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Teaching · Parshas Toldos

Emes, the middle path

Tzedakah & chesed

A teaching ofYaakov Avinuיעקב אבינוProfile ›

The navi Michah says, "Titen emes l'Yaakov, chesed l'Avraham": give truth to Yaakov, kindness to Avraham. The Zohar connects this verse to the Torah's description of Yaakov as an ish tam, a man whose mouth and heart were the same. In the Kabbalah, each of the Avos is a path of serving Hashem: Avraham is chesed, on the right; Yitzchak is fear and strict judgment, on the left; and Yaakov is emes, in the center. In the Kabbalah this middle line is the sefirah of Tiferes, standing between kindness and judgment. The Chassidic master Rav Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk, in Pri HaAretz, describes this truth as the 'middle bar' of the Mishkan that ran from end to end and held everything together. Even in a world full of falsehood, he writes, truth is hidden within everything and connects it back to its root, the attribute of Yaakov.

Source: Michah 7:20; Zohar, Toldos; Sha'arei Orah, Fifth Gate (Tiferes); Pri HaAretz, Vayeitzei

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