Last year and the year before, Rav Ginsburgh devoted his yearly study of the Torah with a Chasidic commentary to Rebbe Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev. The classes he gave based on the book are now edited and complete in Hebrew and are soon to be published.
We here provide a translation of the ideas presented in that book on parashat Chayei Sarah.
“And Abraham was old, advanced in days, and Havayah blessed Abraham with everything.”[1] On this verse Rebbe Levi Isaac of Berditchev offers four teachings in his Kedushat Levi. All four teachings share a common core idea: that this verse encapsulates Abraham’s ability to bring the Infinite light or revelation of Godliness into the limited nature of this world. We will follow this thread through the different themes in our parashah: the passing of Sarah, Eliezer’s mission to find a wife for Isaac, and the transition between generations.
“Until Abraham there was no old age”
The first two teachings focus on the words, “And Abraham was old.” The relationship between these first two teachings is itself one of “light” and “vessels.” From these words, the Sages learned that “until Abraham there was no old age”[2]—Abraham was the first human to experience old age. The first interpretation is that “old age” (zaken) refers to the sefirah of crown, particularly to its aspect of will[3] that lies above the normal manner of how God’s abundance reaches the world.[4] This is the light. The second interpretation complements the first with the understanding that “old age” is revealed in one’s hair, which represents the soul’s garments: thought, speech, and action. These are the vessels through which God’s abundance is revealed. It was Abraham who made it possible for God’s Presence to be revealed through these garments.
To develop the first teaching, the Kedushat Levi explains that God’s abundance reaches the world in two ways. There is abundance that comes in measure and there is abundance that is drawn directly from the Creator. The latter continues to cleave to God as the Source of Life and therefore has no fixed measure. Only Israel, through their cleaving to God, can draw from the latter, unlimited abundance, while the nations of the world receive from the first.[5]
Why the unlimited abundance is referred to as “old age,” or more literally as “an elder” (zaken), is illustrated with a parable. Before a craftsman makes an object, its form already appears in his thought and the thought then brings the object into existence through action. If the thought of the object is the father, then the action that manifests it into a material object is the son. But the thought itself (the father) is itself drawn from the craftsman’s will, which is, following our analogy, the grandfather of the action.
If we compare this by analogy by how God brings abundance into the world, then the Jewish people draw down from God’s “old age,” from God’s will, the “elder.” The ability to take from God’s will by fulfilling His will was initiated by Abraham: “Until Abraham there was no old age.” Before Abraham no one could draw abundance from God’s will. Thus Abraham “rectified the aspect of old age.”
This also explains the wording of the first blessing in the Amidah, which corresponds to Abraham: “He remembers the loving-kindnesses of the fathers and brings a redeemer to their grandchildren.” God remembers the loving-kindness, the will from which the fathers, in particular Abraham, drew down abundance and He draws from it again for their grandchildren.[6] Let us add that even though Abraham is the archetypal soul of loving-kindness (chesed), its root is in the crown, which is referred to as, “abundant loving-kindness” (rav chesed).
Thus, “Abraham was old”: he drew from the will. “Advanced in days”: he brought that abundance into the temporally limited lower worlds. “And Havayah blessed Abraham with everything”: with an abundance that includes everything and has no limit.
Hair as a garment
The second teaching complements the first. Old age is expressed in one’s hair, and in the writings of the Arizal hair signifies a garment.[7] Just as the body has clothing, the soul has garments—the hair. When cut, neither our hair nor our garments cause us pain. God contracts Himself into this world, as it were, so that the worlds can receive His goodness by enclothing Himself, as it were, in our performance of commandments and good deeds. These are the vessels and garments for the indwelling of the Shechinah—the Divine Presence.[8] Before Abraham, no one had made such a garment, no one had performed deeds that could serve as a vessel for the Divine Presence.
“Abraham had a daughter, and her name was bakol”
The next two teachings focus on the second half of the verse, “And Havayah blessed Abraham with everything (bakol),” about which the Sages state, “Abraham had a daughter and her name was bakol.”[9] The Berditchever links the word for “daughter,” bat (בת) to another statement of the Sages: “A bat kol (a supernal voice) goes forth from Mount Chorev and says, ‘Return, o’ rebellious children.’” What is this voice, which no one seems to hear?[10] Rebbe Levi Isaac answers that it is the arousal of teshuvah that comes to every person each day. Its source is the voice we heard at Mt. Sinai, also called Chorev, who said in the Decalogue, “I am Havayah your God… You shall have no other gods….” These commandments were imprinted in our hearts.
