Parshas Vaeira 5785 - "Vaeira El Ha'avos" - every Jew has within himself this "Vaeira"

00:00 In the days of the Rebbe Rashab, Rabbi Sholom DovBer, there was the Slonimer Rebbe, Rabbi Shmuel of Slonim. He had a strong connection with the Rebbe Rashab. We know that they met several times. He was a prominent communal activist who did a great deal for Jewish life in those days. He met with Rabbi Sholom DovBer, and they formed a very close connection. The Frierdiker Rebbe recounts how, beginning in 5662, meetings were held to strengthen Jewish life. At the time, people began establishing various associations and groups to strengthen Judaism and combat the maskilim. It was a difficult period. That connection continued for many years and remained very close: they corresponded by letter and also met. Chassidim relate that the Slonimer Rebbe was once deeply impressed by the Rebbe Rashab’s fear of Heaven and holiness. When the Rebbe Rashab left Slonim, the Slonimer Rebbe accompanied him and said to his chassidim, “Look at the eyes you see—eyes of someone with genuine, genuine fear of Heaven.” That’s how it was. You hear? In other words, he greatly esteemed the Rebbe Rashab and was deeply impressed by his conduct, his Judaism, his holiness, and his fear of Heaven. One of the stories they tell concerns the period when various rabbinic meetings were being arranged, leading eventually to the well-known rabbinic gathering of 5670, which was held then,

01:46 as well as other meetings that dealt with various decrees and regulations, and how to have them rescinded. During one of those periods, the Slonimer Rebbe sent an emissary—apparently a member of his household or one of his prominent chassidim—to the Rebbe Rashab, because they needed to discuss several matters relating to this, to the meeting and so on. That emissary, who came on behalf of the Slonimer Rebbe, stayed in the Rebbe Rashab’s own home; apparently he was a very important and honored guest. Once, after the Rebbe Rashab delivered a maamar on Shabbos, he asked him whether he had been present for the maamar. The chossid said he had. The Rebbe Rashab asked whether he had understood what was said. The chossid replied that they were not accustomed to such lengthy Chassidus. The Rebbe Rashab delivered Chabad Chassidus—long, profound maamarim. And the chossid from Slonim spoke honestly: they were not accustomed to Chassidus like that, to teachings so long, expansive, and deep. What did he mean? In their circles, they give a short teaching. Rabbi Sholom DovBer asked him to repeat a teaching from his Rebbe, the Slonimer Rebbe. The chossid said that it was during Parshas Vaeira, and

03:30 the Slonimer Rebbe had said at his tish: “A teaching on the verse, ‘I appeared to Avraham, to Yitzchak, and to Yaakov... but by My name Hashem I was not known to them.’ Rashi comments on the word ‘I appeared’ and says, ‘I appeared to the forefathers.’ All the commentators ask: What is Rashi adding? The verse explicitly says, ‘I appeared to Avraham, to Yitzchak, and to Yaakov,’ and everyone knows they are the forefathers.” He answered that the word “avos,” forefathers, is related to “avah,” to desire. “Avah”—as in “Hashem your G-d did not desire”—means wanting, yearning, and longing. Thus, “I appeared to the forefathers” means that Hakadosh Boruch Hu reveals Himself to those who want, to those who have a desire [unclear]. The Rebbe Rashab was very impressed by this teaching. [unclear] Well, indeed, one has to want. What does that mean? That a Jew should truly want. But it takes more than simply wanting. That is one version of the story, at any rate. [unclear] Maamarim like these, long and profound maamarim—yes; but Rabbi Sholom DovBer explained to him in that same exchange that they, too, are needed to get there, so that one might someday want to see G-dliness, to see a revelation of G-dliness. That is why we learn Chassidus; that is why Chassidus goes into such length and breadth [unclear]—so that one day there will be…

05:21 [unclear] G-dliness. And this is what the Rebbe discusses in Parshas Vaeira. Regarding the verse “I appeared,” it is explained that “I appeared” is not only in the past tense. The simple meaning of “I appeared to Avraham, to Yitzchak, and to Yaakov” refers to something that happened in the past. But the Rebbe explains that “I appeared” also describes a continuing present. [unclear] One can also say that “I appeared” describes a continuing present, something that continues to happen. But the Rebbe explains an even deeper point in “I appeared.” The Rebbe focuses on this: “I appeared to Avraham, to Yitzchak, and to Yaakov”—why are Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov mentioned here by name? What is the significance of calling them the “forefathers”? This question is explained in Chassidus. In the sicha, the Rebbe explains at length the true depth of Rashi’s words. Rashi does raise the question: What is he trying to tell us by saying “forefathers”? This is based on the Alter Rebbe’s explanation of the parsha. What is Rashi trying to explain here? Rashi is explaining that “I appeared”—that Hakadosh Boruch Hu revealed Himself to Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov—means “I appeared to the forefathers.” This is a point in its own right: Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov as the forefathers, the fathers of the Jewish people. In other words, what is so significant and profound about Rashi’s saying “to the forefathers”? When the verse says, “I appeared to Avraham, to Yitzchak, and to Yaakov,” one might think their names are mentioned because of their greatness—each one in his own greatness, in his

