Arousing the Hidden Source of Mercy

1The Midrash Rabbah (Bereishis Rabbah 75:1) on “Yaakov sent messengers” [Bereishis 32:4]: R' Pinchas said: Five times David calls on the Holy One, blessed be He, to arise. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him, “David, My son, even if you call on Me to arise many times, I do not arise. And when do I arise? When you see the poor plundered and the needy groaning, as it is written, ‘Because of the plundering of the poor, because of the groaning of the needy, now I will arise, says Hashem’ [Tehillim 12:6].” This is what the Midrash means. Through his prayers, David HaMelech wanted to raise up the honor of the Shechinah, so that the holy Shechinah would no longer be in exile. But how can one born of woman raise up the Shechinah? So Hashem told him, “David, My son, even if you call on Me to arise many times, I do not arise. I arise when you see the poor plundered and the needy groaning.” That is, when they are roused to recognize how low they stand and how great their lowliness is. They are poor and destitute in understanding, for “no one is poor except in understanding” (Nedarim 41a). They have no strength to pray for themselves. They ask only that Hashem have mercy on Himself and on His own honor, in the sense of “For My sake, for My sake I will do it” [Yeshayahu 48:11]. As Tosafos writes (Sukkah 45a, s.v. Ani), they ask Him to save Himself. Then the source of mercy, hidden beyond all thought, is aroused. This is what the Midrash says further: Why? “For He has roused Himself from His holy dwelling” [Zechariah 2:17].

2a“R' Acha said: Like a hen that shakes itself”; another version reads, “that shakes the ashes off its wings.” That is, when mercy and the supernal Will are aroused, Hashem, who looks and searches hearts, looks at the innermost point of the Jew. That point is His own portion. There is no sin, iniquity or guilt there at all, and He has mercy on His portion. This is “For My sake, for My sake I will do it.” As the Rebbe R' Baruch¹, zt"l, said on the verse “In a little while [od me'at] there will be no wicked one” (Tehillim 37:10): in every Jew there is still “a little” where there is no wickedness, for the innermost point is clean of every trace of blemish and flaw. And we pray to Him Above: “Master of the world, ‘look upon his place, and he is not there’ [ibid.]. Look upon this place, and You will see that there is no wickedness there at all.” This is the meaning of the blessing for the exiles with which Yitzchak blessed Yaakov Avinu, as the Midrash Rabbah on this parshah explains: What are the blessings? “In six troubles He will save you, and in the seventh no evil will touch you” [Iyov 5:19].

2bFor it is known that holy Shabbos is the inner center, the soul, of the six workdays. On it Hashem bestowed extra holiness in great abundance. No evil, Heaven forbid, can touch the day of holy Shabbos, as we say, “And You did not give it, Hashem our God, to the nations of the lands.” That is, no foreign touch and no accusation can reach it, Heaven forbid. In the same way, no sin can touch the innermost point of a Jewish soul. This place of mercy is very high and exalted. It is hidden even from the ministering angels, who cannot grasp this mercy at all. Only “I, Hashem, who search the heart and test the innermost feelings” [Yirmiyahu 17:10]: He alone knows, and He has mercy on His people. Through this attribute of mercy Israel was redeemed from Egypt, as it says in the Haggadah: “‘I,’ and not an angel; ‘I,’ and not a seraph, but the Holy One, blessed be He, in His glory and by Himself.” For this place was revealed to no created being, neither angel nor seraph.

3aSo too the Midrash further on (Bereishis Rabbah 78:8): “‘And he passed on ahead of them’ [Bereishis 33:3]. This is what is written, ‘As a father has mercy on his children’ [Tehillim 103:13]. R' Chiya taught: like the most merciful of the Avos. And which is he? R' Levi said: This is Yaakov, as it says, ‘And he passed on ahead of them.’ He said: Better that Esav strike me and not them.” Yaakov Avinu wanted to arouse the attribute of mercy from the very source of mercy, as it says, “I carried you on eagles' wings” [Shemos 19:4]. Rashi explains on the verse “He spreads His wings, He takes him” (Devarim 32:11): “When the eagle comes to carry its young from place to place, it does not carry them in its talons like other birds. Other birds fear the eagle flying above them, but the eagle fears only the arrow from below. So it carries them on its wings, saying, ‘Better the arrow should enter me and not my children.’ So too the Holy One, blessed be He: ‘I carried you on eagles' wings.’”

3bChazal say that Yaakov should not have humbled himself before Esav. As the Midrash says [cf. Bereishis Rabbah 75:3], Hashem told him: “Esav was going on his own way, and you sent to him and said, ‘Thus says your servant Yaakov’ [Bereishis 32:5]?” But Yaakov paid no regard to himself. He meant to arouse abundant mercy and raise his children up to a place where there is no accusation at all, in the sense of “He bears him on His pinions” [Devarim 32:11]. Just as the eagle carries its young on its wings and pays no regard to whether the arrow will strike it, so Yaakov's merit could protect them, raising the whole Jewish people to the highest heights, to the place where “evil does not abide with You” [Tehillim 5:5]. As the Zohar says on this parshah (I:166a): “R' Shimon opened: ‘Better is one lightly esteemed who has a servant than one who honors himself and lacks bread’ [Mishlei 12:9]. This verse speaks of the yetzer hara, which constantly accuses people. The yetzer hara lifts a person's heart and will in pride. But ‘better is one lightly esteemed’: one who does not follow the yetzer hara and is not proud at all. Then the yetzer hara becomes his servant. It cannot rule over him; he rules over it. ‘Than one who honors himself and lacks bread’: he lacks faith. Another interpretation: ‘Better is one lightly esteemed’ is Yaakov.”

4This is the meaning of “lacking bread” as “lacking faith.” Through self-nullification and humility, a person knows and recognizes that on his own part he has no merit at all. He asks for mercy only because he knows Hashem's abundant mercy, and that Hashem will have mercy on His own portion, “the portion of Yaakov” [cf. Yirmiyahu 10:16]. Such a person can merit the supernal mazal, the flow of blessing from above, from a place no accusation reaches. By recognizing and believing in the Creator's greatness, he comes to see his own lowliness through that very recognition, as the Rambam explains (Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah 2:2). And through self-nullification he merits the supernal mazal, for lechem, bread, has the same numerical value as mazala. But if a person does not recognize Hashem's exaltedness and lacks faith, he “lacks bread,” the supernal mazal. Yaakov Avinu lowered himself to raise the Jewish people to a high place. For himself he needed none of this. As Chazal say in the Midrash on “Yaakov sent”: “R' H.² opened: ‘One who seizes a dog by the ears is a passerby who meddles in a quarrel not his own’ [Mishlei 26:17].” Not his own, but for the generations to come. May we merit that Hashem have mercy on us with that most exalted mercy, for the sake of His Name, and then we will merit the supernal mazal.

5This is what Chazal mean (Shabbos 118a): “Whoever delights in Shabbos is given an inheritance without boundaries.” By honoring the innermost point of the six workdays, the seventh, the day of holy Shabbos, which no evil touches, as it says, “and in the seventh no evil will touch you” [Iyov 5:19], a person is given, by virtue of its holiness, “an inheritance without boundaries.” He feels and sees the innermost point of his soul, which is never consumed, corrupted or ruined, Heaven forbid, and which no evil can touch. This is the meaning of the extra soul of Shabbos: one recognizes the surpassing light of the soul and its powers. “‘Hashem is my portion,’ says my soul” [Eichah 3:24], for the soul is “a portion of God from above” [cf. Iyov 31:2].