count himself partly guilty and partly righteous. So we lay a little of the sin on our fathers: our sins came about through our fathers, who did not sanctify us with complete holiness, and this too caused us to sin. In truth our fathers are already in Gan Eden, and the accusation cannot harm them. We lay it on them only so as not to give the accuser an opening, as if we ourselves, Heaven forbid, were making ourselves wicked. So when a person confesses his sins, he makes himself a beinoni, one in between. That is what Rabbah said: “People like us are beinonim.”⁹ And this is “And he divided the people”: vayachatz, “he divided,” comes from chatzi, half. Yaakov taught the people with him to confess and make themselves beinonim, half and half. For a person certainly cannot declare himself righteous; he can only become a beinoni.

9cAfter the tzaddik's confession and regret, he returns to his first strength: to his holiness and his level, to holy speech and holy thought. These are called two camps: one camp below, holy speech, and the second camp above, in the world of thought. That is “If Esav comes to the one camp and strikes it, then the remaining camp will be lifleitah, for escape.”¹⁰ At first glance the word lifleitah is superfluous; the verse could have said, “the second will remain.”

10The answer comes from the verses that follow. Yaakov Avinu began to pray: “I am too small for all the kindnesses … for with my staff I crossed …”¹¹ Bemakli, “with my staff,” hints at kol (קל), voice: at first I had only “the voice is the voice of Yaakov,”¹² and I had not yet been privileged to reach the world of thought. “And now I have become two camps” hints at the two camps we spoke of: now I have attained two levels, the world of speech and the world of thought. That is why I pray, “Save me, please … lest he come and strike me, mother with children.”¹³ For the tzaddik must serve Hashem in the general and in the particular. The general is fear of Hashem, which is the root, and it is called “mother”; thought too is called “mother.” The tzaddik's mitzvos and words are called “children”; they are the particular, for each word is a particular in itself. Em al banim plainly means “mother with children,” but here it is read as the mother over the children: I fear that he may come, Heaven forbid, and confuse my thoughts and my fear, which are the mother over the children.

11This, then, is how the verse reads. “And he said, ‘If Esav comes to the one camp and strikes it’”: even if he strikes me in one camp, that is, in thought, confusing me, Heaven forbid, “then the remaining camp” will at least be left to me, that is, speech. Then through speech I will gain strength to return to my first camp, the world of thought. That is lifleitah: plainly “for escape,” but it is the same word as niflat, something swallowed and then cast back out. Through speech I can bring the swallowed first level back out. That is what Rashi meant: “Against his will, for I will fight imo.”¹⁴ Here imo, “against him,” is taken as “with it”: with speech I can fight, gain strength, and return to my holiness and my thought as at the start. Such is the way of the tzaddik; even so, he prays always that he never be cut off from his holiness and his lofty thought. This is easy to understand.