A thought on Parshas Vayeshev

"...va'yikra sh'mo Peretz...va'yikra sh'mo Zerach...""...and he called his name Peretz...and he called his name Zerach..." (38:29-30)

Two sons are born to Yehuda through his bond with Tamar. They are twins yet, like their grandfather Yakov and great uncle Esav, each son seems to vie for the chance to be born first, with a hand of Zerach emerging initially only to be pushed aside by Peretz. Zerach is given his name because it connotes "shining through," whereas Peretz is named because of the connotation "pushing past." Something deep and important appeared to happen at that birth.

The Recanati sheds light on this. Zerach is named because he is reminiscent of the sun. He appears early, shining forth. He represents the revealed world, the clearly visible side of life which follows the sun in clocking the passage of time. Peretz at first hesitates then later manages to push through. He is reminiscent of the moon, which appears to shine only after taking in the strong rays of the sun, and his role is more subtle, often hidden and concealed, only to emerge at night when the moon glows or fades in the darkened sky. Peretz is an emanation of the concealed world, the deeper dimension of mystique and hidden meanings. It is this world that is the profound realm of Torah, which clocks the passage of time by the moon.

It is Peretz who holds the spiritual genes which will later emerge as the power which drives the seed of Dovid HaMelech and the Davidic dynasty of kings, which had its earliest stirrings with Yehuda. The House of Dovid was slow to emerge, appearing, concealed, revealed, then hidden for centuries. When the verse (28) says, va'yiten yad - and he gave over his hand - this too alludes to Dovid, since the gematria of yad is 14 as is the gematria of Dovid. Moreover, the moon's phases peak after 14 days, with mid-month being the 15th day. From Avraham until Dovid there were 14 generations, with the 15th bringing Shlomo HaMelech and the building of the great Temple. After Shlomo, the dynasty continued through 14 more kings only to end with the 15th, followed by centuries of exile and the dark night of golus.

Dovid is known as "Partzi" - son of Peretz - and his descendant, the Moshiach, is known as "son of the Partzi", as we sing in Lecha Dodi "al yad ish ben Partzi." Each month, when the new moon is clear in the heavens and as the month is visibly under way, we recite the Kiddush HaLevana and further allude to the link between moon and Peretz, Dovid and Moshiach, and the Jewish nation, proclaiming "Dovid Melech Yisroel Chai v'Kayam."

We have already begun to sense the dawn of geula which grows brighter as more and more Torah is studied, and practiced, by our people. We look ahead for that day when the light of the moon will shine with the brightness which once lit up the sky and the heavens, when the levana will again be an Or Gadol which will radiate with warmth and majesty to all ends of the earth. We live beneath the warmth of the sun yet we are the spiritual moon of the world, slowly pushing through the darkness looking for a light of our ownGood Shabbos. D Fox

A thought on Parshas Toldos

"...michra ka'yom es b'choascha li...""...sell me your birthright today..." (27:31)

A tale is told of a wise man who spent his days in calm composure until a peasant approached him and said, "Tell me the difference between hell and heaven." The wise man shook his head, refusing to respond. Enraged, the peasant lifted his sword high overhead and was about to behead the quiet man, who looked up and said, "That is what hell is." The peasant looked stunned, and slowly lowered his weapon. Then the wise man looked up and said, "Now you know what heaven is."

Many interpretations have been offered as to the conflict between the twin brothers Yakov and Esav, and the conflict taking place between their parents Yitzchak and Rivka as to how the prophetic blessings might best be bestowed. Far fewer commentaries address the enduring impact of the actions which resulted in Yakov acquiring the essential blessings of his father.

The Recanati offers us a deep understanding. Last week we spoke about harsh justice, or din as compared with kind mercy, or rachamim. Yitzchak had confronted abject din during the ordeal of the Akeida yet he marshaled the inner might and strength to accept that din can be fused with rachamim so that there is a justice within beneficent kindness, rather than one having to struggle with trying to spy the kindness that can be packaged within harsh, retaliatory justice. Settling a problem or responding to an infraction with justice does result in a kindness, the kindness which is felt after a threat is eliminated and everyone feels safer. But that rachamim within din is never experienced as kindness in the way that din encased within a kind reprieve might be experienced. We learned about that last week.

There has to be justice in the world. There also has to be kindness and in fact, the world is founded on Divine kindness so much so that even the meting out of justice contains that latent element of kindness.

Yitzchak knew about both attributes, and his avoda focused on displays of self restraint as an offering to HaShem, in seeking for his descendants the security that they too would be able to experience Divine "restraint" of harsh justice in the form of Kindness and Mercy. Esav, one of his twin sons, was prone to the mortal characteristics which can make optimal use of a din fixation. He hunted, he killed, he carried his weapons, he roamed the fields. His father sent him to sweeten his nature through acts of kindness, bringing tasty gifts and drink. Were he to have succeeded, his life would have symbolized and enacted the earthly characterization of fusing kindness within justice, in order to soften harsh justice.

Yakov detected this hopeful plan, but aimed to bring about a different fusion. He was prone to living a more composed, kindness-focused life. He understood the necessity of having din in our world but he sought to further the loftier notion that his descendants could more fully serve HaShem where there was a restraint and diminution of din in favor of fuller rachamim. Esav appeared from his incursions into the fields, saying "I am going to die anyway," and sought the food which his brother had prepared. Yakov's feeding his twin brother was a means of pre-empting Yitzchak's quest to fuse Esav with a taste of kindness. It was a mere sample of goodness (compared with the lavish delicacies which Yitzchak had bidden Esav to prepare) but enough to give Esav a sense of kindness without diluting his penchant for the harsher life. In fact, Esav ultimately retreats to the fields of the world, carrying on his din-infused lifestyle, which at times serves as a force in delivering justice to the wayward Jewish people. The harshness of Esavian justice was tempered enough through Yakov's intervention that the sword of our distant brother will never destroy us, and will at times turn against our foes rather than against us. A bit of rachamim buried within a coarse husk of din.