Why is it called a “bat kol,” which literally means an “all-inclusive voice?” Because as it flows from Mt. Sinai every day, each person contracts himself to receive it according to his own potential and need. One person makes it into the wisdom needed to serve God, another into wealth, a third into honor, and other good things, etc. The channel through which each person limits the descending abundance is called “bat,” a word cognate with measurement and limitation. Abraham’s bat, his measure, was named bakol for it included all the measures—all possible contractions. Abraham’s “daughter” (bat), his measure, is thus the secret of the bat kol, the power to narrow the general voice into any specific blessing a person seeks. The word meaning everything (kol, כֹּל) is phonetically identical to the word meaning “voice” (kol, קוֹל.)
Every tzaddik who follows the path of the Ba’al Shem Tov makes himself available to his community. This was one of the great innovations introduced by the Ba’al Shem Tov. The fourth teaching states that though there is a tzaddik whose requests are for himself, and a tzaddik whose requests are for the community, from this same verse we learn that Abraham was a Ba’al Shemske tzaddik. The untranslatable word אֶת, in “Havayah blessed Abraham” (וַי־הוָה בֵּרַךְ אֶת אַבְרָהָם), also means a more translatable “with,” i.e, that whatever God blessed, He blessed it with Abraham. The abundance from above descends into the world through Abraham’s bat, which is a unit of volume measurement[11] and from there Abraham would distribute it to all who needed it.
The Elder Educates the Youth
From these teachings emerges an idea that bears on the gap between generations. The “old age” that Abraham introduced is connected to infinite potential, and Abraham can transmit that potential to the next generation, which is smaller and more contracted than the previous generation.
The ability to contain and contract the infinite within a vessel can also be described using a phrase the Lubavitcher Rebbe used to define the type of Divine service that will bring Mashiach: “Lights of chaos [tohu] in vessels of rectification [tikkun].”[12] Indeed, the numerical value of, “and Abraham was old” (וְאַבְרָהָם זָקֵן) is the same as that of “chaos” (תהו). Thus, this part of the description parallels the infinite energy Abraham is able to access. Yet, at the same time, Abraham is also described as, “advanced in days,” which means that he has an orderly accounting of all the days of his life, corresponding to the rectified vessel containing that infinite energy.
But we can also read this the other way around. Chaotic, infinite energy is usually expressed in youth. As a person ages, the more settled and refined they become. Abraham’s innovation is that even in old age he continues to engage with the traits of youth, and he has the power to educate the youth and bring its unlimited energy into the vessels of his old age.
The Rebbe of Kotzk explained[13] the verse “Educate the youth according to his way; even when he grows old he will not depart from it”[14] as a warning to the older chasidim: Do not stop educating yourself and engaging with the “youth” within you.[15] So it is written that Abraham took “his two young men with him.”[16] Even in old age he took the years of his youth with him, with all their alacrity and enthusiasm.[17] Indeed, when the traits of youth (of the world of Formation,[18] the world of emotion) rise and join old age (the world of Atzilut, or Emanation) without losing their freshness and creativity, the lights of chaos are truly held in the vessels of rectification. For the “jovial chasid” of the world of Formation[19] always remains young, as the Tzemach Tzedek said.[20]
The Transition Between the Generations
The bond between Abraham and Isaac is the main subject of the end of parashat Vayeira and the beginning of our parashah, Chayei Sarah. Vayeira ends with the Binding of Isaac, the result of which was the inter-inclusion of Abraham and Isaac.[21] Rashi relates that on his return from Mount Moriah, Abraham was pondering: “Had my son been sacrificed, he would have died without children. I should have married him to a woman from the daughters of [my allies and friends:] Aner, Eshkol, and Mamre.” Then God told him the good news that Rivkah, Isaac’s bashert, had been born.[22]
The Rebbe of Kotzk explains[23] that the reverse was also true: had God’s promise that Abraham’s seed would continue through Isaac already been fulfilled, Abraham could have completed the sacrifice. God’s answer was that only now had Isaac’s true wife been born, and before this Isaac would not have had offspring at all.[24]
The deeper message here is that Rivkah’s birth was itself the result of the Binding of Isaac and the passing of Sarah that followed it.[25] Rivkah enters the tent in Sarah’s place, and she arouses in Isaac, whose attribute is fear and awe, Abraham’s attribute of love. The Torah describes this with the verse, “Isaac brought her into the tent of Sarah his mother, and he took Rivkah, and she became his wife, and he loved her; and Isaac was comforted after his mother.”[26] The Sages reveal an important principle: “No kingdom can take what belongs to another kingdom, not even a hair’s breadth.”[27] Therefore, while Sarah was alive, Rivkah could not appear on the scene. Completing this transition, from Abraham and Sarah to Isaac and Rivkah, is the mission of Eliezer, Abraham’s servant, who goes to find a wife for Isaac in our parashah. Eliezer functions here as the secret of the voice between thought and speech.
