ענין נחלת יעקב

The maamar opens with the phrase “the inheritance of Yaakov” from Isaiah 58:14, “and I will feed you the inheritance of Yaakov your father.” The Zohar identifies this inheritance with the “dew of heaven” with which Yitzchak blessed Yaakov: a dew that flows from Atika, the “Ancient One,” the innermost level of Keser above all the Sefiros, down to Z’eir Anpin, the emotive attributes.

A few pages later the Zohar links this inheritance with the Minchah prayer of Shabbos afternoon, when, it says, Atika Kadisha reveals His will and all judgments are subdued, and with the third Shabbos meal, to which it applies “and I will feed you the inheritance of Yaakov your father.” The Alter Rebbe refers to his fuller treatment elsewhere, and to the end of his discourse on “Listen, O heavens” for the verse “I will be like dew to Israel” (Hosea 14:6).

The Talmud promises one who delights in Shabbos “an inheritance without bounds,” not like that of Avraham or Yitzchak but like Yaakov’s, who was told “you shall spread out west and east, north and south.” The Alter Rebbe gives the reason: Yaakov’s attribute is Tiferes, and Tiferes rises all the way up to Keser, the Crown, which is above every bound and limit.

The Sages say “‘Inheritance’: this is Jerusalem,” meaning the Holy Temple. The discourse on “A Psalm, a song for the dedication of the House” explains that the Temple is a very lofty makif, an “encompassing light” too great to be held within a vessel, which shines from beyond; it comes from Atik, which is the Malchus of the Infinite One, the level through which the Infinite itself relates to what is below it.

Souls too have two levels of makif: a makif, and a makif beyond it. In the explanation on “When you go out,” drawing on the Arizal’s school, the letters of tzelem (image) stand for the intellect of Z’eir Anpin: tzadi is its inner light, lamed is its makif, and mem is the makif of the makif. The text also points to the explanation on “These are the accounts,” where “the ornament of ornaments” (Ezekiel 16:7) is discussed.

A second approach plays on nachalah, “inheritance,” and nachal, “stream.” In “righteousness like a mighty stream” (Amos 5:24), nachal eisan is a flow drawn down from Eisan, “the mighty,” a very lofty level; the inheritance of Yaakov, too, is a flow from so high a source.

The Zohar on Parshas Chukas uses the same image: “Who sends forth springs into the streams” (Psalms 104:10) describes supernal Chochmah, hidden on every side, opening so that a river flows from it and fills the streams below. It also reads “Wisdom is good with an inheritance” (Ecclesiastes 7:11) as Chochmah dwelling with Israel, who are its inheritance; the Ramaz, Rabbi Moshe Zacuto, comments on these passages.

These makifim are rooted above time altogether. Time, the ordered sequence of past, present and future, begins only from Malchus of Atzilus, the last Sefirah of the World of Emanation, which is the source of the three lower worlds of Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah.

Micah’s phrase “the remnant of His inheritance” (7:18) is expounded in the Talmud as referring to one “who makes himself like leftovers.” The Alter Rebbe connects this with the makifim: just as teshuvah “preceded the world” and so is rooted above time, such a person despises a life bounded by time.

He also becomes batel, nullified, before the makifim, which cleave to the Infinite Light itself. The phrase “exalted and uplifted from the days of the world” comes from the morning blessing Yotzer Or, and here it is read as “above the days of the world,” that is, above time.

In this way he draws the flow down from the makifim, so that the supernal Chesed shines into his soul. This is “and I will feed you the inheritance of Yaakov your father”: the inheritance without bounds comes to the one who has set himself above the limits of time.

The Zohar reads “When its waves rise, You calm them” (Psalms 89:10) as “You praise them”: the waves rise in longing to see, and so “whoever yearns” to gaze and to know, even though he cannot attain it, is praised for it. The Alter Rebbe says that “makes himself like leftovers” may be explained along the same lines.

The paragraph ends with two more references: the discourse “And it came to pass at the end,” on “the truly righteous,” and the discourse “Thus shall you bless,” on the saying that a person is found where his will is. The second saying bears on this paragraph’s theme: where a person’s will is directed, there he himself is.

Elisha told the widow, after the miracle of the oil, “you and your sons shall live on the remainder” (II Kings 4:7), and the Midrash says this blessing would last “until the dead come to life.” The Targum renders “on the remainder” as “from what remains,” and the Alter Rebbe reads this as the makifim, which remained above as encompassing light without entering the worlds; of the Time to Come Isaiah says, “Then you will delight in Havayah.”

The verse continues “and I will feed you the inheritance of Yaakov,” meaning that in the Time to Come the makifim will be revealed. The Resurrection will come through “the dew that drips from Atika,” the dew of the first paragraph, and so the dead will “live on the remainder,” on the light that remained above.

Micah’s verse “the remnant of Yaakov shall be … like dew” joins the remnant with the dew. The Alter Rebbe adds that “makes himself like leftovers” also has its plain meaning, self-nullification, and that precisely this draws down from the Thirteen Attributes of Atik Yomin, the thirteen attributes contained in Micah’s verses beginning “Who is a G‑d like You.”

In Parshas Shelach the Zohar connects Moshe’s instructions to the spies with Israel’s earlier question “Is Havayah in our midst or not (ayin)?” (Exodus 17:7): if the fruit of the land were unlike that of any other land, they would know it is drawn from Atika Kadisha. The Alter Rebbe draws out the point: ayin, “not,” is the name of the level of Atika Kadisha, the “Holy Ancient One.”

Atika Kadisha is above even the Name Havayah and is called Ayin, “nothing,” not because it is nothing but because no mind can grasp it; it is also called “the hidden of all hidden.” Light from so hidden a level is drawn down only through a person’s making himself like leftovers.

Making oneself like leftovers is the nullification of yesh, the self that feels itself to be “something,” into ayin, “nothing.” One who becomes ayin in this way draws upon himself from the level of Ayin, Atika Kadisha; the text refers for more to the discourse beginning “You shall keep My Shabbosos.”