Torah Ohr · Parshas Vayishlach · Maamar 2
וישובו המלאכים אל יעקב לאמר באנו אל אחיך…
And the messengers returned to Yaakov, saying: We came…
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The big idea
Yaakov sought the lofty encompassing light of Tohu, rooted in Esav, but Esav is still fallen and cannot pass it on; so Yaakov must draw it down himself through an arousal from below, which was the meaning of his gift to Esav.
The maamar in brief
The messengers’ report to Yaakov is read as an explanation. Yaakov, who embodies the perfection of Tikkun, deserves to receive the encompassing light (makif) of Tohu, but Esav, whose root is in Tohu, is still in the fallen state of the breaking and so cannot bestow it. The proof is the four hundred men with him: harsh judgments that feed the external forces. Their ultimate root is the four hundred shekels of silver Avraham gave Efron, which are the four hundred ‘worlds of longing’ of supernal delight prepared for the righteous. That delight comes from the essence of the Infinite Light, above even Keser, and passes through Keser, the ‘socher’ or encircler, as the phrase ‘over lasocher’ hints. Giving the silver to Efron was a descent for the sake of refinement, but in the meantime the light fell so low that it became Esav’s four hundred men, ‘sak’, a covering of sackcloth; only in the Time to Come will it return fully to holiness. Since Esav cannot give Yaakov this light, Yaakov must draw it himself by raising mayin nukvin, for ‘spirit brings spirit’. His gift to Esav was that arousal, and it could include even impure camels, because before this light darkness is as light.
Outline
- The messengers’ answerYaakov deserves the makif of Tohu, but Esav, still in the breaking, cannot pass it on.¶1
- The four hundred menEsav’s four hundred men are harsh judgments, proof that he is still in the state of breaking.¶2
- The four hundred shekelsThe men’s root is Avraham’s four hundred shekels, the worlds of longing of supernal delight, which fell low and will be restored only in the Time to Come.¶3
- Yaakov’s giftYaakov must draw the makif himself by raising mayin nukvin; his gift to Esav, even the camels, was that arousal.¶4
Key concepts
- the makif of Tohuמקיף דתהו
- The encompassing light of the primordial world of Tohu, too intense for vessels and higher than the lights of Tikkun.
- Tohu and Tikkunתהו ותקון
- Tohu is the world of powerful lights whose vessels shattered; Tikkun is the ordered world of balanced lights and vessels. Esav is rooted in Tohu, Yaakov in Tikkun.
- shevirah (breaking)שבירה
- The shattering of the vessels of Tohu, whose sparks fell into the lower realms and await refinement.
- the four hundred worlds of longingת׳ עלמין דכסופין
- The Zohar’s four hundred realms of supernal delight prepared for the righteous in the World to Come, identified here with Avraham’s four hundred shekels of silver.
- over lasocherעובר לסוחר
- ‘Current with the merchant’, read here as ‘passing through the encircler’: the delight comes from the essence of the Infinite Light and passes through Keser, the encompassing level.
- birurimבירורים
- The refinement of fallen sparks of holiness, and the sparks themselves, which descend so that they may later be raised with added blessing.
- mayin nukvin and mayin duchrinמ״ן ומ״ד
- The ‘feminine waters’ of an arousal from below, which evoke the ‘masculine waters’ of the flow from above.
The messengers’ answer ¶1
“And the messengers returned to Yaakov, saying: We came to your brother, to Esav, and he too is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.”
The maamar opens with the report of Yaakov’s messengers after they went to Esav. The Alter Rebbe reads their words not only as news of a threat but as an answer to what Yaakov was really seeking from Esav.
פי׳ תשובת המלאכים הוא כך שעם היות שמחמתך ראוי ונכון מאד שיומשך אליך מבחי׳ המקיף דתהו מאחר שנמצא בך השלימות של התקון
The explanation: the messengers’ reply was as follows. Although, on your own account, it would be very fitting and proper that there be drawn down to you from the level of the makif (encompassing light) of Tohu, since the perfection of Tikkun is found in you,
Tohu (chaos) is the primordial world of intense, unrestrained lights that could not be held in vessels, and Tikkun (repair) is the ordered world of balanced lights and fitting vessels. Yaakov embodies the perfection of Tikkun, so in principle he deserves to receive the higher, encompassing light (makif) that is rooted in Tohu.