Joining Old Age and Youth
The verse that we have been looking at—“And Abraham was old, advanced in days, and Havayah blessed Abraham with everything”—also reflects how Eliezer’s mission was to connect the generations from Abraham and Sarah to Isaac and Rivkah. As noted, the Sages learnt[28] that “until Abraham there was no old age.” Abraham and Isaac looked so alike that people confused them, so Abraham prayed, and old age came into the world. “And Abraham was old” thus emphasizes the gap between the generations, a gap that requires mediation and passage, which is the purpose of Eliezer’s mission.
But this gap is not a flaw. It is the answer to Abraham’s own request, and bridging it is his “coin”: “The coin of Abraham: an old man and an old woman on one side, and a youth and a maiden on the other.”[29] A king is defined as one whose coin circulates.[30] The power to carry life across the generations is what makes Abraham a king.
The emissary between the old man and woman and the youth and maiden is Eliezer, Abraham’s own disciple (chanich)[31] and one of the “two young men.”[32] When sending Eliezer, Abraham draws him and his youthfulness into himself. As a consequence, Eliezer is no longer cursed and becomes blessed,[33] and Abraham prepares him for his future incarnations, up to Mashiach ben David.[34] Eliezer is thus the secret of the bat kol, the root of the sefirah of kingdom within understanding.
The perfection of the revelation of Godliness in the world depends on this union of the generations. And the hint that captures this idea is that the sum of “Abraham-Sarah, Eliezer, Isaac-Rivkah” (אַבְרָהָם שָׂרָה אֱלִיעֶזֶר יִצְחָק רִבְקָה) is 1586, the product of 61, the value of “I” (אֲנִי), and 26, the value of Havayah ('הוי).
[1] Genesis 24:1. The initial and final letters of the words of the entire verse (וְאַבְרָהָם זָקֵן בָּא בַּיָּמִים וַי־הוה בֵּרַךְ אֶת אַבְרָהָם בַּכֹּל) equal 655, which is the value of “humility” (עֲנָוָה) front and back (ע ענ ענו ענוה ענוה נוהו ה ה). The value of the remaining letters—the middle letters (וְאַבְרָהָם זָקֵן בָּא בַּיָּמִים וַי־הוה בֵּרַךְ אֶת אַבְרָהָם בַּכֹּל)—is “lowliness” (שִׁפְלוּת). Thus, this verse expresses the perfection of lowliness within humility, which in Kabbalah represents the sefirah of kingdom within understanding (the daughter within the mother).
[2]. “Until Abraham there was no old age” (עַד אַבְרָהָם לֹא הָיָה זִקְנָה) equals 535, “light darkness” (אוֹר חֹשֶׁךְ), alluding to Abraham, who “began to illuminate” (Shemot Rabbah 15:20): light from darkness.
[3] The root of Avraham’s attribute of loving-kindness in the crown is in the attribute of “abundant in loving-kindness” (Exodus 34:6; see Torat Menachem vol. 33, p. 316; and elsewhere). “Abundant loving-kindness” (רַב חֶסֶד) plus will (רָצוֹן) equals crown (כֶּתֶר), 620, the totality of the commandments of the Torah (613 from the Torah and 7 rabbinic commandments, or 613 for Israel and 7 for the nations).
[4]. Known as Seder Hishtalshelut—literally, the order of evolution.
[5]. To illustrate this difference, the Kedushat Levi notes that Ishmael’s descendants are described as, “twelve princes according to their nations” and “nations” in Hebrew (le’umotam) comes from the word “mother” which also means “a measure” (אמה). But Israel’s lineage is described as following “their fathers’ houses” and “fathers” in Hebrew (avotam), stems from the same root that means “will” (אבה).
