Toldos

The sicha for parshas Toldos is in Vol. III of Likkutei Sichos.

The posuk says v’elu Toldos Yitzchak ben Avraham, Avraham holed es Yitzchak, these are the events of the life of Yitzchak, who was the son of Avraham, and Avraham gave birth to Yitzchak. The commentaries all ask the question, why the repetition? If Yitzchak is the son of Avraham then Avraham obviously gave birth to Yitzchak.

One answer is in the Gemarrah, where it says, because Avraham and Sarah didn’t have children for so long, when Yitzchak was finally born, the nations of the world spread a rumor that he wasn’t really Avraham’s child. To rectify that, and to prove that he was in fact Avraham’s child, Yitzchak looked exactly like Avraham. So that it why the Torah is telling us that Yitzchak was the son of Avraham and his appearance proved that Avraham gave birth to Yitzchak, because there were those who doubted it.

Another explanation given in a Midrash is that Avraham was proud of his son and Yitzchak was proud of his father and that’s why the Torah is telling us that Yitzchak is the son of Avraham - he prided himself in being his son, and Avraham holed es Yitzchak, Avraham gave birth to Yitzchak - he prided in his son whom he had given birth to.

Chassidus gives another explanation. Avraham served G-d primarily, but not exclusively, with love and kindness. The avodah, the service of Yitzchak, was that he served G-d with fear and severity. Each of the two, the serving G-d with love or the serving G-d with fear, has two parts. There is the higher-level fear and the lower level fear, and the higher-level love and the lower level love.

The lower level of fear, yirah tatah, is when a person who is afraid to do a sin because he is afraid of the consequences of the sin, the consequences to him, to the person. Either he is afraid of physical punishment or on a somewhat higher level, the spiritual, negative effect that this will have on him. But in both cases, what he is afraid of is the damage that he will do to himself.

Yirah ilah, the higher level of fear, is where he is afraid of G-d, not the consequences. This is called yiras harememus, he is ashamed before
G-d’s greatness to do that which G-d doesn’t like. And so it is G-d’s concern that motivates him to avoid the sin, he is afraid of the sin itself, not of the consequences of the sin. In other words, the fact that G-d rejects the sin, that G-d doesn’t like the sin, and he is conscious of G-d’s greatness, he is therefore afraid to do the sin, even without thought of consequence.

Now in love, there are also two levels, the lower level love where a person loves G-d because it satisfies him either physically or spiritually. Then there is the higher level love, ahava rabah, where he loves G-d without thought of reward, not because of any benefit, not even a spiritual one that he will gain from the relationship or the closeness to G-d.

And so it is that the avodah of our Patriarchs, the Avos, is an instruction to the children. Every Jew who is a descendant of Avraham and Yitzchak, has the ability and therefore the obligation to serve G-d in both ways – in love and in fear, and in both levels, the higher love and lower love, the higher fear and the lower fear.

That’s why the Torah tells us in the first posuk, elu Toldos Yitzchak ben Avraham, it mentions Yitzchak and Avraham once, and then repeats again, Avraham holed es Yitzchak. In both Avraham and Yitzchak, in love and in fear, there are two levels. The Torah tells us first that you have to have both levels, you can’t serve G-d with only one avodah, you have to serve Him in both ways, and in both ways, you have two levels. The Gemarrah says that you have to start with a lower level of love and fear, that a person should do mitzvahs and study Torah even if it is for an ulterior motive, meaning to say the fear is because he is afraid of the consequences to himself, and the love is because he wants the benefits that will come from loving G-d. Because, mitoch she lo lishmah, bo lishmah, from this lower level, from a level of love and fear that have an ulterior motive, he will eventually grow to the higher level of higher love and a higher fear.

The Torah also tells us in this posuk what the order of these levels is. It starts off by saying Yitzchak ben Avraham, so Yitzchak comes first. The fear comes before the love, and on the lower level, the beginning level. The lower level fear has to come first and then the lower level love. You have to start with yirah shamayim, and then go to ahavas Hashem, both of them on the lower level, with an ulterior motive. Then Avraham holed es Yitzchak, the posuk says, Avraham gives birth to Yitzchak, here Avraham is first, on the higher level, the ahava comes first, the higher ahava which then leads to the higher level yirah, to the bitul of yiras harememus.

