The Weekly Dvar Torah
Volume 2 Issue #6
The Matriarchs: Refining the Good From the Bad
Toldos Yitzchak
Adapted from the wisdom of Rav Meir Simcha HaCohen of Dvinsk from the Meshech Chochmoh and Rav Tzadok HaCohen from Pri Tzadik and other works.
By Rav Yitzchak Schwartz Rosh Yeshiva Orchos Chaim Jerusalem
yschwartz@orchos.org.
This publication, Zichron Yehoshua, is in memory of Yehoshua Yakov ben Moshe-Jeffrey Nussbaum through a generous grant from Dr. Eric Nussbaum and family.
This issue is dedicated Avigail bas Yocheved may Hashem bless her.
“Yitzchok prayed to Hashem on behalf of his wife, for she was barren. Hashem granted his prayer and his wife, Rivkah, conceived. The children clashed inside her, and [when this happened] she said, ‘If this is so, why did I desire this?’ She [then] went to inquire of Hashem. Hashem said to her: ‘Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples shall be separated from within you; and the one people will be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.†(Breishit 25:23)
In the Meshech Chochma Rav Meir Simcha of Dvinsk focuses on the commentary of our sages that Rashi quotes on this verse. “Two nations - This refers to Antoninus [the great Emperor of Rome] and Rebbi [Yehuda HaNasi] whose tables never lacked neither radish nor lettuce neither during summer nor during winter. will separate from within you - already from the womb they are separated, one to his evil ways, and the other to his wholesomeness.â€
The Meshech Chochma explains that Rivka was perplexed by the bizarre behavior of the two fetuses that were in her womb. When she would pass the doorways of Torah study of Sheim and Eiver, Yaakov would agitate and rush to come out. When she would pass doorways of idol-worshipers, Eisov would agitate to come out. Hashem revealed to her that their curious behavior was a sign of the character and nature of these two progeny. One would be predisposed to wickedness while the other possessed a natural desire for righteousness.
Rivka’s concern and disappointment was not only because she was to give birth to a wicked son. She was dismayed at the thought that she could not live up to the spiritual stature of our great matriarch Sarah who was able to give birth to wholly righteous offspring, while the wicked son Yishmael was born to Hagar. Rivka began to suspect that from a spiritual perspective she fell short in comparison with Sarah, and was unworthy to serve as the next matriarch of the Jewish people. She knew that in order to spawn the future Jewish nation she would need a highly refined spiritual faculty through which she could draw the positive aspects of her husband Yitzchak, impart them into her offspring, and reject any residual vestiges of spiritual imperfection that he may have possessed. This is what her mother in-law Sarah was able to do with her husband Avraham, as is illustrated in the following.
In a remarkable passage in the Talmud, Rebbi Banah visited the burial site of our forefathers and matriarchs in the cave of Machpelah next to the city of Hebron. At the entrance to the cave, he saw Eliezer, the faithful servant of Avraham, guarding the entrance to the cave. He asked permission to enter the cave. Eliezer told him that since Avraham was lying in the arms of Sarah while she was “examining†his head it would be inappropriate to enter at that time. Ultimately, Rebbi Banah’s persistence gained him entrance and was able to observe what was taking place inside.
The Meshech Chochma explains that this fascinating story illustrates the fact that the souls of the Jewish people are intrinsically dependent upon and bound to each other. An individual soul on its own is incapable of achieving its own completion and perfection without interaction with other souls. This is what the extraordinary story of Rebbi Banah reveals. Avraham was a spiritual giant but he was not perfect. His imperfections, both spiritual and intellectual, manifested themselves in the years prior to his realization that idolatry was absolute falsehood. Furthermore, it was only through Sarah, his wife that he was able to bear a son who would possess the capacity to ascend to the spiritual magnitude of their son Yitzchak.
Sarah had the unique capability to draw on Avraham’s spiritual strengths and talents and at the same time discard his imperfections. This is symbolized in Sarah examining Avraham’s head. She was carefully choosing which of Avraham’s attributes and talents would be necessary to spawn the next generation of forbearers of the embryonic Jewish nation. When she came across something that could harm their future she casted it aside. Yishmael’s mother Hagar, Avraham’s concubine, was not so skillful and therefore incapable of bearing a righteous son with Avraham. Sarah understood that Hagar’s spiritual shortcomings and undiscerning relationship with Avraham would cause his imperfections to be passed on to Yishmael. He would become a toxic influence on Yitzchak the forbearer of the newly emerging nation and therefore must go.
Avraham’s capacity to become the forbearer of a holy nation could be actualized only in partnership with Sarah. His own spiritual perfection could come to fruition only through Sarah’s strengths, symbolized by him lying in her arms. Sarah possessed keen spiritual powers through which she was able to synergize with Avraham and ultimately bring out the best in both of them while leaving the bad that was passed on through Hagar into her offspring Yishmael.
In contrast, Rivka was disturbed because although one of her offspring would be righteous, the other one demonstrated attributes of wickedness. She, unlike Sarah had difficulty in drawing exclusively from the spiritual goodness of her husband while rejecting the bad. Notwithstanding this, Hashem consoled her that she was not disqualified from serving as the next matriarch of the Jewish people. He conveyed to her that her wicked son Eisav would be the forbearer of a great and righteous man, Antoninus the Emperor of Rome, who ultimately converted to Judaism through the influence and tutelage of Rebbi Yehuda Hanasi the descendant of Yakov her righteous son.
In revealing this information to Rivka, Hashem assured her that unlike Hagar, whose progeny remains alien to the Jewish people until this day, Rivka’s wayward offspring would eventually return to the fold, and as such, was worthy to serve as the next matriarch of the fledgling nation. Rivka, like Sarah, was able to draw from the goodness of Yitzchak, pass it on to Eisav, and enable him to become the forbearer of a righteous convert - Antoninus.
