Rivkah's Yom Kippur Hint: Humility Draws Down Blessing

1Why did Rivkah Imeinu change Yitzchak's words to Esav when she repeated them to Yaakov? She even added the words “before Hashem” (Bereishis 27:7), which Yitzchak had not said. The holy sefer Avodas Yisrael [of the Maggid of Kozhnitz] raises the same question. He answers that through the extra letter in “hunt game for me” (tzidah, Bereishis 27:3), Yitzchak was hinting at the Name Havayah, and with this he explains a passage of the Zohar that is very hard to understand. May Hashem enlighten our eyes.

2aBut we can offer an answer based on the Midrash Rabbah on our parshah (Bereishis Rabbah 65:14–15). On the words “Rivkah said to Yaakov... bring me game,” it says: “‘Now, my son, listen to my voice. Go now to the flock’ [Bereishis 27:8–9]: go and secure in advance the nation that is likened to a flock, as it says, ‘And you, My flock, the flock of My pasture’ [Yechezkel 34:31]. ‘Two good kids of the goats’: R' Chelbo said, good for you, for through them you will take the blessings; and good for your children, for through them they are atoned for on Yom Kippur, as it says, ‘For on this day He shall atone for you’ [Vayikra 16:30].”

2bThe Midrash continues: “R' Levi said: It is like a hairy man and a bald man standing at the edge of a threshing floor. The chaff blew onto the hairy man and got tangled in his hair. It blew onto the bald man, and he passed his hand over his head and brushed it off. So too, Esav the wicked soils himself with sins all year and has nothing with which to atone. Yaakov also soils himself with sins all year, but Yom Kippur comes and he has something with which to atone, as it says, ‘For on this day He shall atone for you.’ R' Yitzchak said: He did not ask her, nor did she ask him. Rather, ‘The goat (sa'ir) shall carry upon itself’ [Vayikra 16:22]: this is Esav, as it says, ‘Esav my brother is a hairy (sa'ir) man’ [Bereishis 27:11]. ‘All their sins’ (avonosam): the sins of the tam, the wholesome one [Yaakov].” See there, and see the holy Alshich, who explains this Midrash at length.

3What does the Midrash mean when it says the bald man “passed his hand over his head”? A hand stands for power, as is well known from the Gemara. So too, “Israel saw the great hand” (Shemos 14:31), and “he took all his land from his hand” (Bamidbar 21:26), meaning from his power and control. Yom Kippur is the day when the Satan has no permission to accuse (Vayikra Rabbah, Acharei Mos). All year long, too, “our will is to do Your will, but the leaven in the dough holds us back” (Berachos 17a). When the time comes that the leaven is set aside, every Jew opens his eyes. He sees that all his strength and life are given to him by Hashem, Who constantly pours His bounty and vitality into him. And when he takes this to heart, realizing that he rebelled against Hashem with the very strength and bounty Hashem gave him, he confesses and forsakes his sin. He feels it bitterly, regrets it, and seeks to appease the King of kings. This is complete teshuvah. And this is what it means that he “passed his hand over his head”: he sees that all his power comes from the Head, from Hashem, and from the portion of Himself that Hashem breathed into him, the holy soul, whose seat is in the brain, in the head.

4Or we can explain it along the lines of what the holy books say about the Mishnah, “My head is heavy, My arm is heavy” (Sanhedrin 46a). What is written in the tefillin of the Master of the world? “And who is like Your people Israel, one nation on earth” (Berachos 6a). So when a Jew sins, Heaven forbid, he casts a flaw, as it were, into the tefillin of the Master of the world, both the arm-tefillin and the head-tefillin. That is “My head is heavy, My arm is heavy.” So too here, “he passed his hand over his head”: when a person remembers the arm-tefillin and head-tefillin of the Master of the world, and sees with his own eyes how far his deeds reach, he does teshuvah from the depths of his heart, and “he returns and is healed” (Yeshayahu 6:10). And when he merits complete teshuvah, Hashem, Who searches hearts and minds, looks into the inner core of the sin and sees that it was done without true knowledge or will. It is only like chaff. He sees that there is nothing inside it; it is empty, like chaff without the kernel of wheat. That is the chaff the Midrash speaks of.