So this is the instruction that every Jew is given, because we are children of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yakov, we therefore have to have those qualities that they had. We have to have the qualities of the Patriarchs and specifically the avodah of ahava on both levels that we get from Avraham, and the avodah of yirah on both levels that we get from Yitzchak.

Now there is another explanation that comes from the Zohar. The Zohar says that Avraham is a remez, a reference to the neshama. As it says there in the Zohar, that the parsha of the passing away of Sarah is a remez, a hint to the body. V’tomas Sarah, Sarah, representing the body, died, and this death takes place in Kiryat Arba. Kiryat Arba is understood by the Zohar to mean the combination of the four elements that make up the body. And Kiryat Arba means that they are torn apart, that there is a breakdown of the four elements where the body decomposes in death. And where did this happen? In Eretz Canaan, a reference to olam hazei, to the physical world, where in the physical world, these four elements were joined. So the coming apart of the four elements, Kiryat Arba, represents the death of the body, v’tomas Sarah, and this is after living on earth b’Eretz Canaan where the four elements are combined to make up a living body. Then v’yakam Avraham may’al pnei meiso, and Avraham rose from his deceased, in other words the neshama rises and leaves the body, the place of death and separation and decomposition.

So that’s Avraham. Avraham is the neshama that remains after the body dies. Yitzchak, the Zohar says, comes from the word zchak, which means pleasure, laughter, and that refers to the pleasure that the neshama will have in the world to come. And with this the Zohar explains the posuk Yitzchak ben Avraham, that in the future, in the world to come, pleasure will be experienced by Avraham, the neshama will experience pleasure because Avraham holed es Yitzchak, because in this world, in the time of golus, Avraham, the neshama created pleasure. By doing mitzvahs, the neshama creates pleasure in this world for G-d, and the reward is that in the world to come that pleasure will be experienced by the neshama itself.

So Yitzchak ben Avraham, the pleasure will be experienced by Avraham, by the neshama because Avraham holed es Yitzchak, because the neshama gave birth to pleasure, produced pleasure through the mitzvahs, Divine pleasure in this world.

We now have four different explanations, four different approaches: one from the Gemarrah, one from the Midrash, one from Chassidus, and one from the Zohar. Then the Rebbe says, that wherever we find more than one explanation on the same subject, there must be a significant, meaningful similarity or connection, a relationship between these various explanations. And the proof of this is from the Gemarrah, where the Gemarrah says that the word shaatnez, which means the mixture of wool and linen, is composed of various letters that refer to the various forms of connection between the materials of wool and linen; the shin stands for shua, which means combed straight, tevi which means woven, and noz, which means spun.

Therefore the Gemarrah says that since these three conditions are all represented in the same word, we learn from this that the commandment not to mix wool and linen is violated only when the mixture has all three – the wool and linen are combed, woven and spun together. So although a different letter represents each one of them, but because these letters are contained in the same word, proves that they are inseparable, that they are connected, and that you have to have all three in order to violate the commandment. And so it is with all things of Torah, whenever different explanations come together on the same subject, or the same word, they must be related and inseparable.

Now we need to understand what is the connection between these four explanations of the posuk concerning Avraham and Yitzchak. Also all stories in Torah have a message and a lesson to us in how to serve G-d better. The explanation that Chassidus gives that there is love and fear, and that we have to have both love and fear, that’s an obvious lesson. The explanation of the Zohar, that there is the great reward that comes when the neshama does mitzvahs and produces pleasure, and then it will be rewarded by experiencing that pleasure in the world to come, this too is obviously necessary and instructive because it inspires us to do mitzvahs with greater enthusiasm. on.

