Every Jew burns internally with the need to fix the world. We have inherited this burning desire from the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the Matriarchs, each of whom set out to do the same in a distinct way. This week’s parashah, Toldot, begins with Isaac and Rebeccah’s prayers for children. Isaac and Rebeccah are considered the pillars of prayer. To achieve Tikkun Olam, we need their power of prayer, Abraham and Sarah’s kindness, and Jacob and his wives’ dedication to Torah.
In this post, HaRav Ginsburgh draws a correspondence between these three paths and the rectification of reality according to the Torah’s inner dimension, based on the insights offered by the Alter Rebbe.
This post was first published in the Sukkot 5786 edition of Nifla’ot.
Background
One of the most well-known concepts from the rabbinic sages is that of Tikkun Olam (rectification of the world). Even though in the revealed tradition of Torah this concept was limited to limited legal regulations meant to fix society, in the Torah’s concealed tradition, it has always referred to a rectification of cosmological scope. In modern times, it has become so well-known in part because of the Jewish soul’s inner yearning to bring the Redemption and to end suffering. This yearning was always strong but heightened among non-traditionally observant Jews, especially after the destruction of European Jewry .
The Torah’s inner dimension has a well-defined cosmological interpretation of what Tikkun Olam means. According to the Arizal, after God introduced the infinite light of His revelation into the vessels of reality, these vessels shattered and their shards together with sparks of the infinite light of God’s revelation fell. Then God rebuilt many of these shards into the more robust World of Rectification; but He only completed the highest part of Rectification, the part known as Emanation (Atizult). The three lower parts known as Creation, Formation, and Action remained fragmented with the shards and their sparks of God’s revelation still scattered. The task of reconstructing these three lower parts was given to man, specifically to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Though previous generations were successful in rebuilding much of reality, their efforts were toppled over repeatedly by the collective sins of the Jewish people, the most recent of which was marked by the destruction of the Second Temple and the beginning of our 2000 year long exile.
As the rabbinic sages state, “Because of our sins, we have been exiled from our land.” Tikkun Olam is thus the rebuilding of reality through teshuvah for the past and committing to the mitzvot in the present, leading to the revelation of Godliness, as was the original intent of Creation. Once Godliness is revealed and God’s infinite light can be contained, the rectification of society and the individual will follow.
Revealing God’s Oneness
The Alter Rebbe writes in the Tanya,[1]
…as the footsteps of Mashiach approach, as “the Sukkah of David[2] has fallen” to a level of “feet” and “heels”—which is the level of “[the World of] Action”—there is no way of truly cleaving to it and to convert the darkness into its light, except through a corresponding category of action, namely the act of charity. For, as known to the scholars, the plane of Action with reference to Divinity is the notion of a diffusion and efflux of vitality to those most distant—to he who has nothing of his own.
In Likkutei Torah,[3] the Alter Rebbe writes that for now, the three lower planes of reality, the three Worlds[4] of Creation, Formation, and Action, have not been rectified of the fall and shattering of the vessels that occurred. Only the World of Emanation is in a rectified state. It is our duty to bring Tikkun to the three lower Worlds. Even though the World of Emanation and its clear revelation of God’s oneness penetrate all of reality—even the three lower Worlds—for now, its effect is hidden. Thus, to rectify the three lower Worlds we must reveal God’s oneness as it already exists but is hidden.
Tikkun Through Tzedakah, Torah, and Prayer
The tikkun or rectification of the World of Action is through the act of tzedakah and the service of tzedakah, as stated by Isaiah, “For the act of tzedakah will be peace and the service of tzedakah will give calm and confidence forever”[5] (וְהָיָה מַעֲשֵׂה הַצְּדָקָה שָׁלוֹם וַעֲבֹדַת הַצְּדָקָה הַשְׁקֵט וָבֶטַח עַד עוֹלָם).[6] Tzedakah is an act of kindness and thus the act of tzedakah is the special virtue of Abraham, the archetypal soul of loving-kindness.[7]
Formation, in (Modern) Hebrew also means “creativity” (יְצִירָה). It is the realm of the inclinations (יְצָרִים) and though the evil inclination is very creative in its efforts to draw us to sin, it is rectified by the creativity of the good inclination, which for a Jew is demonstrated best by creativity in Torah and its scholarship; as the sages say, “the good is only Torah” (אֵין טוֹב אֶלָּא תּוֹרָה). These are most pronounced in the authentic and true novel Torah created by the Jewish people from generation to generation—novel teachings that illuminate the eyes and the hearts with the revelation of Godliness. Thus, the rectification of the World of Formation is through Torah. Jacob is the pillar of Torah, about whom the Torah states in this week’s parashah, “Jacob was a guileless man, living in tents [of Shem and Ever to learn Torah from them].”[8]
The state of mind experienced in the World of Creation is that of continual recreation, especially during prayer, whose explicit purpose is to create a new will in the Creator Himself, as we say, “May Your will be…” (יְהִי רָצוֹן מִלְּפָנֶיךָ). This state of mind leads to the healing of the sick, the blessing of livelihood, all in a miraculous way that supersedes nature.[9] This is the realm associated with Isaac, the pillar of prayer. Indeed, the value of Isaac Rebeccah (יִצְחָק רִבְקָה), with whose prayers for children this week’s parashah beings, is 515, the same as the value of “prayer” (תְּפִלָּה), “Isaac prayed to God opposite his wife.”[10]
Abraham and Isaac in the Messianic Era
From the passage of Tanya quoted earlier we learn that to bring the Mashiach (to raise the Shechinah from dust), the most important thing is tzedakah, the service of Abraham that rectifies the World of Action. But in the future, with the Resurrection—part of the second stage of the Messianic era, when the world enters a supernatural existence—we will identify with Isaac as our father.[11] Then we will see that “the righteous will live by their faith”[12] and with their faith (alone) will be able to give life to others.
[1]. Iggeret 9.
[2]. A connotation for the Shechinah, the Divine Presence.
[3]. Re’eh 33d.
[4]. Worlds do not denote a physical space. The best way to grasp them is as states of consciousness. At the level of Emanation, consciousness openly sees God’s revelation and oneness, as follows.
[5]. Isaiah 32:17.
[6]. See Tanya, Iggeret 12 for the difference between the two.
[7]. See Micah 7:20 and Isaiah 41:8. See Pardes 23:1.
[8]. Genesis 25:27.
[9]. See Tanya, Kuntres Acharon 4 (“To understand the passage in Pri Eitz Chaim, that today the primary rectification is only through prayer…”).
[10]. Genesis 25:21.
[11]. Based on Isaiah 63:16 as interpreted by the sages in Shabbat 89b.
[12]. Habbakuk 2:4, following the reading that “will live” (יִחְיֶה) means “will give life” (יְחַיֶּה).