5aIn truth, when Yitzchak Avinu wanted to bless Esav, he faced a problem. Esav was a man “finished in his hair,” and as the holy books explain, he saw himself as a finished man, complete in every faculty and in total perfection, lacking nothing, as is the way of the wicked. But someone who is to be blessed must be especially humble. He must make himself low, so that the blessing of the one who blesses can rest upon him. That is why the kohanim go up onto the platform to bless the people: the one who blesses draws down the bounty from the higher “pool” (berichah, related to berachah), so he must stand higher than the one being blessed in order to draw the blessings down upon him. So when Yitzchak saw that Esav's heart was proud, he began to speak to him in humbling words, along the lines of “let him remember the day of death” (Berachos 5a). As it says, “Behold, I have grown old; I do not know the day of my death” (Bereishis 27:2), and “so that my soul may bless you before I die” (Bereishis 27:4). He wanted to stir Esav's heart and humble him a little, so that he could draw the blessings down upon him.

5bAnd perhaps by “before I die” he also meant what the Tur and Shulchan Aruch describe (Orach Chaim 98:1): the early chassidim would wait an hour before praying and reach a stripping away of physicality, close to the level of prophecy. The Rambam explains this well in the responsa Pe'er HaDor. Yitzchak was making the blessing great in Esav's eyes, so that he would know what he was about to receive, and so as to humble him somewhat. In effect he was saying: “Know for certain that before giving the blessings I am literally giving over my soul, and who knows whether I will still be alive after them.” That is “before I die.”

5cRivkah, the righteous woman, heard these words through ruach hakodesh, as the Midrash and Rashi say, “ruach hakodesh sparkled within her” (Rashi on Bereishis 27:42). She understood that they hinted at Yom Kippur, as the Midrash Rabbah quoted above explains. And she knew that if she told Yaakov the words exactly as she had heard them from Yitzchak, his heart would sink. First, he would think the matter touched Yitzchak's very life: if he did not give the blessings he would live on, for Hashem's will was that he bless his sons and then die. We find the same in the war with Midian, when the people had to be “handed over” against their will, because Moshe's death depended on it (Bamidbar 31:5, Rashi). Second, Yaakov Avinu was humble and lowly of spirit in any case, and these words might even bring him to sadness, Heaven forbid. So she told him: “Know, my son, that these words hint at your children's atonement on Yom Kippur, as it says, ‘For on this day... before Hashem you shall be purified’ (Vayikra 16:30).”

6aThis resolves the question of the Yefeh To'ar: why does the Midrash need to cite this verse at all? Who does not know that Yom Kippur atones? The answer is that Rivkah's main purpose was to point out the hint to Yom Kippur that she sensed through ruach hakodesh. The Yerushalmi says (cited by Tosafos, Yoma 15b¹) that “No man shall be in the Tent of Meeting” (Vayikra 16:17) excludes even an angel, of whom it says, “their faces were the face of a man” (Yechezkel 1:10). The Yerushalmi means that while the kohen serves in the Holy of Holies, nothing human may remain in him, not even in the manner of an angel. He must be completely nullified, truly as nothing, utterly stripped of physicality. That is the level of holiness and self-sacrifice the kohen needs. Rivkah was telling Yaakov: “All the more so your father Yitzchak, who is now the source of these blessings. Surely you understand how great his preparation must be. He said so himself: ‘and I will bless you before Hashem,’ meaning on the level of the Kohen Gadol on Yom Kippur, of whom it says, ‘before Hashem you shall be purified.’ And the Name would come forth from his mouth of itself, as the writings of the Arizal and the Zohar explain, in holiness and purity.”

6b“And ‘before my death’ means that he did not know whether, after these blessings, he would still be able to bring his soul back into his body, into this world.” I heard something similar from my father and teacher, zt"l, in the name of the holy Yehudi², zt"l: every day before praying, he would take leave of all his loved ones (in Yiddish, “er hot zich gezegent”), like the early chassidim mentioned above. Rivkah revealed this hint in Yitzchak's words, which sparkled within her through ruach hakodesh, and with it Yaakov went to receive the blessings.

7aThis is truly how it is whenever a person comes to pray or to bless, to draw down blessing. As is known, “children, life and sustenance depend not on merit but on mazal” (Moed Katan 28a). The Zohar and the Kabbalists explain that these come from the “supernal mazal,” a flow from the very highest levels, “higher than the high” (Koheles 5:7). So whoever draws them down needs great preparation. “The ash of a stove is prepared” (Beitzah 2a): the greatest of all preparations is “I am dust and ash” (Bereishis 18:27), that a person know what he is and before Whom he is praying. The sefer Tomer Devorah explains that a person resembles his Maker in the attribute of Keser, the Crown, the highest of the sefiros, by lowering himself to the dust and becoming truly as nothing. Then he resembles Him, and he crowns Hashem, as it were, with the attribute of Keser.

