Shabbat Morning Class - Parasha Toldot

Rabbi Mansour 2009 תולדות "ויעתר יצחק לה' לנכח אשתו" "Yitzhak entreated Hashem opposite his wife" Rashi on this pasuk comments:" "זה עומד בזוית זו ומתפלל, וזו עומדת בזוית זו ומתפללת - Yishak and Rivkah each went into their own corner and prayed. What is the significance of Rashi telling us that they went into opposite corners to pray?? One reason is that by the צדיקים the mere fact that a צדיק looks at a person, infuses him with ברכה , and makes him ראוי for a ישועה . This is why before a צדיק blesses a person he looks at him first. We see this illustrated in a story with אלישע הנביא . There was a barren שונמית woman that אלישע would stay by when he was in town. אלישע had promised that she would have a baby boy. A few years later she came to him crying that the boy had died. So אלישע put his mouth on the boy’s mouth, eyes to eyes, palm to palm, body to body, and the boy came back to life (the boy became חבקוק הנביא - alluding to the fact that אלישע "hugged" him, to bring him back to life. This is also hinting to the promise of אלישע to the boy’s mother of " את חבקת בן " –you will be hugging a child). We also see this concept even after the death of a צדיק , when another צדיק is משטתח on his grave, and "faces" the צדיק by laying down on the grave of the צדיק , and is able to connect to his holiness. This is because the Neshama has a spark that is always lit, even after death (like a pilot light that stays lit even when you close flame) the Sadik connects to this light, and gets "ignited" from it. All this shows us the power of a צדיק facing a person. In this case, Yitzhak went to the opposite corner so he would face Rivkah to infuse her with his holiness, to make her ראוי for a child, and to give her life. It says that a barren woman is as if she is dead, The Chida z’tl says that the Egyptian exile was originally supposed to be 400 years but it only ended up being 210 years. What happened to the 190 years of slavery? Abraham was without children for 100 years and Sarah for 90 years which totals 190 so they were "without life" for 190 years like a slave that has no life of his own and only does whatever his master says. This took 190 years of slavery off of the Jewish nation. Another reason why Rashi mentions that they prayed in opposite corners is because we see in various places that a physical action has an effect, that brings down holiness. One example חכם ברוך ז'ל taught the boys, that when saying the שמע not only should they concentrate that Hashem is in all four directions, but they should actually move their heads in all four directions, showing that Hashem is everywhere. Another example is what was said about Rabbi Dovid Kviat z’tl from the Mir Yeshiva who used to spell out the name of Hashem on the table with his finger. To do an action that would bring holiness. The four letters of Hashem’s name of הויה correspond to the four directions of the world; East, West, North, South. ' י = East, ' ה = South, ו' = North, ' ה = West. By going to the opposite corners (southwest corner and northeast corner) they did an action to connect all four letters, to bring down the name of Hashem of חסד . This is hinted in the words of רש'י that says: " 13 = זו ,"בזוית זו and the second זוית-זו of Rivkah =13. 13+13=26, they were bringing down the name of Hashem of חסד to have a baby. This explains the stories in גמרא of אבא חלקיה and אבא) רב'י עקיבה חלקיה and his wife prayed for rain in opposite corners – and when ר'ע prayed ביחיד he would start in one corner of the room and end up in the other corner). רבי עקיבה would do this only ביחיד , because Hashem’s presence rests in the צבור when there is a מנין , therefore he did not need to "bring down" the letters of הויה . However ביחיד he needed to. He therefore connected himself to the 4 corners to do so. Yitzhak Avinu was the aspect of דין , and Rivkah was the aspect of חסד (in every marriage there is one spouse with a "harsher" מידה than the other, this is in order to maintain a proper balance. If both would be harsh or both would be kind it wouldn’t work out. That’s why they say "opposites attract"). By Yitzhak facing Rivkah he was trying to put his " דין " into the חסד" " of Rivkah, this would create an even higher level of חסד (as the Rabbi mentioned many times that when you add חסד to דין it is like adding milk to coffee. This creates a higher level of חסד , then חסד on its own). We see this reflected in the child they had. Yaakov Avinu was the aspect of ,תפארת which is the combination of דין & חסד . We also see this combination of חסד דין & of Yitzhak and Rivkah hinted in the תפילה of שועת עניים in Shaharit of Shabbat where it says: בפי ישרים תתרומם ובשפתי צדיקים תתברך ובלשון חסידים תתקדש ובקרב קדושים תתהלל We see the names of Yitzhak and Rivkah spelled out to allude to this high חסד of the combination of דין & חסד . We also see that the לשון used by Yitzhak’s prayer is ויעתר - which is one of the ten לשונות that there are for prayer (ex: תפילה צעקה ויפגע ). Why specifically did the Torah use this ויעתר ?לשון literally means to turn over, (like a pitch fork that turns over the earth it is placed in) So too Yitzhak was trying to "turn over" the דין into רחמים by praying with Rivkah in this manner. Another explanation as to why Rashi points out that they were praying "in there corners" is that we find many times throughout the Torah that when it comes to children, the name of Hashem of ש-ד-י is used (ex: וירא ה' אל אברם ויאמר אילו אני א -ל שקי.וארבה אותך במאד ). One reason why specifically the name of ש-ד -י is used with regard to having children is that man has 248 limbs and the woman (who has the womb etc..) has 252. Together they total 500. If we take the ' גמט of the "inner" letters of ש-ד-י , we have: ש - ין = 60 ד - לת = 430 י - וד = 10 500 The union of man and woman makes 500 limbs which is the "inner" ' גמט of ש-ד -י . We also find a connection in the first מצוה of the Torah which is פרו ורבו (to have children). The ' גמט of פרו ורבו is also 500. If we analyze the names Yitzhak and Rivkah from "corner to corner" (from between corner letter to corner letter) it equals 500 as follows; י -צחק רבק -ה 302 + 198 = 500 They both went to a "corner" meaning; they focused on what is in between the corner letters of their names (the letters between the first letter י of יצחק and the last letter ה from רבקה ) which equal 500, this was in order to have the effect of the name of ש-ד-י that is conducive for having children.