אבל מה לעשות שהמניעה היא מצד עשו אחיך שהוא עדיין למטה בבחי׳ שבירה ולא נתברר עדיין כלל וא״כ איך ישפיע לך משרשו המקיף דתהו הנ״ל מאחר שהוא בעצמו עדיין למטה.
yet what can be done? The obstacle is on the side of Esav your brother, who is still below, in the state of shevirah (breaking), and has not yet been refined at all. If so, how can he bestow upon you, from his root, the above-mentioned makif of Tohu, since he himself is still below?
Esav’s root is in Tohu, whose vessels shattered (shevirah) and fell, and those fallen sparks have not yet been refined and raised. Because Esav himself is still down in that broken state, he cannot pass on to Yaakov the lofty light of his own root.
The messengers’ report is read as an explanation: Yaakov deserves the encompassing light of Tohu, but it cannot come to him through Esav, who is still in the fallen state of the breaking.
The pairing of Esav with Tohu and Yaakov with Tikkun underlies the whole maamar: the root of Esav is higher than that of Yaakov, but only after it is refined can its light be received in the vessels of Tikkun.
Marei mekomos
- 1וישובו המלאכים · Genesis 32:7
The four hundred men ¶2
2והראי׳ ע״ז שהוא בשבירה הוא כי וגם הולך לקראתך וארבע מאות איש עמו.1 פי׳ ד׳ מאות איש הם דינים קשים של החיצונים הנמשכים מן ת׳ בתי דינין קשין דמשתכחין כמ״ש באד״ר.
And the proof that he is in the state of breaking is that “he too is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.” That is: the four hundred men are the harsh judgments of the external forces, drawn from the four hundred houses of harsh judgment that are found [above], as is written in the Idra Rabba.
The four hundred men accompanying Esav show that he is still in the broken state. They stand for severe judgments that feed the external forces (the forces opposed to holiness), which draw from the four hundred ‘houses of harsh judgment’ described in the Idra Rabba, a section of the Zohar.
The paragraph proves that Esav is still in the state of breaking: the four hundred men with him are harsh judgments nourishing the external forces.
Marei mekomos
- 1וגם הולך לקראתך וארבע מאות איש עמו · Genesis 32:7
The four hundred shekels ¶3
As is known, the root of the root of these four hundred men came into being from the four hundred shekels of silver that Avraham our father, peace be upon him, gave to Efron.
The Alter Rebbe traces the four hundred men back to a holy origin: the four hundred shekels of silver Avraham paid Efron for the Cave of Machpelah. The same number links the two, and the rest of the paragraph explains how something so lofty came to feed Esav’s camp.
שהד׳ מאות שקל הנ״ל הם ת׳ עלמין דכסופין4 דירתי צדיקייא לעלמא דאתי דהיינו שהם בחי׳ אורות שפע ענג העליון הנמשכים מבחי׳ עתיקא קדישא
For these four hundred shekels are the four hundred worlds of longing, the dwelling places of the tzaddikim in the World to Come; that is, they are lights of the flow of supernal delight (taanug), drawn from the level of Atika Kadisha (the Holy Ancient One),
The Zohar speaks of four hundred ‘worlds of longing’ (kisufin, from the same root as kesef, silver) prepared for the righteous in the World to Come. These are revelations of the highest divine delight, flowing from Atika Kadisha, the innermost level of Keser.
שהוא בחי׳ ממוצע בין עצמיות הא״ס לעולם האצי׳ כנודע שהכתר הוא ממוצע5 בין המאציל לנאצלים6 ומשם נמשכו השפעות ענג העליון7 לצדיקים לע״ל.
which is the level intermediate between the essence of the Infinite One (Ein Sof) and the World of Atzilus (Emanation), as is known that Keser (the Crown) is intermediate between the Emanator and the emanated; and from there the flows of supernal delight are drawn to the tzaddikim in the Time to Come.
