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 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
posted by Rabbi Dr. Fox at 12:59 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home