Spiritual and
Ethical Issues in the Historical Books of Tanach;
SPIRITUAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES IN THE BEREISHIT STORIES These four books ostensibly are merely the history of Israel from the entry into the Promised Land until the destruction of the Temple and the temporary loss of independent statehood. In fact they are actually, in a specifically Jewish sense, the most deeply religious and spiritual books of the Bible. One does not have to be specifically Jewish to see or feel the religion and spirituality in the revelations of the prophetic writings or in the words of the Tehillim. They speak to all people, as evidenced by the fact that the Bible is still the world's bestseller and there are millions of non-Jews who regularly recite the Psalms. However, it is specifically and intrinsically Jewish to understand that G-d is revealed in the prosaic material, in the political, social and military events in the lives of ordinary men and women, kings and leaders that are described in the Nevim Rishonim. Here are described the ideology and religious thoughts in Judaism, while in Chronicles we have the purely historical. "These are the Generations
of Yitschak" [5] The skin protects the fruit and therefore it too is important and can become TAMEI (Chulin 118a). Indeed the whole purpose behind the creation of Eisav and Yaakov was that Eisav was to be subservient and marginal to Yaakov and thereby he, through his brother, would also achieve SHLEIMUT. This is why Yitschak wanted to bless Eisav even though he knew that Yaakov was more pious and deserving. Yitschak thought that through his subservience to Yaakov, Eisav would be elevated and sanctified so that they could jointly continue the Abrahamic tradition. However he did not realize the extent of the arrogance and GASUT RU’ACH of Eisav. "Even though a person of GASUT RU’ACH may fulfill a mitzva or achieve a spiritual level, since their arrogance is thereby only increased, their positive action makes them truly evil" (Admor of Kotsk). Eisav, being unable to differentiate between TAFEL and IKAR, could never see himself as being subservient to Yaakov. This is like the discussion in the Midrash between the straw and the chaff as to who was superior, without recognizing that they both were marginal to the wheat. So Eisav genuinely asked how one tithes straw and salt, both of which are marginal. Not only are Eisav and Yaakov born to one mother and father, but they are twins. Although they pursue different goals, they possess the same powerful spiritual urges, the same single-mindedness or T’SHUKA, and it is this spiritual power that makes them eternal enemies locked in an ideological struggle. They both wished to link Heaven and Earth. Yaakov wished to raise everything that is earthly and material up to the heavenly, the holy and the spiritual and to merge body and the divinity that is the soul. Eisav, however, wished to degrade that which is heavenly, to subject it to that which is base and earthy in mankind. It is this strange unity-diversity that explains Rifka's exclamation when she felt the turmoil in her womb," And she said: 'If [it be] so, wherefore am I thus? And she went to inquire of HaShem" (Bereishit 25:22). She knew that the ETZ HADA'AT TOV VARA (good and evil intertwined) and the ETZ HACHAYIM grew from the same root, so that when knowledge is subservient to the source of life then the separation between good and evil becomes clear. However, the struggle within her womb made her fear that the child that would be born would be a divided soul, struggling to subject knowledge to the source of life; this would be more severe than the struggle between two separate persons as with Yitzchak and Yishmael. So HaShem comforted her when He told her that this would not be a struggle within one son but rather there would be two nations involved and that the older one would eventually be subservient to the younger. Yet it is still not clear as to why the two should have been born as twins through this powerful unity of ETZ HADA'AT and ETZ HACHAYIM. We see that the whole of Yitschak's TOLDOT flows from this power of unity. Yitschak is the personification of fear and awe - PACHAD YITSCHAK - that is the opposite of TOLDOT - birth and generations; as we see when Rachav says that, "there is no strength of spirit in anybody in Jericho because of the fear of Israel" (Yehoshua 2:11). Because his MIDA is fear and awe, Toldot Yitschak needed for the perfection of his generations, the chesed of Avraham. That is expressed in the verse which reads, "These are the Toldot of Yitschak; Avraham gave birth to Yitschak". Thus, the unity of the two MIDOT, fear and chesed, can merge the contradictory powers of left and right. Thus, potentially there is a part of this unity of the two MIDOT in Yitschak that exists in both of his sons, but it is only the GASUT RU’ACH of Eisav that prevents the spiritual greatness of this unity from being realized. With the same parents and the joint powers that flow from their twin relationship, Yaakov and Eisav are like grapes harvested from the same vine. Yet in reality the GASUT RU’ACH of Eisav fermented and perverted the grapes so that he is the vinegar of the wine that is Yaakov". (Shem MiShmuel). This is installment #124 in Dr. Tamari’s series on “Tanach and its messages for our times” [The
Parshat Tazri'a-M'tzora Homepage]
|
