ויאמר יעקב אלהי אבי אברהם כו׳

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The maamar in the Rebbe’s light

The Rebbe’s teachings on this maamar gather around Yaakov, a man of Tikkun (תיקון), reaching for the light of Tohu (תהו). In Katonti 5730 he reads the opening prayer, which he quotes, as seeking to give Tohu, once refined, the bittul of „קטנתי” (“I am too small”) that marks Tikkun; Basi LeGani 5728 explains why the middle line joins Chesed and Gevurah: its root is in the Infinite Light, „שלימותא דכולא” (“the perfection of all”), that holds both. On the two camps he speaks two ways: in Katonti 5728 Yaakov takes Tohu’s two-line form to receive its light into his bittul, for, as the Rebbe Rashab writes, Tikkun’s root is higher; in Vayishlach 5747, with Torah Chaim, the camps answer Eisav’s four hundred men and begin his refinement. On the gift, a note of Shabbos Mikeitz 5752 says Yaakov „לא עסק בעבודת הבירורים” (did not turn to refining Eisav) but sent an offering of Tohu for the future perfection; the 5747 maamar explains why it was alive: a Torah offering’s main service begins only after the slaughter. At the close, a sicha of 5751 explains why the pig will be purified, and a letter of 5714 brings the teaching of this paragraph’s close, that Yaakov could offer impure animals only „קודם מ״ת” (before the Giving of the Torah), to say that after Sinai the forbidden stays forbidden. Perhaps (biur b’derech efshar) Tohu then appears as a light Yaakov could reach only because his own root stands higher.

Paragraph by paragraph

1. ¶2

   Background from the Rebbe

   In the second maamar Basi LeGani of Motzaei Shabbos Beshalach, 11 Shevat 5728, while explaining man’s elevation as one who includes all levels, the Rebbe notes that a maamar of Torah Ohr (71b, on “He is not a man that He should regret”) describes man as „ג׳ קוין” (“three lines”), and shows why that too marks man’s perfection.

   Citing this passage (his note 60: Torah Ohr Vayishlach 24d), the Rebbe restates its contrast: in Tohu the Sefiros are in „ב׳ קוין (ימין ושמאל)” (two lines, right and left), and in Tikkun in three. With our paragraph he stresses that Tikkun’s advantage is not only that a third line is added: through the middle line the right and left lines are joined and included in each other („חיבור והתכללות דב׳ הקוין”). What he adds is the reason: the middle line can join Chesed and Gevurah because „ששרשו הוא מאוא״ס” (its root is in the Infinite Light), „שלימותא דכולא” (“the perfection of all”), which holds the perfection of both lines; for this he points to Iggeres HaKodesh 12 and Likkutei Torah Tazria.

   The Alter Rebbeשהקו האמצעי הוא המחבר ומייחד ג״כ ב׳ הקוין דימין ושמאל להיות מתכללים יחד

   The Rebbeוזה שקו האמצעי מחבר ומייחד ב׳ הקוין חו״ג הוא לפי ששרשו הוא מאוא״ס שלימותא דכולא שכולל השלימות דב׳ הקוין

   Sefer HaMaamarim Melukat (new edition), vol. 2 (Kislev–Shevat), vol. ב, p. שיא (old edition, vol. 2, p. רמד) · מוצש״ק פ׳ בשלח, י״א שבט (מאמר ב׳), ה׳תשכ״ח

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2. ¶5

   A question the Rebbe raisesThe Rebbe says this in more than one place

   In the maamar Vayishlach Yaakov of Shabbos Vayishlach, 18 Kislev 5747 (unedited), the Rebbe goes through the derush of Torah Ohr, Torah Chaim and Or HaTorah on the parsha, which, he remarks, explains it verse by verse, unusual in Torah Ohr, and comes to the two camps („לשני מחנות”) right after the messengers report that Eisav is coming with four hundred men.

   The verse gives the two camps a military reason: „אם יבוא עשו אל המחנה האחת והכהו והי׳ המחנה הנשאר לפליטה” (“If Eisav comes to the one camp and strikes it, the remaining camp will escape.”) The Rebbe makes the camps the remedy for Eisav as he is below, coming to war with four hundred men, the means by which Eisav below is refined (so already Torah Chaim: Yaakov made the camps in Tohu’s pattern „להמתיק הגבורות קשות שלהם” (“so that the judgments of the four hundred men be sweetened”)). “Moreover,” he adds, the camps belong to Eisav’s root in Tohu, which is in two lines and not three, as the derushim explain; so although Yaakov knew Eisav was coming to war, „עצם מלחמה זו היא ענין של בירור התוהו ע״י התיקון” (the war itself was the refinement of Tohu by Tikkun): he wanted to refine Eisav, and therefore divided into two camps, and its result was „ויחבקהו גו׳ וישקהו” (the embrace and kiss), in which Tohu’s light was drawn into Tikkun.

