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Sh'lah on the Torah |
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Parshiot VaYeisheiv/Miketz/VaYigash The following translation by Mr. Eliyahu Munk is an excerpt from the book Shney Luchot HaBrit -- the Sh'lah Part I …On Genesis 37, 2, the Zohar goes on to explain that anyone who looked at the face of Joseph remarked on his uncanny resemblance to Jacob. The Torah purposely did not describe Reuben or any other brother as the toldot, descendants, of Jacob. The missing letter vav in the name of Jacob, (which is usually written defective [without the vav]), was added to the name vav-Yosef, on occasions such as in Exodus 1,5 (or altogether, since that name too could have been spelled defective). The “small” vav in the word shalom, peace, Numbers 25, 12, alludes to another verse in Zachariah 8,19: v’ha-emet v’ha-shalom ahava, “and the truth and the peace they loved.” The attribute which distinguishes Jacob is emet, truth, whereas the attribute habrit hashalom, covenant of peace, is the one that distinguishes Joseph. [The Zohar has already explained how the terms brit and guf overlap (cf, Sullam edition Lech Lecha page 134-135)]. We name something or somebody because we desire the name to reveal their nature. Joseph was the “revelation” of the mystical dimension of Jacob, the secret of how the covenant between G-d and man influences the ability of determining the nature of him who is about to be born. Bereshit Rabbah goes as far as to say that G-d told Jacob: “Just as I am G-d in the Heavenly Regions, so you are “god” in the “lower” world. The meaning of this statement is that because Jacob’s “bed” was pure, his descendants could serve as the merkava, chariot, or carrier of G-d’s Presence in this world. Just as G-d is One and His name is One, i.e. reflects His Essential qualities, so Jacob and Joseph are one, i.e. their essential qualities are the same. How does this work in practice? Jacob fathered twelve tribes, and he is the only one “above” them. They are considered like branches of Jacob. Eight of these tribes were from his regular wives Leah and Rachel, the other four from his concubines Zilpah and Bilhah. When you look at the letters in the word echad(one), Jacob corresponds to the letter א, the sons of Leah and Rachel correspond to the letter ח, and the sons of Zilpah and Bilhah correspond to the letter ד in that word. Something similar is true of Joseph. Although Joseph himself is a branch of Jacob, he did father two of the regular tribes, i.e. Ephrayim and Menasseh, whom Jacob compared in status to Reuben and Shimon (Genesis 48,5). When we look once more at the word echad (one), we will find that Joseph was unique in having a close connection with both the letter ח i.e. the brothers of Jacob’s major wives, seeing he himself was one of those. He was also closely attached to the sons of Jacob’s concubines, since the Torah describes Joseph as being raised primarily among the sons of Zilpah and Bilhah (37,2). Considering the expression v’hu na’ar, “and he was a lad”, also stressed in that verse, we find in it an allusion to something I have previously mentioned, namely that Yaakov contains an allusion to the letter vav in the four-lettered ineffable Name. The name Yosef must then be viewed as a miniature edition of that same letter in G-d’s name. The scriptural allusion to this concept is found in Isaiah 10, 19 “and a lad will write them down.” [This is probably an error, and should have been a quote from Isaiah 11,6 Ed.] The Torah reports Joseph as being 17 years old. This number was not reported without good reason. We have explained how Jacob in his capacity of representing the emanation tiferet, which is the “home” of the four-lettered Ineffable Name embodies that name, and how in particular the letter vav in that four-lettered-Name alludes to Jacob. We have also described Joseph as a miniature dimension of that letter vav, and how Joseph too serves as a kind of merkava, for G-d’s Name in a “miniature” way. That “miniature” is the mystical dimension of what we call “mispar katan,” i.e. numerical values arrived at by omission all digits “0.” The mispar katan of the four-lettered Name amounts to 17 (י=1;+ה=5;+ז=6;+ה=5; total 17). A way of remembering this is the verse: hodu l’Hashem ki tov, “praise G-d for He is good”; the numerical value of tov is 17. This is why the Torah reports Joseph’s age when he was 17. The Torah adds that he was still a na’ar, a boy. The Pardes Rimonim mentions that the “miniature” number is a reference Chanoch (otherwise known as the angel Mattatron) who is also called na’ar, and whose function is alluded to in Solomon’s Proverbs 22,6: “educate the lad in the manner appropriate for him.” When the souls of Jacob and Joseph respectively expanded from the world of atzilut, their origin, the features of Jacob remained engraved on the throne of G-d. This throne is immediately below the region we have called atzilut. Joseph is immediately below his father in the domain of Mattatron whose activities emanate from beneath that “throne.” The significance of the throne is the mystery of briah, whereas the significance of Mattatron in the same scheme is the mystery surrounding yetzirah, [a more advanced state of the creation of matter. Ed]. Concerning this latter aspect of Mattatron’s activities, the Torah describes Joseph here as 17 years old, i.e. a “junior.” Kabbalists also refer to Mattatron as eved, servant. The Zohar points that out on Genesis 24,2, where Abraham instructs “his servant the senior member of his household,” to get a wife for Isaac. I have explained this at length in my commentary on Chayei Sarah (commencing on page 148). The expression eved, servant also occurs in Joseph’s life when the latter is sold by his brothers. G-d sent His angel along to protect Joseph on his various journeys. This guidance was of a similar nature as that described in Exodus 23,20: “Here I am sending an angel ahead of you to protect you on the journey.” Our sages identified that angel with the angel Mattatron, as mentioned by Rashi on that verse. [The fact that Rashi mentions that the numerical value of Mattatron Sha-dai = 314, clearly establishes that Mattatron is active in matters of yetzirah, an activity requiring the attribute of Sha-dai.-Ed.] Let us return to the statement Hashem echad u’shmo echad, “G-d is One and His Name is One.” The mystery of G-d’s Unity, and the Oneness of His name, is compared in the Sefer Yetzirah and all other Kabbalistic texts to the relationship between a flame and a glowing ember. The same relationship exists between Jacob and Joseph; Jacob is the glowing ember, the fire attached to the coal, whereas Joseph is the (disembodied) flame. Scriptural proof for this idea is found in Ovadiah 1,18 where the prophet describes “the house of Jacob as fire and the house of Joseph as flame.” The letters of the word aish, fire, are also the respective first letters of emet [aleph], truth and shalom [shin], peace, which are the attributes of Jacob and Joseph respectively. Esau was the exact opposite. He represented kinah, jealousy, and sinah, hatred. Jealousy is the exact opposite of truth. The attribute of truth is defined as a preparedness to admit that something is objectively so, without one denying it or misrepresenting it (even if one puts oneself in a bad light thereby). When the prophet Ovadiah in the verse quoted describes the house of Esau as becoming straw, kash, the letters in that word are the respective first letters of kinah and sinah [kuf and shin]. |
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Ascent of Safed
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