07:11 holiness, his distinctive spiritual level. Avraham was a chariot for the attribute of kindness. Yitzchak was a chariot for the attribute of might. Yaakov was a chariot for the attribute of beauty, the attribute of compassion. These are the forefathers—the chariot, holy people, each with his own level and his own avodah. Avraham’s path was acts of kindness. Yitzchak’s was avodah. Yaakov’s was Torah; that was his avodah, his level. So the verse says, “I appeared to Avraham, to Yitzchak, and to Yaakov”—because of their greatness. [unclear] That is why the Chumash always mentions their names: the revelation to them came because of their spiritual level, because of their greatness. But here Rashi says: No—“I appeared to the forefathers.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu revealed Himself to Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov not because of their spiritual level, greatness, or holiness, but because they were the forefathers of the entire Jewish people. And since this was a revelation to the forefathers of the Jewish people, we know that “a father bequeaths to his son”—a father passes an inheritance on to his children, as the Gemara says regarding a number of matters. This is what the Alter Rebbe explains at length in Tanya, chapters 18 and 19 and beyond: the forefathers were the chariot, and thus “they merited to pass it on to their children after them, to the end of all generations.” Every Jew born to Jewish parents receives this as an inheritance. He has the inheritance of the forefathers within him, and he has this capacity for seeing. That is,

08:50 for the forefathers, their connection with Hakadosh Boruch Hu and the revelation of G-dliness were like seeing; this is what characterized them. And because that was true of the forefathers, it naturally passes on to their children. Every Jew has this power of sight within them—the ability to see G-dliness and connect with G-dliness as one connects with something one sees. What is more, the Rebbe makes an even deeper point. One might think: Well, for the forefathers, who were holy, that sight was on an entirely different level. Their children may have inherited it, but only on a lower level, only [unclear] a very small measure of it. To this Rashi says: No—“I appeared to the forefathers.” Rashi wants to emphasize that the whole purpose of the forefathers’ meriting a revelation from Hakadosh Boruch Hu in the manner of seeing was for it to pass on to their children. In other words, this is not really something exclusive to the forefathers. It belongs to the entire Jewish people, to the end of all generations. Every Jew has this connection to G-dliness in the manner of seeing. That is why Rashi specifically tells us, “I appeared to the forefathers”: since everything the forefathers received was intended for their children to receive as well, it follows that every Jew, without exception, whoever he may be,

10:16 in every generation has within him the desire, this capacity for seeing, this way of seeing—a connection to G-dliness in the manner of seeing. And the Alter Rebbe explains this at length in his teaching on the weekly parsha. What is the point? He explains: What does it mean to see—to experience something specifically in the manner of seeing? He explains it through pregnancy and birth. Exile and Geulah—as is well known, exile is compared to pregnancy, and Geulah to birth. When a baby is in the womb, the Gemara in Tractate Niddah says, it already has everything, all its limbs, all 248 limbs, even the [unclear]. All these things are fully present; it learns Torah, and an angel [unclear], and all the good things the Gemara describes. But its head is between its knees. Its power of sight is not functioning. As for eating, it “eats what its mother eats”; what the mother eats is what it eats. And that is the point: when it emerges, its eyes open, and then it can see. Things become alive for it; then it becomes a fully developed child, and its higher faculties, sight and hearing, open up. It can understand, it can