   The Alter Rebbeלכך הוצרך יעקב לעשות עצמו ג״כ בדוגמא זו

   The Rebbeהרי עצם מלחמה זו היא ענין של בירור התוהו ע״י התיקון, שרצה לברר את עשו, ולכן ויחץ גו׳ לשני מחנות

   Toras Menachem – Hisvaduyos 5747, vol. 1 (unedited), vol. א, p. 590-591 (the same transcript in Sefer HaMaamarim 5747 (unedited), pp. מא-מב) · ש״פ וישלח, י״ח כסלו ה׳תשמ״ז

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3. ¶5

   Background from the RebbeThe Rebbe says this in more than one place

   In the maamar Katonti of Shabbos Vayishlach, 14 Kislev 5728 (an unedited transcript), whose explanation, the editors note, follows the Rebbe Rashab’s Katonti of 5679 (Sefer HaMaamarim 5679, p. קיז ff.), the Rebbe reads Yaakov’s „קטנתי מכל החסדים” (“I am too small for all the kindnesses”) through the Chesed of Tohu, called “greatness”, and the Chesed of Tikkun, which comes from bittul, and says Yaakov made even Tohu’s lights come only into a place of bittul.

   The Rebbe brings this paragraph’s reading: Yaakov divided his people into two camps „להיות דוגמת עולם התהו” (“to be in the pattern of the World of Tohu”), which is in two lines and not three like Tikkun, and so could receive „המשכת המקיפים דתהו” (the drawing down of Tohu’s encompassing lights), into himself, whose root is in Tikkun. The power for this, he says, is that although Tohu is above Tikkun, „השרש דתיקון הוא למעלה מתהו” (the root of Tikkun is higher than Tohu), a principle the Rebbe Rashab sets out in the maamar this one follows. He shows it from the known teaching that man is nourished by bread, whose sparks come from Tohu’s greater lights, yet it is man, of Tikkun, who „המברר ומעלה את הניצוצות” (refines and raises them).

   The Alter Rebbeוזהו ויחץ את העם כו׳ לשני מחנות להיות דוגמת עולם התהו שלשם היה זת״ז ולא בציור ג׳ קוין

   The Rebbeועי״ז יוכל לקבל את המשכת המקיפים דתהו. והכח לזה הוא מפני שהשרש דתיקון הוא למעלה מתהו

   Sefer HaMaamarim (unedited transcripts), 5728 (new edition), p. עז · ש״פ וישלח, י״ד כסלו, ה׳תשכ״ח

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4. ¶6

   The Rebbe explains

   In the maamar Vayishlach Yaakov of Shabbos Vayishlach, 18 Kislev 5747 (unedited), going through the explanation of the parsha in Torah Ohr, Torah Chaim and Or HaTorah, the Rebbe comes to Yaakov’s gifts, which “the derushim” explain as „הקרבנות השייכים לעולם התוהו” (offerings belonging to the world of Tohu), so that he could send even „גמלים מניקות” (nursing camels).

   Why were these offerings living animals? For the same reason, the Rebbe says: „דלא כקרבנות בפשטות, שעיקר ענינם הוא לאחר שחיטה” (plain offerings are unlike them, for their main part comes after the slaughter), since slaughtering is valid by a non-priest and the priests’ service begins only with receiving the blood; „קרבנות דתוהו אופנם הוא באופן אחר מקרבנות דתיקון” (the offerings of Tohu follow another order than those of Tikkun). Perhaps (biur b’derech efshar) this is the point of the Alter Rebbe’s aside here, „אך השחיטה כשירה בזר” (“yet the slaughtering is valid by a non-priest”): the Torah’s offering begins from a slaughtered animal, so a gift of living animals belongs to another order.

   The Alter Rebbeבהיות שמעשה הקרבנות הוא מבהמות טהורים ושחוטים דוקא. אך השחיטה כשירה בזר

   The Rebbeומטעם זה גם קרבנות אלו היו דברים חיים דוקא, דלא כקרבנות בפשטות, שעיקר ענינם הוא לאחר שחיטה, דשחיטה כשרה בזר

   Sefer HaMaamarim – bilti mugah (old edition), vol. תשמ״ז, p. מא (the same transcript in Toras Menachem 5747 vol. 1, p. 590) · ש״פ וישלח, י״ח כסלו ה׳תשמ״ז

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5. ¶6

   Background from the Rebbe

   In a sicha of Shabbos Mikeitz, Shabbos Chanukah 5752 (edited), linking Vayeshev, Mikeitz, Vayigash and Vayechi with the Redemption, the Rebbe says „ביקש יעקב לישב בשלוה” (Yaakov “sought to dwell in tranquility”) because from his side he was already ready for the Redemption, and in note 96 shows how this stands out in Vayishlach. Elsewhere he reads Yaakov’s gift the other way, as the means of refining Eisav; those readings are on Vayishlach 5 ¶14.