But what instruction do we have from the Gemarrah explanation that people doubted that Avraham really gave birth to Yitzchak and that’s why G-d had to make them look alike so that people would know that Avraham was in fact Yitzchak’s father. What does this tell us? And also the Midrash that says that Yitzchak was proud of Avraham, and Avraham prided himself in Yitzchak, what are we supposed to learn from this?

Now these two explanations of the Gemarrah and the Midrash, both of them deal with supernatural events. The Gemarrah says that Yitzchak looked like Avraham in order to prove that Avraham actually gave birth to Yitzchak. But the fact that Avraham actually gave birth to Yitzchak is miraculous, supernatural. Because not only was physically Avraham incapable of having children, but also according to the astrological signs, he was not going to have children. And that’s why the Torah says that G-d took Avraham outside under the stars when He promised him he would have children. The Gemarrah says, He took him out from under the influence of the stars, so that he would be able to have children, because astrologically he couldn’t have children. So his giving birth to Yitzchak was in fact supernatural, above nature.

The other thing about Avraham taking pride in Yitzchak is also not the natural course of events, because each generation we are told, is weaker and lower than the previous generation. So the fact that Avraham prided himself in Yitzchak, which means that he found some perfection that he acquired through Yitzchak. Like a crown, the Gemarrah says, he crowned himself with Yitzchak, he prided himself, and the crown adds glory and beauty to the one who wears it. So Yitzchak actually enhanced Avraham and this goes against the grain of the decline of generations, for each generation is lower and lesser than the previous generation, and here Yitzchak who is of the later generation actually added something to the previous generation, to Avraham.

The lesson from this is that a Jew needs to know that we are not limited and we are not controlled by the restrictions of nature. The birth of Yitzchak to Avraham was a physical accomplishment because spiritually Avraham had already had many children- spiritual children – mitzvahs, as the Gemarrah says that the offspring of tzaddikim are their good deeds, their mitzvahs. And particularly according to Kabbalah, where it says that every time a husband and wife are together physically, in a holy fashion according to the laws of Torah, they give birth to holy, spiritual children. In other words they effect a neshama in heaven, even if they don’t affect its birth into the world. And so Avraham had many spiritual children.

The birth of Yitzchak was unique in that it was a physical child, and it went against the habits of nature. So here the scoffers of the generation, and the scoffers of today, they argue with every Jew that when it comes to spiritual matters, of course you can do whatever you want, because that is not restricted or governed by the laws of nature. But when it comes to physical things, like for example having physical children, here it is impossible to accomplish and succeed in the physical unless you follow the dictates of Avimelech - their argument was in the times of Avraham that Sarah had in fact become pregnant from Avimelech and not from Avraham - and what they meant to say on a deeper level was that Avimelech was the king of the country, in other words that he was in control and in charge of the physical events. So spiritually yes you can accomplish great things, and Avraham could have many spiritual children, but when it comes to having physical children, they argued that that has to come from Avimelech, from the laws of nature, and so you have to abide by the laws of nature, and what nature does not permit, you cannot have.

So although they recognized that all blessing comes from heaven even the physical blessings, but the physical blessings have to come through the laws of nature and therefore they argue that a Jew has to submit to the laws of nature. So what did G-d do in the times of Avraham, He made Yitzchak physically look exactly like Avraham, so everyone knew that Avraham holed es Yitzchak – that proved to the world that even Avraham the neshama can give birth to Yitzchak without having to go through Avimelech. That when you arouse the neshama, and the power of the neshama, without being intimidated by what seems to be physically impossible, which is an attitude that comes from the animal soul, then your physical condition, even the body’s condition can be elevated directly from the neshama, without having to resort to the laws of nature.

And this will explain a statement from the previous Rebbe. When he came out of prison, he made the statement that this is what all nations on the face of the earth must know: that it is only our bodies that are subject to exile and oppression. But our souls were never sent into exile, were never exiled from holiness, and were never subjected to the oppression of other kings. We need to say openly to all the world that that which relates to our belief – Torah, mitzvahs and Jewish customs, here we Jews have no authority over us, no one can tell us how to conduct ourselves in Torah and mitzvahs, and no form of coercion may be exerted against Jews when it comes to Torah and mitzvahs.