Keser stands between G‑d’s own essence (the Emanator) and the Sefiros of Atzilus (the emanated), belonging in a sense to both. Through this intermediate level the hidden supernal delight reaches the righteous in the Time to Come.
וזהו ענין ת׳ עלמין דכסופין והם ד׳ מאות שקל כסף הנ״ל. ונק׳ עובר לסחר8 כי כתר נק׳ סוחר לשון (שבת יג.) סחור סחור9 שהוא בחי׳ המקיף לכל ההשתלשלות.
This is the meaning of the four hundred worlds of longing, and they are the above-mentioned four hundred shekels of silver. And they are called “over lasocher” (current with the merchant), because Keser is called socher, from the expression (Shabbos 13a) “sechor sechor” (go around, go around), for it is the level of the makif of the whole chain of descending worlds (hishtalshelus).
The Torah describes Avraham’s silver as ‘over lasocher’, literally ‘current with the merchant’. The Alter Rebbe reads socher as ‘encircling’, from the Talmud’s phrase ‘go around, go around’, and applies it to Keser, the encompassing light that surrounds the whole chain of worlds.
ות׳ עלמין דכסופין10 הנ״ל הם עובר לסוחר שהם באים ונמשכים מעצמות אא״ס11 שלמעלה גם מהכתר ועוברין ונמשכין בהכתר ומשם נהרין לצדיקיא לע״ל.
And these four hundred worlds of longing are “over lasocher,” for they come and are drawn from the essence of the Infinite Light (Or Ein Sof), which is higher even than Keser, and they pass and are drawn through Keser, and from there they shine to the tzaddikim in the Time to Come.
‘Over lasocher’ now also means ‘passing through the encircler’: the worlds of longing originate in the essence of the Infinite Light, above even Keser, and pass through Keser before shining to the righteous. Their source is therefore higher than any encompassing level.
וענין הנתינה לעפרון הי׳ בדרך ענין ירידת הבירורים כדי להוציאם אח״כ ממנו בתוס׳ ברכה כו׳.
And the giving to Efron was in the manner of the descent of the birurim (the sparks to be refined), in order to bring them out of him afterward with added blessing, and so on.
Birurim are the sparks of holiness that fell into the lower realms and must be refined and raised. Avraham’s giving of the silver to Efron was a deliberate descent of such holy sparks into a lower place, so that they could later be recovered with added blessing.
אך ביני לביני הן שירדו כ״כ למטה מטה ונעשו בחי׳ ד׳ מאות איש לעשו. והוא בחי׳ ש״ק כמ״ש (ישעיה נ) אלביש שמים קדרות ושק אשים כסותם12.
But in the meantime they descended so very far down that they became the four hundred men of Esav. This is the level of sak [ש״ק, four hundred], as it is written (Isaiah 50), “I clothe the heavens in blackness, and make sackcloth (sak) their covering.”
Before that recovery, the sparks fell so far that they became the strength of Esav’s four hundred men. The Hebrew word sak (sackcloth), whose letters have the numerical value four hundred, captures this: the lofty light became a covering of darkness, as in Isaiah’s image of heaven clothed in sackcloth.
וכן ארז״ל (סנהדרין קא.) התורה חוגרת שק13 כו׳ דהיינו שנתהווה בחי׳ לבוש שק שהחיצונים יונקים ממנו ולע״ל בגמר כל הבירורין כשיבולע המות לנצח14 (זכריה יג)
And so our Sages, of blessed memory, said (Sanhedrin 101a), “The Torah girds itself with sackcloth,” and so on; that is, a garment of sackcloth came into being, from which the external forces draw nourishment. And in the Time to Come, at the completion of all the birurim, when death will be swallowed up forever, (Zechariah 13)
The Sages’ image of the Torah girding itself in sackcloth describes the same concealment: holy light turned into a coarse garment from which the external forces draw their life. This state lasts until the final refinement, when death is swallowed up forever.