   In that note the Rebbe says that even after the messengers reported that Eisav was not yet refined at all, Yaakov „לא עסק בעבודת הבירורים” (did not turn to “the work of refinements”): he sent a minchah, an offering, to draw down Tohu’s encompassing light, so that he would already have the perfection of the Time to Come, when Tohu’s encompassing lights are revealed inwardly in Tikkun. A marginal note adds “but”: quoting this paragraph and the ones after it (impure animals, living ones), with two phrases of Vayishlach 5 („קרבנות אחרים אשר לא כתובים בתורה”, “other offerings not written in the Torah”; “other measures”), the gift was „שלא ע״ד אופן ומשפט הקרבנות שבתורה” (“not in the manner and law of the sacrifices in the Torah”), “being offerings of Tohu, which are above the offerings of Tikkun”.

   The Alter Rebbeואעפ״כ היתה מנחתו שלא ע״ד אופן ומשפט הקרבנות שבתורה

   The Rebbeלא עסק ב״עבודת הבירורים”, אלא שלח מנחה שהו״ע הקרבן

   Toras Menachem – Hisvaduyos 5752, vol. 2, vol. ב, p. 35-36 (note 96, p. 35; its marginal note continues on p. 36); the same in Sefer HaSichos 5752 vol. 1, pp. 202-203 · ש״פ מקץ, שבת חנוכה, ה׳תשנ״ב

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6. ¶10

   Background from the Rebbe

   In a sicha of Shabbos Vayeitzei 5751 (edited), which goes from the angels who met Yaakov at the end of the parsha to the refinement of the nations, the Rebbe explains the four kingdoms of exile as the four animals with only one sign of purity, the pig standing for Edom.

   Bringing the saying this paragraph quotes, „חזיר שעתיד לחזור וליטהר” (“the pig is destined to become pure”), the Rebbe notes that it is “brought and explained” in Torah Ohr Vayishlach 25a, and takes up a difficulty the Tzemach Tzedek raises (and answers otherwise): the Meorei Or and the Tzemach Tzedek count the pig as kelipas nogah, the least severe kind, yet the pig is Edom, “the most wicked”. Drawing on the Alter Rebbe’s maamar of 5567, that the pig’s split hoof is „פתח ומקור לחיצונים” (“an opening and source for the outside forces”), he suggests that as „ראש הקליפות” (“head of the kelipos”) it includes even the head of the three impure kelipos; in the Time to Come, when all of nogah is refined and the root from which the outside forces draw is cut away, the pig specifically will become pure, because it is of nogah.

   The Alter Rebbeוכמארז״ל גבי חזיר שעתיד לחזור וליטהר היינו לע״ל שיבולע המות לנצח ואז יתגלה עצמות א״ס

   The Rebbeולעתיד לבוא יהי׳ הבירור דכללות ק״נ, ויובדל ויופרד שרש יניקת החיצונים, אזי יטהר חזיר (דוקא), להיותו מק״נ

   Sefer HaSichos 5751, vol. 1, vol. א, p. 162–163 (notes 77–78) · ש״פ ויצא, ה׳תנש״א

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7. ¶10

   Background from the Rebbe

   In a letter of 15 Iyar 5714 to a man who had taken on refraining from food and speech, to his wife’s distress, the Rebbe writes that G‑d does not desire such change „בכפי׳ בדבור ובשוטים” (“by force, by words and by whips”), recalls the Baal Shem Tov’s, the Maggid’s and the Alter Rebbe’s insistence on „שמירת בריאות הגוף” (guarding the body’s health), and then brings this teaching.

   He cites as „ידוע המובא בדא״ח” (“known, brought in Chassidus”) that Yaakov could choose even impure animals for his minchah, though it was like offering sacrifices, because „קודם מתן תורה” (before the Giving of the Torah) there are many paths; but after Sinai what was forbidden is forbidden and there is no room for permissive rulings, except for a prophet who heard G‑d’s command as a temporary measure. He names no source, but the teaching, in its terms, is the closing point of this paragraph, and he uses it to set the bounds of a self-devised path of service.

   The Alter Rebbeוכ״ז לא היה יכול לעשות רק יעקב וקודם מ״ת אבל אנחנו כבר ניתן לנו התורה מבחי׳ התקון

   The Rebbeכי קודם מתן תורה כמה דרכים ישנם אבל לאחר מעמד הר סיני הרי מה שנאסר נאסר ואין מקום להוראת היתר

   Igros Kodesh, vol. ט, p. לח–לט (letter 2653) · ט״ו אייר, תשי״ד

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Short quotes only, with the place of each so it can be read in full. The Rebbe’s sichos, letters and maamarim are published by Kehot and by Vaad Hanochos B’Lahak (lahak.org).