What we need to understand here is the neshama is in fact in a body, and the body has to perform Torah and mitzvahs in the physical world, so how do we benefit by the fact that the neshama was never sent into exile, as the Freidike Rebbe said, that the neshama is not subjected, can’t be subjected to coercions from the nations of the world when in fact the performance of Torah and mitzvahs has to happen in the body, in the physical?

So as we said before, even the physical condition is directly affected by the neshama without having to go through Avimelech, until the point, as the Freidike Rebbe said, that this is what all nations on the face of the earth must know, so that even the scoffers of the generation eventually are convinced and have to admit that Avraham holed es Yitzchak, that even the physical success comes directly from the neshama.

According to this we will now understand the connection between these four explanations in the Gemarrah, the Midrash, the Zohar and Chassidus.

Gemarrah is the revealed part of Torah, the literal part of Torah. And therefore the Gemarrah explains the posuk about Avraham and Yitzchak on the most physical and that is, in this world, the world of darkness, there can be an argument, a claim that comes from unholiness and the Torah has to tell us how we rise above that claim and prove to the world that the limitations and the restrictions of tevah, of nature, don’t apply to us.

The Midrash, which is also the revealed part of Torah but a step up, closer to pnimiyus HaTorah, it explains that Avraham and Yitzchak as Avraham taking pleasure in Yitzchak, Yitzchak taking pleasure in Avraham, which shows again that we are not restricted to the laws of nature, but in this case, not the laws of nature in which there exists unholiness – scoffers that have to be convinced, but on a more subtle level that we have to rise above the restrictions of tevah including the order in which G-d created the world.

G-d created the world in a series of levels, the seder hishtalshlus, and one level is lower than the level preceding it until we go from heaven to earth, from the Divine to the earthy. So necessarily each preceding level is less and lower than the level before it. We find the same thing in the generations that every generation that gets further from creation or further from Matan Torah, is a step down or a step lower. So that’s the law of nature even in the nature of holy existence, without the scoffers and the unholiness. And even that we transcend, we are above that, because we find that ateres zakenim bnei bonim, that the crown of the grandparents are the grandchildren.

And a crown, as we said before, sits on top of the head, and enhances the head, which means that through the grandchildren, the grandparents are enhanced. Which shows that we are not subjected and not restricted to this law of decline of the generations. And that is why in the Midrash, there is no argument from unholiness, from the scoffers of the generation, because here we are talking about the physical world as it is in its truer sense without interference from unholiness, and even that we transcend.

Then Chassidus, which shows us how to serve G-d, comes along and explains how we transcend nature in avodah, in the service of G-d. That when you have both ahava and yirah, when you serve G-d in both forms of love and fear together, this is rising above the restriction of nature that says that people are either of the loving type or the perfectionist type, but you don’t have them come together generally in people. That’s why you have to have both to show that when you are loving G-d or fearing G-d, it is not because of your nature but because that is the way you are serving and so you are rising above your nature even if you are by nature loving, you serve G-d with fear, and even if you are by nature a perfectionist, you serve G-d with love

And then the Zohar which is the hidden part of Torah, talks about the world to come – what’s going to be in the world to come, how Yitzchak, the pleasure will be experienced by Avraham, the neshama.

So the result, the reward that will come for the mitzvah, for the avodah, which the Zohar is talking about, is directly connected to the avodah itself, to the other three explanations because the mitzvah is not something separate from its reward. Zchar mitzvah mitzvah, the reward for a mitzvah is a mitzvah, and so the Zohar says that in the world to come, when the neshama will experience the pleasure that it produced in the mitzvah, that comes from the fact that he elevated the hidden G-dliness that was in the physical world, in the body, and revealed it and that’s why the body in the world to come will give life to the neshama. The neshama will experience the pleasure that was released when the body and the physical world was elevated and its G-dliness, the essence of G-d was revealed.
 

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