Torah Ohr · Sefer Shemos · Shabbos January 9
פרשת וארא
Parshas Va’eira
5 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.
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The maamarim 5
- וארא אל אברהם אל יצחק ואל יעקב באל… “And I appeared to Avraham, to Yitzchak and to Yaakov as Kel Sha-dai” The revelation the Avos received as Kel Sha-dai lives on in every Jew: in exile our faculties are like those of a fetus, formed but inactive, and by revealing G‑d’s unity in the heart we come to “birth” and to the “milk” of joy that makes love and awe grow. Higher still is the Torah, given through Moshe’s complete self-nullification, which reveals G‑d’s very Self, the level the Avos did not know.
- וידבר אלקים אל משה ויאמר אליו אני ה׳… “And Elokim Spoke to Moshe and Said to Him…” The Patriarchs knew G‑d through Elokim, His greatness as revealed in creation, from which love and awe are born; but Havayah alone, as it is before any drawing forth, could be revealed only through G‑d’s own Torah and mitzvos at Sinai, and the hard exile in Egypt was the withdrawal that had to come before it.
- ויאמר ה׳ אל משה ואל אהרן לאמר כו׳… “And G‑d said to Moshe and to Aharon” Kelipah, which boasts “My river is mine,” lives only from a ray of holiness hidden by many contractions. The staff that became a serpent and then a staff again showed this, and the plagues broke Egypt’s kelipos so that the sparks of holiness within them were revealed and returned to G‑d.
- לכן אמר לבני ישראל אני ה׳ והוצאתי אתכם “Therefore say to the children of Israel: I am G‑d” The Exodus happens every day within the soul: G‑d’s light, understood in the mind, is held “in exile” by worldly concerns in the narrow strait between mind and heart, and it is “born” into the heart through joy and the voice of Torah. The Written Torah calls the light out; the Oral Torah, the “good and spacious land,” makes a person wholly one with G‑d’s word.
- ביאור על הנ״ל An Explanation of the Above The Exodus and the entry into the Land describe how understanding becomes felt emotion and how even that is surpassed. The emotions are “in Egypt,” in gestation in the narrow throat between mind and heart, until the voice of the Written Torah brings them to birth and joy; then “the land,” the Oral Torah, which is Malchus, broad with understanding and the seat of G‑d’s will in halachah, is lifted to be the crown, a bittul higher even than felt delight.
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.