Yakov took the birthright and he took the blessing. The granting of Kindness to the kind-at-heart further cushioned and muffled the latent potency of din. Yakov below lives a life of kindness and is furthered shielded by a blessing of Kindness from Above. When Yakov took the blessing, Esav returned from the fields, clutching the prizes ordered by Yitzchak yet no longer chosen to receive the blessing. Esav retreated, returning to his earlier mission of enacting din in the lower world. When the Jewish people, children of Yakov, act with kindness, that din is restrained. When there is Din from Above hovering near the Jewish world, it is our collective avoda to cling to our acts of kindness below, fending off any risk of retaliatory Din from Above.

And now, says the Recanati, we can understand Yom Kippur! On this day, when Din hovers near, everything that Esav symbolizes in this world is waiting on the outskirts of the Jewish camp. We cannot ignore that din. We cannot expect to neutralize that din. After all, there is abject Din all around us as we are being judged. The twin brothers, the twin attributes, must be addressed. On Yom Kippur, we take twin goats. One of them is dispatched as an offering to HaShem. This represents the Jewish quest to be fully and purely devoted to HaShem, whose attribute is Kindness. The other goat, its twin, is dispatched in a harsh, coarse manner. It is to symbolize our recognition that there is in fact harsh din in the world but that this is not our domain. That lower world harshness is for the force which lingers far out in the field, the force embodied by the twin who proclaimed, "I go to die." The second goat goes to die, and is the Sa'ir (which is also a euphemism for Esav, the hairy one) which is sent out and away, set apart from the avoda of rachamim.

By separating the forces of rachamim and din into two very different processes and outcomes, we beckon to HaShem that we too remain comitted to living our lives within the kindness context, and beseach that He restrain Din so that Rachamim is experienced in fullness and purity, and so that the twins will never be identical twins in function or in essence, whether in the world above or the world below.

Good Shabbos. D Fox

A thought on Parshas Chayei Sara

"...va'yetzei Yitzchak la'suach ba'sadeh lifsnos erev...""...and Yitzchak went out to the field to pray toward evening..." (24:63)

Many interpretations reach out to us as we envision our Patriarch Yitzchak meditating in a field. We know that Chazal associate this verse with our tradition that Yitzchak inaugurated the afternoon prayer, Mincha.

This week we will go deeper, following the insights of the Recanati.

Let's understand the attributes which we associate with Yitzchak Avinu. We are told that he represented the quality known as Gevura, or strength. We also know that his relationship with the Al-mighty is depicted as his having had Pachad, or terror in shaping his avodas HaShem. How do these diverse qualities coexist within this spiritual giant, our Forefather Yitzchak? What do they have to do with davening Mincha?The Recanati explains that the Mincha prayer is timed as evening approaches. Daylight is the time of illumination, enlightenment, when all can witness the beneficent and kind bounty of HaShem Above. This is the time of tefillas Shacharis, the morning prayer initiated by Avraham Avinu, whose quality was chesed, kindness and generosity. As the day begins to wane, after noon, while the sun may yet still shine and the time is still known as "day", the light is nonetheless beginning to fade. With darkness moving closer, the world feels less Chesed and in fact, this is the time of Din or Judgment.

HaShem kavayachol is Kindness. All of the acts which we perceive as Divine Deeds are based on Chesed. When we cannot see Chesed, as if the Divine Emanation has ceased to be, we experience that which we call Ra'a, or "evil." It seems to us as if the Divine will has been restrained. When Kindness from Above is restrained, the chaos which ensues feels wrong, feels harsh and seems evil to us.

Yitzchak Avinu was confronted with an experience which seemed like the abject absence of Chesed. He encountered the Akeida, which brought him to the brink of extreme Din. This was the origin of Pachad Yitzchak, the terror of experiencing a confrontation with Din. The manner in which Yitzchak faced this trial was through gevura. His internal strength prevailed as he restrained his deepest sensitivity and reactions - eizehu gibor ha'kovesh es yitzro u'moshel b'rucho - and sought instead to embrace Din as if it too were Divine Chesed.

This fusion of pachad and gevura led him to differentiate at a deep, organic level the internal forces of personal goodness and personal evil. This is why he bore two sons, twins, who embodied respectively these two diverse realities. There was no blend of tov v'ra'a within either son. Yakov was purely good, and our brother Esav has made a very different mark on the world and its history. This was the fruit of Yitzchak's deep avoda of gevura, of being able to achieve profound self-restraint in the pursuit of accepting that HaShem is a constant Source of Kindness, regardless of the terror and peril which seem to threaten us. When we cannot fathom HaShem's greatness other than to exercise our faith and trust that all that He does, no matter the darkness, is Kindness in disguise, it is as if we are on the far outskirts of His Presence. This is known in Kabbala as Chakal Tapuchin - the "Field of Apples."

Yitzchak saw the daylight fading and he walked toward the darkness out into that Field. It was there that he turned his prayers Heavenward with faith in Divine Kindness, of enduring, sustained Kindness, the trust born out of that fusing of restraining strength with transcending the terror. In the afternoon prayer of Mincha, he put forth his supplication that in Shomayim, the Source of Kindness be unrestrained, overpowering the possibility of harsh Din.

This is our own internal focus as we offer our Mincha prayer as the day declines and we seem to rush in the direction of darkness and din. We face the darkness with trust and internal resolve to remain focused on all that is Good. In this way, we ask that judgment be set aside and restrained, so that Kindness and Chesed continue to shine onward.

Don't let the sun catch you crying. Good Shabbos. D Fox