Parshas Toldos - the refinement of Esav as preparation for the Geulah

00:00 The well-known chossid Reb Mendel Futerfas was one of the great mashpi’im of the last generation. He related that in the time of the Tzemach Tzedek, in Russia, there was a famous chossid named Reb Chanoch Hendel, whom the chassidim called Reb Hendel. He lived in a town called Pleshenitz, where chassidim and misnagdim lived side by side, and went about his affairs there. Reb Hendel had a brother named Reb Yosef. When they were young men, the two of them sat in Pleshenitz and studied Torah under the town’s rabbi. They were great Torah scholars and learned diligently and devotedly. Once, while they were sitting and learning in the beis midrash, a Jew came in from the street. He was not from the town; he was passing through and had entered the shul to daven. That day was Rosh Chodesh. He stood off to the side and began preparing to daven. They sat and learned nearby, but noticed the man’s preparations for davening, [unclear]. They were used to people davening with a minyan, but here they saw that the man stood there and

01:46 held his tallis over his shoulder, in no hurry to put it on. He paced back and forth, deep in thought, then stood by the wall for some time. They did not know what he was thinking about, but he stood there a long while, deeply absorbed in contemplation. After a long time, he wrapped himself in his tallis and began to daven. They saw that his davening went on for several hours. Meanwhile, they continued learning, but every so often they glanced over at him. They found it astonishing. They had never seen anything like it: a Jew standing and davening for hours on end. They saw that after a few verses he would stop and contemplate again for a while. Sometimes he would burst into a niggun and sing a verse to its melody. Sometimes he would cry, with tears streaming from his eyes. This went on throughout the davening. When he reached Hallel, it was even more extraordinary. They had never heard Hallel like that in their lives, with such passion, such fervor and such vitality. There, too, he stopped after a few verses. They made a note of the verses where they noticed he had a particular focus. Some of the verses puzzled them: what

03:21 did he see in them? They knew what the words meant, their plain meaning, but they wondered: What did he see in those particular verses? Why was he crying so much, and what was the cause of such emotion? This was especially striking in Hallel, at the passage “From the narrow straits I called to Hashem; Hashem answered me with expansiveness.” At those verses, they saw him weeping bitterly, with tremendous fervor. When the man finished davening, they approached him, sat down and began speaking with him. They told him they had seen the way he davened and wanted to understand: What kind of davening was this? What was he contemplating for so long, and why did he keep stopping? They asked him to explain. And what had happened during Hallel, at “When Israel went out,” and especially at “From the narrow straits”? What was there in those passages? They asked him to explain, because they had never seen davening like that. They knew only davening according to halachah, [unclear], but what sort of davening had they seen from him? The chossid began to explain and taught them to understand what had taken place. He also explained that every Jew has two souls: a G-dly soul and an animal soul. These are

04:51 the two souls within every person. The G-dly soul is on the right side, and the animal soul is on the left, in the left chamber of the heart, and a battle is waged between them: “One nation shall prevail over the other.” The battle is over the G-dly soul’s desire to conquer the entire “small city”—the body. The G-dly soul wants to be the sole master, so that the whole person, with every limb and sinew, every thought, word and deed, and all his intellectual and emotional faculties, will be devoted to Hashem alone, to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. On the other side stands the animal soul, bringing in distracting thoughts, improper thoughts and desires, because the animal soul is, as its name suggests, an animal. And so the battle between the two souls goes on. It continues throughout all twenty-four hours, but there is a time when the main battle takes place. Then the G-dly soul fights the animal soul to show it the delight, sweetness and goodness of G-dliness. This is accomplished through the service of the heart; that is where the real battle between the G-dly soul and the animal soul is fought. As it says, “The time of prayer is a time of battle.” Davening is the time of battle, when the G-dly soul engages with the animal soul and contemplates G-dliness, the greatness of Hashem and the utter insignificance of the worlds. A person delves into the words of davening; he