7bThat is why we say the confession in the blessing Shomea Tefillah, and only afterwards ask for livelihood in the prayer that begins “Atah Hu Hashem HaElokim.” The initials of those words spell the Name Ehyeh, which belongs to Keser. Once we recognize how lowly we are and become truly as nothing, we can ask for lofty things that stand at the very height of the world. This is also the meaning of the Kedushah, “A crown they will give You... Your people Israel, gathered below.” Your people Israel gather together, and each one sets himself aside before his fellow. Through this they always know their shortcomings, and they are always “below” in their own eyes, utterly lowly. That is how they crown You with a crown.

8See Targum Yonasan (Bereishis 27:6): “This night the heavenly beings praise the Master of the world, and the treasuries of dew are opened on it” [that is, the night of Pesach]. He says the same on verse 1; see the end of that passage. This fits our words. The dew is what the Zohar calls “the dew of crystal,” which is very high above. That is why Chazal say, “Dew is never withheld” (Taanis 3a): it comes from so high a place that no gentile touch and no accuser can reach it, so it is never withheld. This is the dew with which the dead will be revived in the future, after the tikkun. Then the hidden light will shine forth, as it says, “Hashem will be for you an everlasting light” (Yeshayahu 60:19). With the words of Targum Yonasan (Bereishis 27:6–7) we can explain the verse: “Rivkah said to Yaakov her son, saying, ‘I heard your father speaking to Esav your brother, saying...’” Why is “saying” repeated twice? Because she heard from Yitzchak that on this day the time itself enables every person to open his mouth and “say,” in prayer or in blessing, for mercy is aroused on this day.

9aIn truth, Yitzchak wanted to bless Esav through the power of this great kindness, so that the power of kindness, that great light, would always be aroused upon him. But Yaakov Avinu said, “Esav my brother is a hairy man” (Bereishis 27:11). That is, he is finished in his own eyes, a complete man, and he will never come to the lowliness of spirit that is needed for the arousal from below that awakens this power. Not so a Jew, “Yaakov, the portion of Hashem” (Devarim 32:9): the Jewish people have the power of humility and lowliness. That is what the Midrash quoted above means by “he has something with which to atone” (bemah, literally “with what”). He atones through the trait of mah, “what,” which is humility, as in “what am I?” Through it Israel arouses the power of mercy, as we said above. At these two times, Yom Kippur, when the Satan has no permission to accuse (Vayikra Rabbah, Acharei Mos), and “the night when the festival is sanctified” (Yeshayahu 30:29), the night of Pesach, every person can open his mouth in prayer and in blessing. For then great mercy is aroused from a very high and exalted place, and so every person can arouse great mercy and achieve all good through his prayer.

9bThe holy books speak of three dimensions of holiness: place, time and soul. Yitzchak Avinu wanted to bless Esav through the power of the holiness of time. Even though the dimension of soul, Esav's own soul, was not good, the dimension of time would prevail and let him be blessed. This light was revealed in Egypt, on the level of “I,” as in “I, and not an angel; I, and not a seraph” [Haggadah], as the holy books explain at length. Every year, on Pesach, on the night the festival is sanctified, this time is aroused again. The same light was aroused for Avraham Avinu, as it says, “And the night was divided for them” (Bereishis 14:15); the Midrash Rabbah (cited by Rashi there) explains that it was the night of Pesach. Yitzchak Avinu sensed this light, and he wanted to bless his son Esav with this blessing, that mercy be aroused upon him from the Source of mercy.

9cOn the holy day of Yom Kippur too, something of this holy light is revealed, so that Israel's teshuvah is accepted with mercy. As Chazal say (Yoma 85b)³, “the essence of the day” atones. That is, the light of the day, as in “like the essence (etzem) of the heavens in purity” (Shemos 24:10). That is why the Torah says of Pesach, “On this very day (b'etzem hayom hazeh) Hashem took out...” (Shemos 12:51), and of Yom Kippur too, “on this very day” (Vayikra 23:28); consider it carefully. So on Yom Kippur and on Pesach all Israel pray at length, and on Pesach with songs and praises, as the holy books explain: Pesach is peh sach, “the mouth speaks.”

10To complete the words of the Midrash Rabbah quoted above, “Yaakov soils himself with sins all year, but Yom Kippur comes and he has something with which to atone”: every Jew has an inner point, the portion of Yaakov, whose image is engraved on the Throne of Glory. When a time of wondrous holiness like Yom Kippur arrives, he has two of the three dimensions, time and soul. The dimension of soul, his inner point, awakens in him, and he merits teshuvah and atonement. But Esav has no inner point to awaken, and so he has nothing with which to atone. For Yom Kippur without teshuvah does not atone, as the Rabbanan hold (Yoma 85b)⁴. Teshuvah means returning to one's soul and to the source from which it was hewn, and the idolater has nothing to return to. Consider it carefully.