ואת רוח הטומאה אעביר כו׳ אז יחזיר עפרון15 הד׳ מאות שקל כסף לשרשם אל הקדושה בשלימות.
“And I will remove the spirit of impurity,” and so on, then Efron will return the four hundred shekels of silver to their root, to holiness, in completeness.
When the spirit of impurity is removed in the future, the silver will return fully to its holy root. Efron’s ‘returning’ the four hundred shekels expresses the complete recovery of the light that went down.
ומעתה ידע יעקב שא״א שישפיע לו עשו משרשו את המקיף דתהו אשר הוא מבקש מאחר שהוא בעצמו למטה.16
From this, Yaakov knew that it is impossible for Esav to bestow upon him, from his root, the makif of Tohu that he seeks, since he himself is below.
This explains the messengers’ message to Yaakov. Since Esav’s root light is still captive below, Yaakov understood that Esav could not be the channel for the encompassing light of Tohu he was seeking.
The paragraph traces Esav’s four hundred men to the four hundred shekels Avraham gave Efron, which are the lofty ‘worlds of longing’ of supernal delight, and shows that this light is still fallen and will be restored only in the Time to Come; therefore Yaakov cannot receive it from Esav.
The Kehot notes point to the Idra Rabba (Zohar 3:128b) and to Zohar 1:123b on the four hundred worlds of longing, and to Etz Chaim 41:3 on Keser as the intermediate between Emanator and emanated. The same double reading of ‘over lasocher’, as coming from the essence of the Infinite Light above the makifim, recurs in Likkutei Torah, Eikev, which refers back to this maamar.
Marei mekomos
- 1ששרש . . של ד׳ מאות איש . . מן ד׳ מאות שקל כסף · Zohar III, 128b
- 2שנתן אברהם אע״ה לעפרון · חיי שרה כג, טז.
- 3ד׳ מאות שקל כסף שנתן אברהם אע״ה לעפרון · Genesis 23:16
- 4ת׳ עלמין דכסופין · Zohar, Chayei Sara 5:23–6:28
- 5כנודע שהכתר הוא ממוצע · ע״ח שמ״א פ״ג. נסמן לעיל לדף כב, ד.
- 6כנודע שהכתר הוא ממוצע בין המאציל לנאצלים · Sefer Etz Chaim 41:3
- 7ומשם נמשכו השפעות עונג העליון · בתו״ח נח מז, ג מבאר ת׳ עלמין דכסופין נק׳ יש גמור שעונג הנעלם בא במורגש ממש. וראה שם תולדות קפב, ד שנמשכים מעצמות התענוג שבשעשועי המלך ע״ש בארוכה, ובדף קפג, ב.
- 8עובר לסוחר · בלקו״ת ברכה צט, ג מציין לכאן.
- 9
- 10ת׳ עלמין דכסופין · Zohar I, 123b
- 11עובר לסוחר שהם באים ונמשכים מעצמות אוא״ס · בלקו״ת עקב טז, ד. ברכה צט, ג מציין לכאן.
- 12
- 13
- 14כשיבולע המות לנצח · Isaiah 25:8
- 15ד׳ מאות איש לעשו והוא בחי׳ ש״ק . . אז יחזיר עפרון · מובא באוה״ת נ״ך כרך א ע׳ קצז ע״ש בשם לקו״ת מהאריז״ל. ישעי׳ עה״פ מ, יב מי מדד.
- 16
Yaakov’s gift ¶4
4ואין עצה אלא רק שימשיך יעקב בעצמו את המקיף הנ״ל. ולזאת כשידע שבעצמו צריך להמשיך המקיף הנ״ל
There is no counsel other than that Yaakov himself draw down this makif. Therefore, when he knew that he himself had to draw down this makif,
Since the encompassing light cannot come through Esav, Yaakov must draw it down by his own effort. This turns the discussion from Esav’s state to Yaakov’s service.
he had to raise mayin nukvin (the “feminine waters”) toward it, in order thereby to draw down the makif, for “spirit brings spirit,” and so on.