06:24 contemplates the greatness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu until he draws the animal soul in as well. He wants to transform it, to pull it away from its foolishness and desires and bring it into the realm of holiness. The animal soul is called the non-Jew within each person. This expression comes up again and again: “the non-Jew within you,” the non-Jew in every limb. In other words, the animal soul is what draws a person toward bad character traits and improper desires. And again, in Tanya the Alter Rebbe calls it “a demon of the demons of the nations,” the non-Jewish evil inclination that brings a foreignness, emptiness and lowliness into a person. The G-dly soul wages war against it. It is the Jew within each person, the “actual part of G-d above,” which overcomes improper desires and uproots—uproots “the non-Jew within you,” fighting it until it is completely uprooted from within. [unclear] He tells these two men, Reb Hendel and his brother Reb Yosef, that in davening, in Hallel—and really throughout davening—the question is raised: “Why should the nations say?” [unclear] Hallel addresses a whole subject. In Hallel we say, “Not for our sake, Hashem, not for our sake”; there we say, “Why should the nations say?” and “Praise Hashem, all you nations.” In other words, it speaks about the non-Jew and the arguments he makes, all kinds of foolish arguments,

07:59 and the G-dly soul sets out to explain the truth to him: “And Hashem’s truth endures forever”—the truth of G-dliness, the truth of holiness—until it brings him to “Praise Hashem, all you nations; extol Him, all you peoples.” Even the non-Jew, the animal soul, should hear and absorb the truth of “And Hashem’s truth endures forever,” until he, too, comes to praise Hashem, so that even the non-Jew, with all his strength, [unclear] Hakadosh Boruch Hu. From there we continue to “From the narrow straits.” This speaks of the straits: a Jew contemplates his situation and thinks about what is happening in his life. When he sees how, in daily life, when it comes to eating and drinking, dealing with material matters and with other people, with matters of sustenance, he is so far from where he should be, so intensely driven and so deeply immersed in them—that is truly the narrow straits. “From the narrow straits I called to Hashem”: he cries out to Hakadosh Boruch Hu from those straits. He wants to connect with Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself. And the words of the prayer continue in this way. After “From the narrow straits,” we say, “They surrounded me like bees.” Let me explain the sequence to you: What does “They surrounded me like bees” mean? He says that the evil inclination, the animal soul, is sometimes a domesticated animal and sometimes a wild animal; it takes on the forms of all kinds of creatures. Sometimes it takes the form of an

09:21 animal, like a living creature. Sometimes it is like a bee: “They surrounded me like bees.” The animal soul puts on the guise of a bee. What is distinctive about a bee? On the one hand, a bee produces honey, which can be delicious and sweet—and who doesn’t like honey? But on the other hand, a bee has a stinger. It can sting, and that hurts. This is what the well-known saying of our Sages refers to: “Neither your honey nor your sting.” We say to the bee, and we say to the evil inclination: “Neither your honey”—I don’t need your sweetness, I don’t need your bitterness, I don’t need your sting. To understand what this means in our avodah: the animal soul, the evil inclination, wants to bring a person under its control. It wants to draw a person into the realm of this world, into desires and materialism, and bring him down to undesirable things. How will it do that? Will it come to a person and say, “Go and sin”? The person will not listen. A Jew does not want to, and cannot, separate himself from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. A Jew does not want to commit a sin. So how does it approach him? It puts on the guise of a bee. And what is the bee like? On the one hand, it hides its sting in sweetness

10:42 of honey. It tells a person that this is not a transgression at all—or, imagine, that it is even a mitzvah. For example, when someone wants to speak lashon hara, to do harm, to make another person’s life miserable, or perhaps to say something about another Jew, the yetzer hara comes along and says: You know, when it comes to that Jew, it’s actually a mitzvah. You have to show zeal; he says things that aren’t right, and you have to protest. So it turns everything into a mitzvah, into something holy. Then it injects its sting, its deadly poison, and traps the person. The yetzer hara has all sorts of ways of doing this: it disguises itself in what looks like the clothing of holiness, but mixed in underneath are wicked things, self-importance, pride and evil, originating in the animal soul, in the yetzer hara. About this we say, “They surrounded me like bees.” A Jew feels that the yetzer hara has surrounded him, encircling him and dressing itself in disguises that are sometimes impossible to recognize. “They surrounded me like bees; they were extinguished like a fire of thorns; in the name of Hashem I will cut them down”—that the bee should be burned, that this whole thing, the evil, the mixture or confusion, should be burned,