11:47 to feel; he becomes a person in his own right. And the Alter Rebbe explains that this is precisely the difference between exile and Geulah. Where is the [unclear] in a person? A Jew may keep Torah and mitzvos, study, daven, serve Hashem, and observe the entire Shulchan Aruch, with all its laws and stringencies—but do it all in the manner of “a child in the womb eats what its mother eats.” He has no feeling of his own, no path of his own. He sees nothing, understands nothing, feels nothing. All there is here is the mother and father in the Jewish home, giving him a Jewish education. This is precisely what it means to perform mitzvos “by rote,” the Rebbe says in the maamar. And then the [unclear] comes and tells us that every Jew has this power within him. This is the meaning of “I appeared to the forefathers.” And this is what Rashi means by “to the forefathers”: the Jew is connected to the forefathers, so this exists in their children too. Every person has this quality in his soul: he wants to see G-dliness. He wants G-dliness in a way he can see; he can see it, he can feel it, he can speak. So when the time comes, a Jew finds within himself not only the ability to see G-dliness, but also to absorb it inwardly. He can connect to G-dliness and leave his inner exile. And that is the true meaning of Geulah: a person can be connected to G-dliness in a way of actual sight. But the Rebbe explains that this is still not the point of what is new here, my friends. What we find in this parsha is that Hakadosh Boruch Hu speaks to Moshe Rabbeinu in a tone of reproach: “What a pity for those who are gone.” Moshe Rabbeinu comes

13:30 with a complaint: “Why have You done evil to this people?” He does not understand. Hakadosh Boruch Hu says to him: “What a pity for those who are gone.” Moshe Rabbeinu went to Egypt, and when he arrived there, he went to Pharaoh. Pharaoh did not release the Jewish people, and the situation became even worse. “And You have not rescued Your people.” Earlier, at the end of Parshas Shemos, Moshe Rabbeinu comes to Hashem with a complaint. He cries out: “Why have You done evil to this people? Why did You send me?” And to this Hakadosh Boruch Hu says, “What a pity for those who are gone.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu tells Moshe Rabbeinu: Learn from the forefathers. The forefathers—“I appeared to Avraham”—I revealed Myself to them, and afterward they faced trials, concealments and obstacles. Things did not come to pass, yet they believed and did not complain. Theirs was simple faith. Why do you, Moshe, have to come with a complaint? That is the plain meaning, and according to Rashi, it would seem that the Torah wants to tell us something negative about Moshe Rabbeinu, something undesirable. That is what Rashi appears to imply. The Rebbe asks: How could it be that the Torah wants to tell us something undesirable? What is the point, the purpose, the benefit? The Torah does not even want to speak negatively, and here, suddenly, it speaks about a complaint made by Moshe Rabbeinu. The Rebbe takes this in a somewhat opposite direction: this itself is to Moshe’s credit. The difference between the forefathers and Moshe Rabbeinu is that the forefathers experienced a revelation of G-dliness through simple faith, in a manner of seeing, but it was not a matter of daas, of understanding. The entire innovation of Matan Torah, for which Moshe Rabbeinu came, was to bring the Jewish people to daas: “And you will know that I am Hashem,” as it says earlier in the parsha. When they were in Egypt, they had simple faith, but it was not daas. Faith,

15:36 faith that in the language of Kabbalah is called katnus, a state of smallness. A person has faith, an inner point; he believes. But that faith does not permeate all the faculties of his soul. It is not his reality, not something that comes from within him. For this Moshe Rabbeinu came: to draw down daas. The forefathers experienced a revelation of G-dliness, and they passed on to every Jew a simple faith in G-dliness, to the point of mesirus nefesh. But that faith stands on its own and is not connected to the inner faculties. The goal is for his mind to become a vessel for G-dliness—and his emotions, his heart, his thought, speech and action—for the whole person to be permeated inwardly. For this Moshe Rabbeinu came, the Raya Mehemna. As the Zohar says, Raya Mehemna means “shepherd of faith”: he shepherds faith. He works to make faith not merely something abstract, holy and lofty, but something that permeates the person in every aspect of his being, so that he becomes a vessel for G-dliness. And Moshe Rabbeinu expressed this when he asked, “Why have You done evil to this people?” Moshe Rabbeinu’s question did not, G-d forbid, come from a place of doubt. Rather, Moshe Rabbeinu, on his level of wisdom and holiness, sensed that a Jew also has an intellect. In that very place—in his mind—where he asks questions and wants to understand, and where even the complaint “Why have You done evil to this people?” can arise as an intellectual question, there too must be “And you will know that I am Hashem.” That in the mind, in the place where questions are asked, one should be able

17:15 to arrive at the conclusion, at the truth of Hashem’s oneness, the truth that “there is nothing besides Him,” at His true attribute. As Rashi says on “And you will know that I am Hashem”: “My true attribute.” Precisely through the Exodus from Egypt and Matan Torah, there will be knowledge of the true Hashem—what Rashi calls “My true attribute.” What does a true attribute mean? That a person, with his entire being—his mind, his emotions, his faculties, his souls and his limbs—becomes utterly saturated and permeated with true faith. It becomes his own reality. And this is what we mean by “I appeared to the forefathers.” The forefathers did indeed see, and the forefathers are present within every Jew. [unclear]. The forefathers live on in their children, and the children live through the forefathers. So every Jew inherits from the forefathers love and fear of Hashem, and service motivated by compassion. We inherited this from Avraham Avinu in a manner of seeing, so that G-dliness becomes something that belongs to the person himself. At the same time, there must be “And you will know”—meaning not faith alone, but faith brought down into Chabad, into his own intellect, so that he can understand it with his own mind, as part of his own reality. And as we see, Parshas Vaeira now falls around 24 Teves. This week is the yahrzeit, 24 Teves, the yahrzeit of the Alter Rebbe, founder of Chabad Chassidus, and it always falls