By Rav Yitzchak Schwartz Rosh Yeshiva Orchos Chaim Jerusalem
yschwartz@orchos.org.
This publication, Zichron Yehoshua, is in memory of Yehoshua Yakov ben Moshe-Jeffrey Nussbaum through a generous grant from Dr. Eric Nussbaum and family.
This issue is dedicated Avigail bas Yocheved may Hashem bless her.
“Yitzchok prayed to Hashem on behalf of his wife, for she was barren. Hashem granted his prayer and his wife, Rivkah, conceived. The children clashed inside her, and [when this happened] she said, ‘If this is so, why did I desire this?’ She [then] went to inquire of Hashem. Hashem said to her: ‘Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples shall be separated from within you; and the one people will be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.†(Breishit 25:23)
In the Meshech Chochma Rav Meir Simcha of Dvinsk focuses on the commentary of our sages that Rashi quotes on this verse. “Two nations - This refers to Antoninus [the great Emperor of Rome] and Rebbi [Yehuda HaNasi] whose tables never lacked neither radish nor lettuce neither during summer nor during winter. will separate from within you - already from the womb they are separated, one to his evil ways, and the other to his wholesomeness.â€
The Meshech Chochma explains that Rivka was perplexed by the bizarre behavior of the two fetuses that were in her womb. When she would pass the doorways of Torah study of Sheim and Eiver, Yaakov would agitate and rush to come out. When she would pass doorways of idol-worshipers, Eisov would agitate to come out. Hashem revealed to her that their curious behavior was a sign of the character and nature of these two progeny. One would be predisposed to wickedness while the other possessed a natural desire for righteousness.
Rivka’s concern and disappointment was not only because she was to give birth to a wicked son. She was dismayed at the thought that she could not live up to the spiritual stature of our great matriarch Sarah who was able to give birth to wholly righteous offspring, while the wicked son Yishmael was born to Hagar. Rivka began to suspect that from a spiritual perspective she fell short in comparison with Sarah, and was unworthy to serve as the next matriarch of the Jewish people. She knew that in order to spawn the future Jewish nation she would need a highly refined spiritual faculty through which she could draw the positive aspects of her husband Yitzchak, impart them into her offspring, and reject any residual vestiges of spiritual imperfection that he may have possessed. This is what her mother in-law Sarah was able to do with her husband Avraham, as is illustrated in the following.
In a remarkable passage in the Talmud, Rebbi Banah visited the burial site of our forefathers and matriarchs in the cave of Machpelah next to the city of Hebron. At the entrance to the cave, he saw Eliezer, the faithful servant of Avraham, guarding the entrance to the cave. He asked permission to enter the cave. Eliezer told him that since Avraham was lying in the arms of Sarah while she was “examining†his head it would be inappropriate to enter at that time. Ultimately, Rebbi Banah’s persistence gained him entrance and was able to observe what was taking place inside.
The Meshech Chochma explains that this fascinating story illustrates the fact that the souls of the Jewish people are intrinsically dependent upon and bound to each other. An individual soul on its own is incapable of achieving its own completion and perfection without interaction with other souls. This is what the extraordinary story of Rebbi Banah reveals. Avraham was a spiritual giant but he was not perfect. His imperfections, both spiritual and intellectual, manifested themselves in the years prior to his realization that idolatry was absolute falsehood. Furthermore, it was only through Sarah, his wife that he was able to bear a son who would possess the capacity to ascend to the spiritual magnitude of their son Yitzchak.
Sarah had the unique capability to draw on Avraham’s spiritual strengths and talents and at the same time discard his imperfections. This is symbolized in Sarah examining Avraham’s head. She was carefully choosing which of Avraham’s attributes and talents would be necessary to spawn the next generation of forbearers of the embryonic Jewish nation. When she came across something that could harm their future she casted it aside. Yishmael’s mother Hagar, Avraham’s concubine, was not so skillful and therefore incapable of bearing a righteous son with Avraham. Sarah understood that Hagar’s spiritual shortcomings and undiscerning relationship with Avraham would cause his imperfections to be passed on to Yishmael. He would become a toxic influence on Yitzchak the forbearer of the newly emerging nation and therefore must go.
Avraham’s capacity to become the forbearer of a holy nation could be actualized only in partnership with Sarah. His own spiritual perfection could come to fruition only through Sarah’s strengths, symbolized by him lying in her arms. Sarah possessed keen spiritual powers through which she was able to synergize with Avraham and ultimately bring out the best in both of them while leaving the bad that was passed on through Hagar into her offspring Yishmael.
In contrast, Rivka was disturbed because although one of her offspring would be righteous, the other one demonstrated attributes of wickedness. She, unlike Sarah had difficulty in drawing exclusively from the spiritual goodness of her husband while rejecting the bad. Notwithstanding this, Hashem consoled her that she was not disqualified from serving as the next matriarch of the Jewish people. He conveyed to her that her wicked son Eisav would be the forbearer of a great and righteous man, Antoninus the Emperor of Rome, who ultimately converted to Judaism through the influence and tutelage of Rebbi Yehuda Hanasi the descendant of Yakov her righteous son.
In revealing this information to Rivka, Hashem assured her that unlike Hagar, whose progeny remains alien to the Jewish people until this day, Rivka’s wayward offspring would eventually return to the fold, and as such, was worthy to serve as the next matriarch of the fledgling nation. Rivka, like Sarah, was able to draw from the goodness of Yitzchak, pass it on to Eisav, and enable him to become the forbearer of a righteous convert - Antoninus.