Mountain and Hair: Mending Exile Through Speech

18Or we may read “And Yaakov sent …” as Yaakov mending the lower levels through speech. The Gemara says: “In the time to come, the yetzer hara will look to the tzaddikim like a mountain, and to the wicked like a hair's thread.”¹ People ask about this wording: why does it look to each of them the opposite of the truth? It should look to the tzaddikim like a hair's thread, since for them it was easy to conquer their yetzer. For the wicked it is the reverse: for them it was hard to conquer their yetzer, as hard as a mountain.

19It seems to me that it truly is so: to the tzaddikim it is a mountain, and to the wicked a hair. The Gemara says: “Not like Avraham, who called the Beis HaMikdash a mountain, ‘On the mountain of Hashem it will be seen’; and not like Yitzchak, who called it a field, ‘And Yitzchak went out to meditate in the field …’; but like Yaakov, who called it a house.”² Why, in truth, did Avraham call it a mountain and Yitzchak a field? We may say that the Avos were hinting at the First and the Second Beis HaMikdash, and at the one of the future, to be built speedily in our days. Avraham called it “mountain”: this is the First Beis HaMikdash, when there were great tzaddikim who walked always in deveikus, cleaving to Hashem. As Chazal said, “The fingernail of the earlier ones is better than the belly of the later ones.”³ A mountain hints at the upper worlds, which cannot be grasped at all except in thought, and deveikus is the world of thought. That is why Avraham said, “On the mountain of Hashem it will be seen”: the tzaddikim of the First Beis HaMikdash would be able to rectify everything through their deveikus. For seeing hints at just this: the contemplation of the mind, and deveikus.

20This is “I lift up my eyes to the mountains,” to the upper worlds. “Me'ayin, from where, will my help come?”:⁴ my help will come from the world of thought, which is called Ayin, “Nothing.” And this is “Saviors shall go up on Mount Zion to judge the mountain of Esav.”⁵ For “God has made one opposite the other,”⁶ and it is by the level of Mount Zion that the mountain of Esav will be judged. This also settles a question on the verse “And Avraham called … ‘On the mountain of Hashem it will be seen.’”⁷ At first glance, the Torah should first have told of the missions of the two angels one after the other, and only afterward “And Avraham called …”⁸ On our reading, the order is right. Avraham Avinu's intent was that the tzaddikim would be able to rectify everything through deveikus, and so he called the place “mountain,” as we said. Then came “The angel of Hashem called a second time … and said … I will greatly multiply your offspring.”⁹ Offspring so many could surely not all stand at one great level, and some other way would be needed for them, to rectify at a lower level, each according to his level. That is why the second call, with its promise of many offspring, comes only after Avraham named the place “mountain.”

21aThat is why Yitzchak called it “field.” This is the Second Beis HaMikdash, whose people were not tzaddikim like the earlier ones, and they needed a way of rectifying that would let them endure through speech. In the Second Beis HaMikdash there was baseless hatred,¹⁰ and through it Esav had the power to take hold of the field, that is, of the Beis HaMikdash, in the spirit of “Esav was a man who knew hunting, a man of the field.”¹¹ And Esav was “a hairy man”:¹² this hints that his power came through baseless hatred. As we find, Iyov said to the Holy One, blessed be He, “Perhaps You have confused Iyov (איוב) with oyev (אויב), an enemy?” Hashem answered him, “Who has cleft a channel for the torrent?”, and Chazal expounded: I did not confuse one hair with another, for if two hairs grew from one follicle, they would dim the light of a man's eyes.¹³ So hair hints at baseless hatred, which is separation: like hairs, each apart in its own follicle.

21bYitzchak Avinu wanted to set things right for Israel and break Esav's power through speech. This is “And Yitzchak went out lasuach in the field”:¹⁴ lasuach is usually rendered “to meditate,” but siach is a word for speech. For in the Second Beis HaMikdash the tzaddikim were not as great as in the First, and they had to rectify at a level below the first. That is why he called it “field,” hinting at a lower level, which is called field, below the level of “mountain” we described.

22This is “And Yaakov sent malachim”: the words of the tzaddik are called malachim, messengers. “Before him” (lefanav): Yaakov rectified the lower level that lay before him. “To Esav his brother” hints that through his speech he turned the harsh judgments into compassion. “To the land of Se'ir (שעיר),” whose letters also spell sa'ir, hairy: through baseless hatred, because of our many sins, which the word Se'ir hints at, as we saw with “a hairy man,” Esav had a hold on the field, so that it became “the field of Edom.”

23So Chazal's words prove true. “To the tzaddikim it will look like a mountain”: the great tzaddikim, who served Hashem always in deveikus, which is called “mountain,” as we saw with “On the mountain of Hashem it will be seen,” see it as a mountain, according to their level. “And to the wicked,” who spoiled things and gave power to the sa'ir (שעיר), the hairy one, that is, Esav, “it will look like a hair (se'ar, שער),” according to their level, the level they spoiled.