18:39 around Parshas Vaeira. As is known, the Alter Rebbe’s passing was specifically on Motzaei Shabbos of Parshas Shemos—that is, already at the start of the new week, the week of Parshas Vaeira. The Rebbe once spoke about why the Tzemach Tzedek emphasized that it was on Motzaei Shabbos of Parshas Shemos. In any event, the week of 24 Teves connects these things to the time of Parshas Vaeira. What is the connection? This is the whole point of the Alter Rebbe’s Chabad Chassidus. As is known, there is a note by the Rebbe Rashab, which he wrote on 19 Kislev [unclear], as the chassidim call it. The handwritten note is called “Letters of Thought.” There he writes that this was also the role of the forefathers and Moshe Rabbeinu: the forefathers began revealing G-dliness in the world. They brought a revelation of G-dliness into the world through their conduct, their trials, their deeds and everything the forefathers did in the world. They began to illuminate the world and make it bright, but everything still remained above. Until Matan Torah, “the higher realms had not descended below, and the lower realms had not ascended above.” Then Moshe Rabbeinu came and broke down the entire partition, to draw down

19:55 revelation into the physical world through the observance of mitzvos with physical things. This is the idea of Matan Torah, the joining of the higher and lower realms, through drawing down the Essence, as is known. The Rebbe writes [unclear] regarding the forefathers of Chassidus that the holy Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid of Mezritch were the forefathers of Chassidus, like the forefathers Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, who prepared the world for the revelation of the inner dimension of Torah. But at first, in the time of the Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid of Mezritch, it was [unclear] stories and deeds. The Baal Shem Tov led the way, and the Maggid of Mezritch had already begun to say something beyond that, but it was more in the form of Kabbalah. [unclear] Several stories are cited. Then the Alter Rebbe came, brought together the deepest teachings of the inner dimension of Torah, and brought chochmah, binah and daas into understanding and comprehension. As they say, “Our Rebbe came and drew down the Essence.” The Alter Rebbe drew down the Essence of the inner dimension of Torah, and when the Essence is revealed, it permeates all of reality, until it becomes a person’s own—like “And you will know that I am Hashem.” And this is what we learned in Parshas Vaeira. We learned the parsha that leads to the ultimate goal of “And you will know”—to know in this way. “I appeared to Avraham, to Yitzchak and to Yaakov”: Hakadosh Boruch Hu revealed Himself to Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov equally, [unclear] even though they represent three different levels: Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov.

21:23 Each person at his own level in the service of Hashem. Rashi comes and says about these words: “To the forefathers.” This relates specifically to the very essence of the Jewish people, which has its source in the forefathers. And because they are our forefathers, this [unclear] has been passed down to us as an inheritance from them. We have this capacity to see G-dliness: a Jew can emerge from his personal exile and connect with G-dliness in a way of seeing, as it were. It illuminates him and becomes something alive for him. Alongside this comes “and you shall know.” For that, extensive study is needed, and this is the purpose of studying Chassidus, [unclear] on the yahrtzeit of the Alter Rebbe, the founder of Chabad Chassidus, who taught that there must be chochmah, binah, and daas—understanding and comprehension. A person should understand with his own mind, so that he becomes a vessel for G-dliness, and the inner teachings of the Torah penetrate his mind and intellect. His entire being should be permeated with G-dliness to its very depths, and that will be the greatest preparation. But to leave one’s personal exile, to leave the exile of Egypt, to leave exile—this final exile. And as is known, the teachings of Chassidus are the final preparation for the Torah of Moshiach, so that we reach the true and complete Geulah. Then, indeed, “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of Hashem,” as the Rambam, whose yahrtzeit is on 20 Teves,

22:47 writes in his book, concerning “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of Hashem as the waters cover the sea.” Then there will be a true union of faith and intellect, seeing and knowledge and comprehension. “They shall see eye to eye,” “and all flesh shall see together that the mouth of Hashem has spoken,” and at the same time, “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of Hashem as the waters cover the sea.” May we merit to see this in its fullest perfection, down here in this world.