[6] In the Kedushat Levi it is explained that the will, the sefirah of crown, is the first source, thought is the father, and action is the son. Since the thought (the father) is also a son of the crown (the “elder”-grandfather), action is the “children’s children.” One way to understand this structure is to say that thought itself divides into a father, the mind of wisdom, called Abba, and a son (בֵּן), the mind of understanding (בִּינָה), which feels like a “son” to the crown, the secret of “the revelation of Atika [the highest aspect of the crown] within the mother” (Torah Or, Lech Lecha 11b, and in elsewhere).
It is simpler, however, to explain that “grandchildren” refers to the habitual sefirot: victory, acknowledgment, and foundation. There are then four generations (the secret of Kiryat Arba, literally “the town of four”): “elder” in the crown, “father” in the intellectual sefirot, “son” (or “children”) refer to the emotional sefirot—loving-kindness, might, and beauty—and children’s children, or “grandchildren” (i.e., the great-grandchildren of the “elder,” the crown) refer to the habitual sefirot. Thus, the Sages’ statement, “until here [the grandchildren] runs the compassion of the father [the elder]” (quoted in Rashi on parashat Vayeira)—which says that a person has compassion for his children and his grandchildren (but not for his great-grandchildren)—means that the compassion of the crown is drawn down only to the emotional attributes loving-kindness, might, and beauty, which is the revealed attribute of compassion itself.
[7]. See also Tanya, Iggeret HaKodesh 29.
[8] The ability to measure is also connected to the interpretations of “Abraham had a daughter, and her name was bakol,” below.
[9] Bava Batra 16b.
[10]. See also Keter Shem Tov (Kehot ed.), 146.
[11]. As in the verse, “it would hold 2000 bat” (1 Kings 7:26).
[12] Discourse from 28 Nisan 5751.
[13] Cited in Ramatayim Tzofim, section 3, letter 8: “He said that the verse warns even the elder that even in his old age he must not cease educating himself.”
[14] Proverbs 22:6.
[15] In “Chinuch Katan,” the Alter Rebbe’s introduction to Sha’ar HaYichud VeHa’emunah in Tanya, the emphasis is that even the elder-tzaddik returns from time to time to the state of the beinoni, in passing from level to level, and must then “remember” the service of their youth. There, the return to youth seems like a post factum necessity. For the Rebbe of Kotzk, a master of the service of the burning heart, engaging with youthfulness is a constant, a priori engagement that breathes the spirit of life and youth even into the elder.
[16] Genesis 22:3.
[17] See the class of 11 Cheshvan 5782, and additional sources.
[18] In it dwells the angel Metat (מֶטָטְרוֹן), whose value equals Shakai (שַׁדַּי), 314, and who is called a “youth” (na’ar). See Megaleh Amukot, ofan 14, and elsewhere. See also Yevamot 16b; Zohar 1:126a and Zohar Chadash 86b.
[19]. See in our article on the word shekel above.
[20] Cited in Lichyot Im HaZman, vol. 4, p. 213.
[21] See Zohar 1:119b; 3:18a; Likutei Torah (of the Arizal), Vayeira, s.v. “Sod HaAkeidah”; Likutei Torah, Va’etchanan 8b; ibid. and Drushei Rosh HaShanah 58b; Ma’ayan Ganim vol. 1, p. 37 ff.
[22] Rashi on Genesis 22:20.
[23] Ramatayim Tzofim, section 3, letter 5.
[24] In inwardness, this is not only a matter of a missing mate, but also of Isaac himself. Before the Binding (the Akeidah) Isaac only had a feminine aspect (nukva) of his soul, so he could not beget; only after the Akeidah did he merit a masculine aspect his soul (dechura). See Sha’ar HaPesukim, Vayeira; Sefer HaLikutim, Vayeira and Vayeshev. Or HaChaim on Genesis 21:2.
[25] See Tanchuma, Vayeira 23; Bereishit Rabbah 58:5; and elsewhere.
[26] Genesis 24:67.
[27] Berachot 48b; Shir HaShirim Rabbah 3:11.
[28] Bava Metzia 87a.
[29] Bava Kamma 97b (and Rashi there). See also Bereishit Rabbah 39:11.
[30] Hilchot Geneivah 5:18.
[31] See Tanchuma, Bereishit Rabbah, Targum Yerushalmi, and Rashi on Genesis 14:14. See also Panim el Panim, ch. 4.
[32] Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer ch. 31; Vayikra Rabbah 20:2 (and in several places); and so too Targum Yonatan on Genesis 22:3.
[33] Bereishit Rabbah 60:7; Vayikra Rabbah 17:5; and elsewhere.
[34] See Sha’ashuim Yom Yom, Lech Lecha, p. 46.