24This is what Yitzchak said: “Re'eh, see, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field.”¹⁵ At first glance the word “see” makes no sense here at all, but in our way its meaning too becomes clear. Yitzchak Avinu also wanted to set things right in the bitter exile. If there were a tzaddik who served in deveikus, which is called being a son to Hashem, blessed be He, he would have the power to rectify the field through seeing, that is, through deveikus, as we saw with “it will be seen.” This is “See, the smell of my son,” in the spirit of the verse “The mandrakes give off a smell,” which Chazal expounded: “These are the young men of Israel who have not tasted the taste of sin.”¹⁶

25This is what Yaakov said: “When Esav my brother meets you and asks you, saying, ‘Whose are you? …’”¹⁷ Rashi explains that Yaakov prepared himself for three things: for a gift, for prayer and for war.¹⁸ At first glance the order is reversed, for first he prayed, and only afterward took a gift to send; and if the gift did not help, he would wage war with Esav. But Yaakov also meant to rectify the generations to come, and to teach them how to endure in the bitter exile among the nations. For the deeds of the Avos are a sign for the children,¹⁹ that they should do as the Avos did. In sending a gift of these kinds, “goats … ewes …,” Yaakov intended that the gift would hint at the intent of a complete prayer to Hashem, blessed be He. This is “When Esav my brother meets you …”: if the accuser wants, Heaven forbid, to accuse Israel, “saying, Lemi atah, whose are you?”, he means: who among you in Israel can say atah, “You,” that is, make a blessing properly, “Blessed are You”? “And where are you going?”: where are the good deeds in which you walk in His service? “And whose are these (eleh) before you?”: who among you can break the power of idol worship, which is hinted at in the word eleh of “These (eleh) are your gods, Israel”?²⁰

26“And you shall say: It is a minchah, a gift, sent”:²¹ we have a great thing, the Minchah prayer that we send to Hashem, blessed be He, for Eliyahu was answered only in the Minchah prayer.²² “To my lord, to Esav”: at the time of the Minchah prayer the power of the harsh judgments grows strong, and they want to be lords over us, Heaven forbid. That is “to my lord, to Esav”: the judgments, which are called by the name Esav, want to grow strong and be lords, and we break them through the Minchah prayer. “And behold, he too is behind us”: we have yet another great thing at the time of the Minchah prayer. Then, as is known, the upper zivug, the union on high through which blessing flows down, takes place very high, in a whole stature, complete in all its levels.²³ It is true, as we know, that at that hour the union is back to back, its two sides turned away from each other, while in the morning it is face to face, the fuller form, but below. Yet at the time of the Minchah prayer it is in a whole stature, and through this our power to break the kelipos, the husks that hide holiness, and the judgments is strong. This is “And behold, gam hu, he too, is behind us”: although the union is then from behind, as we said, it is on the level of Hu, “He,” the upper union that is called Hu. Understand this.

27Yaakov hinted at this in the gift he sent: “two hundred goats.”²⁴ The Gemara asks, “Why do the goats go at the head?”²⁵ We may say that Chazal were hinting at heads of the people who lord it over the community not for the sake of Heaven. Izin, goats, speaks of azei panim, the brazen-faced, and “go at the head” means that they are heads of the people. The Gemara answers, “Like the creation of the world: first darkness and then light.” That is, when our righteous Moshiach comes, then there will be light, the tzaddikim, and he will be our head. And this is the meaning here. “Goats” is our plea for breaking the power of the kelipos and of the accusation, for they are the brazen ones. “Two hundred” (masayim, מאתים) means that we have the power to sweeten them, for “whoever adds, subtracts.”²⁶ The kelipah is ashtei esreh (עשתי עשר), eleven: the ayin added to shtei (שתי) of twelve makes a smaller number.²⁷ Here too, add the letter alef to the front of masayim and it becomes amasayim (אמתים), “two cubits,” a small amount: the added alef lessens. For with the letter alef the judgments are sweetened: the alef of the Name Adni (אדני) sweetens its other three letters, which spell din (דין), judgment.

28Or we may read the Gemara's question as a call to confess first: “Why do the goats go at the head?” Before all the deeds we do for Hashem, blessed be He, we must first confess our sins. This is izin, goats: the azin, the brazen sins. They “go at the head”: we confess them first. “Like the creation of the world: first darkness and then light.” And this too is the meaning of the “goats” in Yaakov's gift: they are the sins, and they are sweetened through “two hundred,” as we saw, for through the letter alef they are sweetened.

29“Ewes” (rechelim)²⁸ hints that there are in Israel God-fearing and whole people, who are “like a ewe (rachel) before her shearers,”²⁹ in complete fear. “Nursing camels” (gemalim meinikos): there are also among us simple people who are gomlei chassadim, doers of kindness, who nurse those who learn Torah and support them. And this is “and their young” (uveneihem): “Do not read beneihem, their children, but boneihem, their builders”;³⁰ these are those who learn Torah, who are called builders. “Cows” (paros) hints at the complete tzaddikim, who walk in gevurah, strength, and sweeten the gevuros, the severities, with gevurah. As it says, “a red cow … in which there is no blemish”:³¹ they have no blemish and are clean of all sin, and they sweeten the “red cow,” which is the harsh judgments. “She-donkeys” (asonos) hints at our righteous Moshiach, who will come speedily in our days, in the spirit of the verse “Binding … to the vine … his she-donkey's colt,” which Chazal expounded as speaking of Moshiach, “poor and riding on a donkey.”³² That is, the merit of those who truly believe in the coming of our Moshiach and wait for him every day will stand for us, to break the power of the kelipos and the judgments and to raise up our Beis HaMikdash speedily in our days, as Yaakov Avinu called it Beis El, the House of God. May it be built speedily in our days. Amen.