‘Mayin nukvin’ (feminine waters) is the Kabbalistic term for an arousal from below that rises to evoke a response from above. As the Zohar says, ‘spirit brings spirit’: a stirring from below draws down a corresponding flow from above.
וזהו ענין המנחה ששלח יעקב לעשו הוא בחי׳ העלאת מ״נ להמשיך מ״ד דמקיף דתהו הנ״ל.
This is the meaning of the gift that Yaakov sent to Esav: it is the raising of mayin nukvin in order to draw down the mayin duchrin (the “masculine waters”) of the above-mentioned makif of Tohu.
Yaakov’s gift to Esav was this raising of mayin nukvin. It was meant to evoke the ‘masculine waters’ (mayin duchrin), the flow from above, of the encompassing light of Tohu.
ולכך שלח גמלים אף שהם בהמות טמאות כי לגבי או״מ הנ״ל כחשכה כאורה3 כו׳. וכמשי״ת לקמן בעז״ה בענין ויקח מן הבא בידו מנחה4 כו׳:
That is why he sent camels, even though they are impure animals: for in relation to this or makif (encompassing light), “darkness is as light,” and so on. As will be explained below, with G‑d’s help, on “And he took from what had come into his hand a gift,” and so on.
Camels are not kosher animals, yet Yaakov included them in his gift, because for so lofty an encompassing light the difference between darkness and light does not apply. The Alter Rebbe says this will be explained further in the discussion of the verse about the gift Yaakov took from what he had with him.
Since Esav cannot pass on the encompassing light of Tohu, Yaakov must draw it himself by an arousal from below, and his gift to Esav, including even impure camels, was that arousal.
The principle that ‘spirit brings spirit’ (Zohar 2:162b) grounds the whole idea of mayin nukvin: the flow from above corresponds to, and is evoked by, the arousal from below. That the gift included impure animals reflects the teaching that the light of Tohu is rooted above the division between holy and unholy.
Marei mekomos
- 1רוח אייתי רוח · Zohar II, 162b
- 2רוח אייתי רוח · Zohar, Terumah 66:669–678
- 3כחשכה כאורה · Psalms 139:12
- 4ויקח מן הבא בידו מנחה · Genesis 32:14
Finished the maamar?
Mark it as learned; it counts toward the week and the year’s siyum.
In one’s avodah
When a higher light cannot come to a person from outside, because its channel is still fallen, he must draw it down by his own effort, an arousal from below; and in that service even lowly things can be offered, since before the highest light darkness is as light.
Questions for discussion
- Why would the light rooted in Esav be higher than Yaakov’s own, and why can it not reach Yaakov while Esav is still fallen?
- How does the maamar connect Esav’s four hundred men with the four hundred shekels Avraham paid Efron?
- What two meanings of ‘over lasocher’ does the Alter Rebbe draw out, and what do they teach about the source of the supernal delight?
- What is the relationship between raising mayin nukvin and drawing down the makif, and how was Yaakov’s gift an example of it?
- Why could Yaakov’s gift include camels, impure animals, and what does that suggest about the nature of this encompassing light?
Key terms in this maamar
- Delightתענוג
- Pleasure; the inner root of will.
- Keser (the Crown)כתר
- The level above intellect: divine will and delight. ×4
- The Infinite One (Ein Sof)אין סוף
- G‑d's own boundless essence.
- The World of Atzilus (Emanation)אצילות
- The highest world, still one with G‑d.
- The chain of descending worlds (hishtalshelus)השתלשלות
- The step-by-step descent of divine light from the highest level down to this world. ×1
- The Infinite Light (Or Ein Sof)אור אין סוף
- G‑d's light as it is, beyond all limits, before any contraction.
- Netzach (victory)נצח
- Perseverance, the drive to overcome. ×1