12:05 wiped out completely, with nothing left of it, so that the truth can be revealed. Then we can see what comes next, as the verse continues: “The right hand of Hashem is exalted; the right hand of Hashem acts valiantly”—so that a Jew can go from strength to strength, see the truth, serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu and reveal the truth in the world. When he heard these words, he felt he had never heard such richness and depth: in every word of David in Tehillim lies the personal battle a Jew wages every day, the battle between the G-dly soul and the animal soul. He heard the depth and the interpretations contained in every verse of David’s. When he asked where one learns these things, events unfolded until, years later, they traveled to the Tzemach Tzedek. That chossid [unclear] and his brother were among the great chassidim of the Tzemach Tzedek. But we find this point in the weekly parsha. Parshas Toldos speaks of “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples will separate from within you.” Rivkah saw that “the children struggled within her”—there was a struggle, a battle. When she passed a house of idol worship, one wanted to come out; when she passed a house of study, the other wanted to come out. And when they came—

13:33 “If so, why am I like this?” She did not understand what was happening. And what was she told? “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples will separate from within you; one people will be stronger than the other, and the elder will serve the younger.” In other words, as the Alter Rebbe explains in Tanya, the story of Rivkah, Yaakov and Eisav is really the story of every Jew. Yaakov alludes to the G-dly soul within every Jew, and Eisav represents the animal soul within every Jew. “Two nations are in your womb” means that there are two peoples. As the Alter Rebbe describes in Tanya, these are two souls, each with a complete system of intellect and emotions, thought, speech and action—an entire structure: the G-dly soul on one side and the animal soul on the other. They fight each other over the small city; each wants to conquer it and rule it. About this it is said, “When one rises, the other falls.” The whole story of Yaakov and Eisav in the parsha, as Chassidus interprets it, is the battle between the G-dly soul and the animal soul. But here we see something very interesting: when we speak about Eisav, who on an inner level, according to Chassidus, represents the animal soul, we see that there are two kinds of Eisav. There is an Eisav whose evil is openly visible,

15:08 and there is an Eisav whose evil is not visible. This is what Rashi says about Eisav: with Yitzchak, he pretended in order to deceive him. We see this throughout the parsha: “Yitzchak loved Eisav, for he had game in his mouth.” As Rashi says, “He would ensnare and deceive him.” He would deceive him by asking, “How do you tithe straw? How do you tithe salt?” In other words, he misled him into thinking that he was meticulous about mitzvos, and in this way sought to convince his father that he was a good person. “Yitzchak loved Eisav.” This is the nature of hidden, concealed evil. That is why Rashi says Eisav is compared to a pig. What does that mean? A pig is a non-kosher animal. It has one sign of purity—it has split hooves—but it does not chew its cud. It is the only one of the animals that have just one of the two signs whose sign is split hooves. With the other animals it is the reverse: the camel and the others chew their cud but do not have split hooves. The pig is the only one of the four animals mentioned in the verse that has split hooves but does not chew its cud. Rashi says that the pig stretches out its legs to show that it has split hooves, as though this proves it is a kosher animal. Similarly,

16:38 we see that there were times when Eisav needed to show his father that he was better than Yaakov and that he behaved properly. We see this at the beginning of the parsha and later on, when he seemingly regretted what he had done and tried to act as his father wished, once he saw that his actions had displeased him. Afterward, when he wanted to present himself favorably in comparison with Yaakov, he went to marry one of Yishmael’s daughters. At the end of the parsha, he supposedly gave up his wickedness and took Machalas, Yishmael’s daughter, as though he were obeying his father and avoiding the daughters of Canaan. But he did not leave his Canaanite wives, as Rashi explains at the end of the parsha. This is hidden, concealed evil, what is called [unclear]: he dresses himself up as though he were a better, holier, more upright person, but he “acts like Zimri and asks for a reward like Pinchas.” He hides beneath a guise of being a good, G-d-fearing person, but underneath are “seven abominations in his heart”—that is where the hidden evil lies. And there is an Eisav for whom, when he stood before Yaakov Avinu, this pretense did not help. We will learn about that later, in the story of Eisav’s meeting with Yaakov Avinu in Parshas Vayishlach, where it was not

17:57 long before Yaakov detected that evil in him and was immediately able to change him. That was Eisav’s story later on. But that is not what we are discussing here. That is one kind of evil: open evil, which can be recognized immediately. But there is hidden evil, as we see with Eisav in the way he treated Yaakov Avinu and concealed his evil. That is much harder to see, much harder to detect. What is more, finding it requires a whole process of work; one has to know how to uncover it. But we can explain what this concealed evil is. Chassidus explains that this is the main reason for the length of the galus: Jews are in a longer, harder and more bitter galus. The Alter Rebbe’s explanation of a statement of our Sages is well known, and he also offered some insight into its reason: What is the difference between the First Beis Hamikdash and the Second? The galus after the First Beis Hamikdash lasted seventy years and ended, and then they returned to Eretz Yisroel. But the galus after the Second Beis Hamikdash is longer and more bitter, and has not ended. What is the difference, and why? The Gemara says: “The earlier generations, whose sin was revealed—their end was revealed.” In the generation of the First Beis Hamikdash, it was clear what the sin was: idol worship, forbidden relations and bloodshed,

