The Avos' Years Stored Up as Light

1aTo explain the teaching of my father and teacher, R' Yechiel of Alexander, zt"l, cited above (section 1), we may draw on the Midrash (Bereishis Rabbah 56:10)¹. Avraham said before Him: “Master of the worlds! When You told me, ‘Take your son, your only one’ (Bereishis 22:2), I had an answer for You. Yesterday You told me, ‘For through Yitzchak shall offspring be called yours’ (Bereishis 21:12), and now, ‘Take your son’! But Heaven forbid, I did not do so. I suppressed my compassion to do Your will. May it be Your will that when the children of Yitzchak come to transgressions and evil deeds, You remember for them that Akeidah and be filled with mercy toward them.” For our holy forefathers laid away their merit for their children, for the time they would need it. The main aim of the Avos was the good of their children, for “the crown of elders is children's children” (Mishlei 17:6). And when Sarah Imeinu heard that Avraham had laid away the merit of the Akeidah for their children, she let out six cries, corresponding to six shofar blasts (Vayikra Rabbah 20:2). That is: when her children stand in judgment, may He remember her merit for them and be filled with mercy toward them. For “the tzaddik shall be an everlasting remembrance” (Tehillim 112:6). The holiness of their days, which they sanctified and purified, remains forever to give light out of the darkness. This is “and their inheritance shall be forever” (Tehillim 37:18): their years endure forever, for our sake.

1bThis is what the Midrash says: “The lives of the tzaddikim are dear to the Omnipresent in this world and in the World to Come.” While they are with us in this world, in their lifetimes, that is the first time. The second time is after their passing: even when they are in the upper world, the time of their lives endures forever, stored away in the heavens to give us light out of the darkness. And this is what the Midrash says below (Bereishis Rabbah 62:2): “It is written, ‘Hashem knows the days of the wholehearted’: this is Avraham, and so on. The Holy One, blessed be He, cherished the years of the tzaddikim and wrote them in the Torah, so that the inheritance of their days would be remembered forever.” This means that the holiness of the inheritance of the years of the holy Avos keeps bestowing on the world an abundance of holiness and sparks of arousal to teshuvah. As is known, zachar, which means both “remembrance” and “male,” is the aspect of the one who gives. This is “and their inheritance shall be le'olam, forever”: the inheritance of their days arouses us to teshuvah. Olam alludes to teshuvah, as the holy Zohar says on “and he shall serve him le'olam” (Shemos 21:6): this is the world of Binah, understanding. And Binah is teshuvah, in the sense of “his heart will understand, and he will return” (Yeshayahu 6:10).

1cAll this comes only as an inheritance and bequest from our holy forefathers, as the Aramaic expression has it, “he inherits it,” and even a bad son inherits. Even so, a person should take to heart the rock from which he was hewn, the root-stock of our holy forefathers, and how precious and great their holiness is: they are the ones who bequeath, and we are the heirs. Let him consider the great holiness of Avraham Avinu, of whom Chazal say on “and the souls they made in Charan” (Bereishis 12:5) that he brought converts under the wings of the Shechinah. This reflection will arouse him to complete teshuvah, so as not to shame the faces of the Avos.

2This is “it shall be forever”: through the holiness of their inheritance, a person also merits to bring real existence into permitted, everyday matters. These are called “things that are not,” for they have no real existence, as we wrote above² on the words of the Saba in the holy Zohar (Ra'aya Mehemna, Parshas Mishpatim): “She adorned herself with ornaments that are not.” As the verse says, “Forever, Hashem, Your word stands firm in the heavens” (Tehillim 119:89). Every meal eaten for a mitzvah, and all words of holiness and Torah study, have real existence, for His words live and endure forever: the power of His speech brings existence and permanence into them. But permitted, everyday matters have no real existence; they pass and are lost. When a person merits to “set the table like one who eats before the King above,” and intends it for Hashem's sake with the right intention, he brings permanence and existence into these things. “For He spoke, and it came to be” (Tehillim 33:9). This is the jewel and the ornament of the King. For Hashem delights in the great avodah that comes only from lowly man, not from the angels above. This is “she adorned herself with ornaments that are not”: a person adorns the holy Shechinah with ornaments by bringing existence and permanence into everyday things that had none. And this is “If you bring out the precious from the worthless, you shall be as My mouth” (Yirmiyahu 15:19): he brings existence and permanence into them.

