Torah Ohr · Sefer Bereishis · Shabbos November 7
פרשת חיי שרה
Parshas Chayei Sarah
4 maamarim of the Alter Rebbe on the parsha, in the Hebrew of the Kehot edition, with every marei makom opened right where it appears. Each small section with a faithful English translation and a short explanation.
Begin with maamar 1 ContinueThe parsha as a PDFPDF · 967 KBText onlyThe Hebrew and the translation · PDF · 329 KBThe parsha as an EPUBEPUB · 212 KB
Your progress in Parshas Chayei Sarah
The maamarim 4
- יגלה לן טעמיה כו׳ The Subject of the Field of Machpelah On weekdays a person refines his food from below into strength for serving G‑d; on Shabbos the food’s higher root, from before the shattering of the vessels, is revealed, and life flows from it into the soul from above with no waste. That flow comes down “doubled”: the boundless upper hei reaches below only as its hidden power, a second hei, as in the Cave of Machpelah, until the future reveals the upper hei itself.
- להבין ענין משארז״ל יפה שעה אחת בתשובה ומע״ט… To understand the teaching of our Sages, “Better is one hour…” Torah and mitzvos are rooted in G‑d’s own will and wisdom, higher than the radiance of the Shechinah that souls enjoy in the World to Come; clothed in physical things, they become the garments through which a created soul can grasp that radiance, as Moses was nourished through the cloud. So one hour of teshuvah and good deeds in this world is better than all the life of the World to Come.
- לשון אדמו״ר נ״ע בעצמו The very words of our master himself The soul’s garments, the reward of the mitzvos, are not created anew but refined out of kelipas nogah, and each soul must refine its own through the practical mitzvos. Yet every refinement is completed through a union in Atzilus, so even the simplest mitzvah and the plainest Torah study are rooted in the highest world.
- ויצא יצחק לשוח בשדה כו׳ “And Isaac went out to converse in the field” What comes last and lowest was first in G‑d’s thought: the Baraisa’s reasonless details stand above the Mishnah’s reasoned rules, and the bare deed of a mitzvah stands above the delight of the World to Come. Torah descends into darkness and even falsehood in order to clear it away and turn it into light, and that work needs Isaac’s awe of G‑d.
Learn it in seven days Sunday to Shabbos
The Rebbe asked that all the maamarim of the week’s parsha be learned in that week, spread over its seven days. Here is the parsha in seven portions of about equal length.