19:22 grave and serious transgressions, but they were out in the open. People knew what the problem was, so it could be corrected: “their end was revealed.” But “the later generations, whose sin was not revealed—their end was not revealed.” Since the sin is not clear, we do not know clearly what the sin was, and consequently we do not know clearly what needs correcting. Therefore, “their end was not revealed”—we do not know when the end will come. That is what the Gemara says. The Alter Rebbe explained what this means on an inner level, based on what we discussed earlier: open evil and hidden evil. With open evil, you immediately see what is wrong, and you can correct it. Hidden evil is much harder to correct. Good is mixed with evil and evil with good; outwardly it looks like something good and fine, but when you look inside you find hypocrisy, deceit and fraud. This creates a whole situation in which it is not easy to distinguish good from evil. That takes much more time and much more careful discernment—to see the good within the evil and the evil within the good, and to separate them. This is what Chassidus discusses: it is what we find with Eisav. The maamarim explain that our galus is called

20:35 The exile of Edom. That is the name of this exile, and Edom is Eisav. That is why the longest exile is specifically called the exile of Edom. What are the two kinds of evil here? In exile, there is overt evil. When you can see the evil right away, you can immediately [unclear] and uproot it. But when you encounter hidden evil—hypocrisy and deceit beneath many other layers, so that a person appears to be good while underneath lie self-importance and pride, thinking only of himself and putting another person down while [unclear]—all this is difficult to refine, and it takes much longer. This is the work of refinement in exile. The Alter Rebbe explained that “their sin was not revealed”—a sin that is not so visible—is expressed primarily in baseless hatred. With baseless hatred, you can actually see what it means that “their sin was not revealed.” It is not that he openly harms the other person; it is baseless hatred. And the Alter Rebbe [unclear]: as though everything is fine, everything is good, but he cannot stand him. That is “their sin was not revealed.”

21:59 In other words, this is a kind of sin in which a person does not feel that he is doing anything wrong. On the surface, everything is fine, everything is good, but he cannot stand that person; he does not like him; he cannot sit at the same table with him, cannot befriend him, and looks down on him and finds fault with him. All sorts of things. He does not do harm or commit a harmful act. He does not lash out at anyone, strike anyone, kill anyone, or commit a transgression. But baseless hatred and the division of hearts—when one person cannot stand another because he is [unclear] and his approach does not fit mine, and so on—these are the kinds of transgressions described by “their sin was not revealed.” You can cover it with all sorts of things, and it looks as though it is a dispute for the sake of Heaven, as though it is all about holy matters. People do it under all sorts of holy guises. The Alter Rebbe writes in a well-known letter of his that the greatest troubles come from disputes for the sake of Heaven, may Hashem protect us. And that is what has come to light recently. And this is the good news we have actually been seeing lately: we see that [unclear] the world stands on the threshold of the coming of Moshiach Tzidkeinu. Chassidus explains that before the coming of Moshiach Tzidkeinu, there will be the culmination of the...

23:14 refinement of Eisav. Then “many will be purified, whitened, and refined” will be fulfilled. Things—the hidden evil—cannot remain concealed; everything comes out into the open. We can see it plainly in our times. Until recently, good and evil were mixed together in all the affairs of the world, evil within good, and it was impossible to see clearly what was true and what was false, what was good and what was evil. But in our times, in our era, and especially very recently, we can plainly see in every area—among Jews, among the nations of the world, in [unclear], in matters concerning Eretz Yisroel, in matters concerning the Jewish people, and in matters concerning Torah and mitzvos—that in every detail and every fine point, the hidden evil has come out into the open, and the hidden good has come out into the open as well. In other words, the mixture has reached its end. I had the privilege of hearing two [unclear] from the Rebbe at a farbrengen, and I will tell you about it. It was in 5747. The Rebbe spoke about this several times, at several farbrengens. One farbrengen in particular still stands vividly before my eyes: Purim 5747, a fiery farbrengen. On Purim 5747, the Rebbe delivered several sichos—several sichos over almost the entire [unclear] of Purim. He spoke very forcefully about the state of the world: the world was already showing the signs that precede the revelation of Moshiach, and we could see how all the signs