3Or we may explain “and their inheritance shall be forever” this way. Time too is called “a thing that is not,” for the days pass and are gone, “like yesterday when it has passed” (Tehillim 90:4). But if a person merits to sanctify and purify time, he brings real existence into it, and those years have permanence and existence, “so that they may last many days” (Yirmiyahu 32:14). This is “and their inheritance shall be forever”: through the holiness of their wholehearted deeds, the Avos brought existence into time, so that it would remain forever for their descendants as a time of favor in the hour of need. In “the days of our affliction and our wandering” [Eichah 1:7] it lifts up our own years too, which have no permanence or existence. The reading of the parshah awakens the time, the time awakens the reading, and it is a time ripe for teshuvah.

4aThis is the subject of the Midrash below (Bereishis Rabbah 58:3): “R' Akiva was sitting and expounding, and the congregation was dozing off. He wanted to rouse them. He said: What did Esther see that she should reign over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces? Let Esther, a descendant of Sarah, who lived a hundred and twenty-seven years, come and reign over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces.” The Midrash can be explained by the words of Midrash Tanchuma (Parshas Chukas): “‘His eye has seen every precious thing’ (Iyov 28:10): this is R' Akiva and his colleagues. Things that were not revealed to Moshe were revealed to R' Akiva and his colleagues.” The precious thing (yekar) is the Divine preciousness that came down from the Source of all life to each and every Jew. But sins and transgressions create screens that separate, hiding and covering the precious light, like a cloud that covers the sun and like chaff that covers the wheat. A person should consider how lofty this holy portion is, how it has been brought down and debased “from a high roof to a deep pit,” how greatly this precious light has been darkened, and how many coverings now hide it. When he sets his heart on this and arouses in himself compassion for Hashem's portion within him, he merits to “bring out the precious from the worthless” (Yirmiyahu 15:19). He removes the separating screens from the sweet light, so that there is no longer “a light that is precious and frozen” (Zechariah 14:6).

4bThis is what the Midrash means: “‘His eye has seen every precious thing’: this is R' Akiva.” The good eye of a true tzaddik can bring the precious light hidden within a person into the open. And this is what the Midrash says: “R' Akiva was sitting and expounding, and the congregation was dozing off.” He looked to the end of days and saw that the Divine portion within them would be as if asleep, and they would no longer feel any holy life from it. As it says in Vayikra Rabbah (Parshas Emor) and in Midrash Tehillim (102): “‘He turned to the prayer of the destitute’ (Tehillim 102:18): this is the generation of Mordechai and Esther, who were like the dead in their deeds.” That is, they said they no longer had any holy life in them. “He wanted to rouse them,” “to gather and stand up for their lives” (Esther 9:16): to let them know that the light of Jewishness still shines in them, and the sparks, flickers and embers of Divine fire have not yet gone out, in the spirit of “I am asleep, but my heart is awake” (Shir HaShirim 5:2). “He said: What did Esther see that she should reign over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces?” At that time they were “dead in their deeds,” in a state of hester panim, the hiding of Hashem's face. “What did she see?” By what merit did she reign, to blot out the memory of Amalek and to enthrone and make known the Name of Heaven in the world?

4c“Let Esther come.” As Chazal say (Yoma 29a): “Why is Esther compared to the dawn? Just as the dawn is the end of the night, so Esther is the end of all the miracles.” Before the dawn rises, the darkness grows stronger and fiercer, and then the night watchmen say, “Morning has come” (Yeshayahu 21:12). So too, out of the force of the troubles and the darkness, each one of us must believe, hope and wait, knowing that he is that much closer to the light of day. For “there is no light except the light that comes out of the darkness” (Zohar II:184a). All this is in the merit of the inheritance of our holy forefathers, who cast light on the days of darkness. This is “Let Esther come, a descendant of Sarah”: Sarah's merit stands forever, for the hour of need. And in the days of our affliction and our wandering, may this holy time be awakened, to arouse us to complete teshuvah and give us light out of the darkness.

5A person may feel the point of compassion awaken in him for Hashem's portion hidden within him, and within these Jewish souls who do not know or understand how precious their souls are. He may feel the pain and pity over this precious portion that came down from the Source of all life into murky matter. Then his pain touches the honor of the Shechinah, which is “a king bound in the tresses” (Shir HaShirim 7:6), held captive, as it were, in exile. When he cries out, “Master of the world, act for the sake of Your Shechinah,” he arouses great mercy from the Source of mercy, from the level of “For My sake, for My sake I will act” (Yeshayahu 48:11). Then Hashem will save, as it were, Himself. As Tosafos writes (Sukkah 45a, s.v. Ani), “Hoshana” means that He save Himself.