11a“R' Yitzchak said: He did not ask her, nor did she ask him...” This is what Yaakov Avinu answered Rivkah when he did not want to go and receive the blessings: Esav, the hairy one, carries the sins of the wholesome one. But Rivkah told him, “Only (ach) listen to my voice” (Bereishis 27:13), and he did. It would seem, then, that Rivkah did not agree with this, Heaven forbid. To this R' Yitzchak says that the point is true according to both of them, the one who asked and the one who answered. The cause of Israel's sins is the leaven in the dough and their subjugation to the nations (Berachos 17a). These are what bring about the sins. Therefore “the goat shall carry,” this is Esav, “all their sins,” the sins of the tam, Yaakov. We have explained the verses in the same way: “To Hashem, the Lord, belong the issues of death” (Tehillim 68:21), meaning there are many kinds of death and punishment for sins. “But God will crush the head of His enemies, the hairy crown of him who goes about in his guilt” (Tehillim 68:22). Esav's head is hairy, and his thoughts are always on how to make Israel sin. So Hashem will crush his head with all the punishments due to them. It all came about because of him, and he caused it directly, with his own hands, and for that one is liable according to all opinions.

11bRivkah's reply, “Only listen to my voice,” can be explained like this. The essential root of teshuvah is humility, as it says, “Is this the fast I choose... to bow his head like a bulrush?” (Yeshayahu 58:5). As is known, without true humility it is impossible to come to teshuvah. And Chazal teach that every ach and rak, “only,” is a word of limiting (Yerushalmi Berachos 9:5). So Rivkah told Yaakov Avinu: “Granted that in your view a Jew needs no blessing at all. You are right, as explained above. But through the blessings, when Israel has all good, a taste of the blessings, they will have a clear mind. A person becomes lowly and humbled in his own eyes when he sees all the goodness and kindness Hashem has done for him, while he went so far as to sin, Heaven forbid. And through humility and lowliness he merits teshuvah.” That is “Only listen to my voice”: through self-nullification, setting aside your own view and making yourself small in your own eyes to listen to me, you will merit the blessings. Through them all Israel will merit humility and complete teshuvah on Yom Kippur. Yitzchak Avinu was stirred to true humility through the delicacies and the wine, and through that the source of blessing was aroused from the Source above, a holy and awesome place hinted at in the words “before Hashem.” So too Israel arouses this power on Yom Kippur, as it says, “before Hashem you shall be purified.”

12This explains why the Midrash cites the verse “For on this day He shall atone for you.” At first glance it proves nothing about the goats atoning on Yom Kippur. On the contrary, the verse teaches that Yom Kippur atones even without an offering. Even for us today, when because of our many sins we have no Temple, no Kohen Gadol and no offering, Yom Kippur still atones. But according to our words, the main benefit comes through the blessings. The broadened mind that the blessings bring will lead us to true humility. Through that we will merit the awakening of the soul together with the essence of this holy day. And through both we will merit complete teshuvah and atonement, and great mercy from the Source of mercy, from the high place called “before Hashem,” as the holy books explain. Amen, may it be His will. (From the author's handwritten manuscript.)

13With our words above we have also explained the words of David HaMelech, “Only (ach) goodness and kindness shall pursue me” (Tehillim 23:6). The well-known question is: who runs away from goodness and kindness, that they would need to pursue him? And why say “pursue me”? My grandfather, the holy gaon, zt"l, already explained this. The holy books say there are two kinds of tests, the test of wealth and the test of poverty, as Shlomo HaMelech said, “Give me neither poverty nor wealth” (Mishlei 30:8). The test of wealth is harder than the test of poverty. Even so, David HaMelech prayed that if Hashem wished to pursue him with tests, at least the pursuit should be with goodness and kindness, that is, with the test of wealth. These are his holy words.

14According to our words, the meaning is that the goodness and kindness should pursue him toward the ach, toward making himself small. Through the goodness and kindness he receives he will recognize the Creator's kindness to him, and so become humble and lowly of spirit. Not the opposite, Heaven forbid, as it says, “Lest you eat and be satisfied... and your heart grow proud and you forget” (Devarim 8:12–14). Rather, the goodness and kindness should pursue him until he is humbled. That is “Only goodness and kindness shall pursue me.”