24:44 at the end of tractate Sotah and in tractate Sanhedrin were being fulfilled literally, here in this world, just as our Sages said. We could see openly that every detail and everything written in the Gemara had come to pass. It was all plainly before us. The Rebbe gave many examples from the teachings of our Sages. But among the matters the Rebbe discussed at great length then, he said that one of the strongest signs that we are seeing indications of Moshiach’s coming is what Daniel wrote at the end of the Book of Daniel, in chapter 12, about the time before Moshiach’s coming: “Many will be purified, whitened, and refined; the wicked will act wickedly, and those with understanding will understand.” What does this verse mean? The commentators offer explanations, but the explanation the Rebbe discussed at length then is this: this entire world is one great mixture of good and evil—good within evil and evil within good—and things are not clear. It is very hard work for Jews to examine and consider whether something comes from holiness or perhaps from this world, from kelipah dressed in the guise of holiness. This takes hard work, tremendous effort: to refine the Eisav within you, to refine the non-Jew within you as well, to bring out the good and reveal the hidden good within each person, and to uproot the hidden evil. But before the coming of Moshiach Tzidkeinu, the prophet says—and the Rebbe spoke about this with great emphasis—

26:14 we can see how this is actually beginning to happen, and in recent years it has become fully apparent. Since we are on the threshold of Moshiach’s coming, this is the end of the work of refinement. Jews have engaged in that work throughout all these years, for three thousand years, and now we stand in a period marked by signs of Moshiach’s coming, when all these things are coming out into the open. The good bursts forth with tremendous force, and the evil bursts forth with tremendous force as well; we can no longer fool ourselves. We can see plainly today that evil is evil and good is good. And why is it really this way? What is the purpose of it? To make our hearts heavy? To embitter us? Would it not have been better for it to remain hidden? No. First of all, Moshiach is coming, and “I will remove the spirit of impurity from the earth”—evil has no future. So it must burst into the open in order to [unclear]. But the good news in this is that when a Jew sees that this is the situation, he knows that Moshiach is already coming. He knows that we have reached a point where we can fulfill “and you shall choose life,” in light of everything the world has come to. And today we can see this with our physical eyes in the situation unfolding in Eretz Yisroel. Things that for years were not so clear have become very clear today. Everyone understands what this means in every detail.

27:35 The evil has come out into the open, bursting forth with the greatest force. The good is bursting forth with the greatest force. We see what a Jew is; we see a Jew’s greatness, the light within him, the richness within him. We see a Jew’s goodness. And we need to bring that goodness out more and more. And we see the [unclear] of evil for what it is—evil; we can refine it completely, uproot it. We can no longer fool ourselves. We know: we cannot live with this evil anymore. Evil is evil, and it must be uprooted completely. Good is good, and it must be strengthened, uplifted, and intensified. And this is the main point the Rebbe spoke about: what it means for us. When we see that this is the situation, it awakens Jews to begin [unclear]. This is the best time to awaken [unclear], to go out with vitality. [unclear] To go out with vitality, [unclear] at every moment. That is what the Rambam says in Hilchos Teshuvah, chapter 3. The Rambam says: through thought, speech, and action, a person tips the balance for himself and the entire world toward merit, “and brings salvation and deliverance to the world.” That is even [unclear] one Jew, [unclear]. And that is Moshiach. And here, the refinement [unclear], and evil is destined to disappear. [unclear] It will not remain this way. Evil will disappear from the earth: “And I will remove the spirit of impurity from the earth.”

29:05 Impurity from the earth. Evil, darkness, filth—all of these will disappear completely from the earth. And the good grows and wells up; that is goodness. The good—that is the coming of Moshiach Tzidkeinu. So this is even [unclear], to leave the constraints of exile, [unclear]. The entire Jewish people [unclear]. And each person, [unclear] what he does—action, speech, thought—[unclear]. Thought, speech, and action, [unclear]. This is the complete Geulah. And this certainly relates to [unclear]. We can see that this is the end of all the [unclear]. “Saviors will ascend Mount Zion to judge the mountain of Eisav, and sovereignty shall belong to Hashem.” “And Hashem will be King over all the earth; on that day Hashem will be one and His name one.” Amen, so may it be His will.