A Thought on Parshas Toldos

"...v'yiten lecha...mi'tal ha'Shomayim u'mi'shmanei ha'aretz v'rov dagan v'tirosh..." "...and He will give to you... dew of Heaven, richness of earth, abundant grain and wine..." (27:28) The brachos which Yitzchak blesses Yakov are beautiful and picturesque. It is tempting to understand them literally, which would center on the promise of bountiful lands, fertile fields, and the rich produce for which the land of Israel has at times been famous. One has only to meander the shuk at Machneh Yehuda or view the fields near Teveria to savor the magnificent fruits and vegetables which one associates with the land of our people. On the other hand, there have been centuries when the land did not yield such richness, times when we did not merit the promise which seems explicit in the blessings of Yitzchak. Are there other manifestations, other ways in which these brachos might be understood, and be actualized, among the Jewish people? Ibn Shu'aib finds a medrash which helps us here. The medrash asserts that the theme of "mi'tal haShomayim u'mi'shmanei ha'aretz" - we are blessed with the dew of heaven and the richness of the earth - denotes a "higher heaven and a higher earth" - namely, the sublime parallels of what we regard as heaven and earth, the metaphoric dew and lushness. That is, the "dew" of the "heavens" does not refer to the moisture which descends from the sky, and the "richness" of the "fields" is not referring to the crops which we grow. Rather, as ibn Shu'aib explains, the "dew of the heavens" means "the written Torah." The dew which descended from heaven was the Torah given to us at Sinai. The "richness of the field" means "the Mishnah." The field which we grow through the moisture of the written Torah is the codification of its rules and lessons, the Oral Torah. The "rov dagan" - abundant grain - is the Talmud, which threshes the Mishnah in drawing out all of its halachic nuances, every kernel of practical and structured chachmah, which defines our religious sustenance. The "tirosh" - the fruit of the vine - means the Aggadata - the lore and the allegory which are woven within our traditional sources, offering spirit, insight, and enchantment in portraying many deeper and loftier facets of our faith. Ibn Shu'aib reminds us that this midrashic approach has its linguistic roots in the words with which Matan Torah itself is depicted (Devarim 4:36) - min haShomayim hish'miacha es kolo - from Heaven He made you hear His voice. That mention of Shomayim, writes ibn Shu'aib, is the same as the word form in our verse. This teaches us the that bracha of Yitzchak is all about our receiving the Torah, which is the "tal" of Heaven. Now, we do know that the giving of the Torah took place at Sinai, yet the revelation and the compilation of Mishnah, Talmud and Aggadata came about at later, and varied, stages of our history. Elements of Mishnah circulated from the time of Sinai yet the era of the Tanaaim was much later. The Talmud emerged after the Mishnah. Elements of Aggada or what we call "the Aggadata" cover a span of centuries, if we examine our history. How does that fit with this bracha, which seems to capture everything at once in its use of the "dew and produce" metaphor? ibn Shu'aib discovers another midrash about that. Chazal look at the word "va'Yiten" - and He will give, as having an "unnecessary" vov. The bracha could have been "Yiten" - G-d will give. From the fact the Torah states "and He will give", the message is "He will give, and He will give" in different stages. This way, reasons ibn Shu'aib, we can follow how the verse alludes to a number of events and processes - the giving of the Written Torah, the emergence of an Oral Torah, the cultivation of the Talmud, the "wine of tradition", and the fertile and productive yield of all of our holy labor to unite Heaven and earth. Good Shabbos from the friendly skies, as I traverse the earth below, flying from east to west. D Fox