Weekly Reading Insights: Vayeshev 5765

FROM THE MASTERS OF KABBALA (K:09-65/Vayeshev)

From the holy Zohar, teachings of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (Z:09-65/Vayeshev)

We have explained that the suffering of righteous people also comes from the side of Mercy and is generated because of His love of those people. Because He loves the righteous, He wants to draw them closer to Him. In order to do this He breaks the person physically, through illness, or other suffering. This strengthens the person spiritually. Instead of the body ruling the spirit, the reverse happens and the spirit rules the body. From this new, heightened spiritual awareness, a person can see the Divine properly. All this is because the soul is ruling a weak body. " He is hated by the Holy One Blessed Be He ...and so He doesn't give that person any problems in This World..."

For the full article, click to the "Weekly Torah" section on our KabbalaOnline site.

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From the holy Ari, Rabbi Yitzchak Luria of Safed (A:09-65/Vayeshev)

"...because He feared lest he die as did his brothers." This is because in every generation a spark of the Mashiach comes into the world, in accordance with G-d's will. If the generation is worthy, [he is revealed as the Mashiach]. If not, he dies or is killed as a martyr, as happened to Rabbi Akiva in the time of Ben Koziva, and in many other cases we do not even know about.

For the full article, click to the "Weekly Torah" section on our KabbalaOnline site.

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From the Shelah, Shney Luchot HaBrit by Rabbi Isaiah Horowitz (S:09-65/Vayeshev)

We name something or somebody because we desire the name to reveal their nature. Joseph was the revelation of the mystical dimension of Jacob, the secret of how the covenant between G-d and man influences the ability of determining the nature of him who is about to be born.

For the full article, click to the "Weekly Torah" section on our KabbalaOnline site.

A MYSTICAL CHASSIDIC DISCOURSE

from the Chabad Master series, produced by Rabbi Yosef Marcus for

www.ascentofsafed.com and www.kabbalaonline.org

MOSHIACH THIS WEEK (M:09-65/Vayeshev)

"When she gave birth there were twins... he called his name Peretz, and afterwards his brother...and he called his name Zerach." (Gen. 38:27-30)

Peretz is the direct ancestor of King David and Moshiach. The Midrash notes that "Before the first enslaver of Israel (Pharaoh) was born, the ultimate redeemer of Israel (Moshiach, descended from Peretz) was already born." G-d thus brought about the cure before the affliction. The "light of Moshiach" that was created with the birth of Peretz confers upon the Jewish people the strength to "break through" (the meaning of the name "Peretz") all the obstacles that try to impede their service of G-d until Moshiach is revealed.

(The Lubavitcher Rebbe)

[Reprinted with permission from L'Chaim Magazine (www.lchaim.org).]

Moshiach and the Moon

"When she gave birth there were twins...and he called his name Peretz, and afterwards his brother...and he called his name Zerach." (Gen. 38:27-30)

Peretz is the direct ancestor of King David and Moshiach.

The Midrash notes that "Before the first enslaver of Israel (Pharaoh) was born, the ultimate redeemer of Israel (Moshiach -- Peretz) was already born." G-d thus brought about the remedy and cure before the affliction - before the Egyptian exile and all the exiles that would follow thereafter - including our own.

This "light of Moshiach" that was created with the birth of Peretz confers upon Israel the strength and ability to succeed in their exiles to "break through" (the meaning of the name "Peretz") all the obstacles that try to impede their service of G-d until Moshiach is revealed.

Our Sages compare Zerach to the sun and Peretz to the moon. The sun continuously shines in an unchanging manner; thus it symbolizes the stable manner in which tzadikim (the righteous) serve G-d. The moon's appearance keeps changing; it continually waxes and wanes.

The moon thus symbolizes ba'alei teshuva (penitents), who "slipped" and strayed and then returned and regained their spiritual stature. The royal house of David, the very source of Moshiach, is precisely from Peretz (the moon), because Moshiach will bring even tzadikim to do teshuva, to return to their Divine source.

(Likutei Sichot)

"Jacob sat in the land where his father had lived." (Gen. 37:1)

Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi (the Alter Rebbe) writes that each word here alludes to a separate spiritual concept. The word "sat" specifically refers to the lowering of oneself, drawing something from above to below as we see that the head comes down when a person sits.

The name "Jacob" (in Hebrew, "Yaakov") is a composite of two concepts: the first letter, yud, the first letter of G-d's name, is referring to the highest levels of spiritual reality; the rest of the word, "eikev", means "heel" and refers to Jacob's special strength to invest the divine in the physical, lower world. "Land" is an obvious reference to the physical world. "…In the land where he lived", (in Hebrew M'gurei") is usually understood as from the word "gar", meaning "lived".

It is also sometimes understood in biblical sources as self nullification to the spiritual truth. "Father" is understood as supernal wisdom, just as the first of the sefirot, chochma (wisdom), corresponds to the partzuf of Abba.

We can therefore read the verse as follows: "Jacob was able to draw supernal wisdom down into the physical world via his humility." You might want to say that this is a perfect example of how Judaism, specifically Kabbala and Chasidut, seems to go off the deep end and relate itself to people who are completely immersed in its ideas, leaving the rest of us outside.

But the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe took pains to show the opposite. He wrote that the key to understanding the Inner Torah is for a person to focus on G-d's purpose for the world, that all of the highest spiritual revelations are ultimately meant to be revealed in the lowest planes. With this overlay, the story described takes on a different light. Jacob's father in-law was not called Laban (in Hebrew, "Lavan", meaning "white") only by coincidence.

However difficult Laban was to deal with was a hint that our forefather Jacob was grappling with very high spiritual forces. All of Jacob's work as a shepherd was to draw down these energies into the physical plane, creating an environment in which the physical could accept them from that time and onward. One reason that Isaac, Jacob's father, never left Israel was because he was unsure if this could be accomplished. This is another way to read the verse: "Jacob drew down to the land, what his father feared (could not be accomplished)."

The sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe summarizes all of the above so that it touches each of us. Sometimes the most distant and apparently difficult situations have the potential for the most important positive effects concealed in them. Rather than being put off by a difficult situation, we have to see it as an entranceway to draw the divine into the physical and therefore fulfill our purpose.

Judaism itself can be used as the broadest example of this. Only through the Jewish people consistently learning Torah and performing the commandments (spiritual acts in a physical world) will we be able to bring the ultimate good, that of Mashiach, into reality.

Shabbat Shalom, Shaul

P.S. Please also read my weekly Shabbat Law, below.)

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