Parshas Vayeitzei, 9-10 Kislev 5786 "And I will feed you the inheritance of Yaakov" - The reward for keeping Shabbos

00:00 As is well known, the Mitteler Rebbe was imprisoned. That is a whole story, and we will not go into all its details. But while he was in prison, he received special permission to say Chassidus. At first they did not want to allow it, but there was a doctor treating him, Professor Avnatal, I think that was his name. He was very close to the family, knew the Mitteler Rebbe, and knew that the Mitteler Rebbe had to say Chassidus. For him, it was literally a matter affecting his life and health. The doctor managed to convince the government officials, the police, and everyone involved to let the Mitteler Rebbe say Chassidus. And so it was. It is told that on Shabbos Parshas Vayeitzei, 9 Kislev, the Mitteler Rebbe’s birthday, he said Chassidus. It was Shabbos afternoon, after Minchah. He spoke on the verse, “You are One and Your name is One, and who is like Your people Israel, one nation on earth,” the wording we say in the Shabbos Minchah prayer. The Mitteler Rebbe explained the entire text of Shabbos Minchah at great length. [unclear] As was the Mitteler Rebbe’s way of saying Chassidus, he did so expansively and at great length. And the maamar is indeed still in print today. It was published in Sefer Hamaamarim, in the Mitteler Rebbe’s kuntreisim.

01:33 The maamar “You Are One” is a rich, expansive, delightful maamar dealing with the entire order and text of the Shabbos Minchah prayer. It is told that in the middle of the maamar he said, “Quiet, quiet, Father is coming.” In the middle of saying the maamar, the Rebbe said “Father”—the Alter Rebbe had come from the World of Truth, descending to be there with him—“Quiet, quiet, Father is coming.” That day, after the maamar, word came that he was about to be released, and that happened on Sunday, 10 Kislev. The Mitteler Rebbe was then released and could return home. In time, 10 Kislev became the Mitteler Rebbe’s festival of Geulah, the day of “He redeemed my soul in peace.” It is very interesting that the maamar he said then was “You Are One and Your Name Is One, and Who Is Like Your People Israel, One Nation on Earth”—a wonderful maamar that the Rebbe returned to several times, speaking about a number of its themes. What is the connection between this theme, and particularly the Mitteler Rebbe, and the maamar “You Are One,” his Geulah, and Shabbos Parshas Vayeitzei? The Rebbe once speaks at length about these matters and about the main points we find in the weekly parsha. We find in it the theme of Shabbos. The Gemara says in tractate Shabbos that whoever takes delight in Shabbos merits an inheritance without bounds. And it says this in the language of the verse,

03:03 the verse in Yeshayahu that says: “If you turn back your foot from Shabbos, from doing your own affairs on My holy day, and call Shabbos a delight… then you will delight in Hashem… and I will feed you the inheritance of Yaakov your father.” When a Jew takes delight in Shabbos, Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives him Yaakov’s inheritance. What is Yaakov’s inheritance? The Gemara says: it is an inheritance without bounds, about which Hakadosh Boruch Hu told Yaakov Avinu in the weekly parsha: “Your descendants shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread out westward and eastward, northward and southward; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed through you and your descendants.” Every Jew receives the blessing Yaakov Avinu received through the delight of Shabbos. And the question arises: What makes this merit so great, and why is the reward for delighting in Shabbos so great? There are other mitzvos, after all. Why is this reward given specifically for Shabbos—and not just any reward, but an inheritance without bounds? What is the connection between “you shall spread out,” breaking through boundaries, and the delight of Shabbos? What does it mean to “take delight in Shabbos”? The Mitteler Rebbe explains this in the maamar “You Are One.” He explains that Shabbos has something special found specifically in it. Every mitzvah, after all, has its measures and limits. And with every mitzvah, one person fulfills it in one way and another person in another; there can be differences in its parameters, its limitations, its various enhancements, and so on. For all Jews, Shabbos is about rest. That is the point of the prohibition against work; that is

04:33 the point of Shabbos rest. Shabbos rest encompasses the entire Jewish people, both the completely righteous and the wicked, all of them together in the same way. Everyone has the same rest, the same parameters, the same law, and the same essential experience of Shabbos rest. When the Mitteler Rebbe explains the nature of Shabbos, he explains that its spiritual dimension is the yechidah of the soul, which shines within every Jew. As is known, the soul has five names: nefesh, ruach, neshamah, chayah, and yechidah. There is the dimension of yechidah within the soul. What is the yechidah of the soul? It is the soul’s essence, “the singular one to unite with You”—the essential bond with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The yechidah is entirely beyond all measures and limits. Every level has limits. A person is measured and limited, and the human body is measured and limited too. The soul’s faculties that are vested in the limbs are also measured and limited: intellect, emotions, thought, speech, and action. Each faculty has its own organ, its own vessel, and its own measures and limits, according to that vessel. The one thing that has no limits at all is the yechidah of the soul. The Mitteler Rebbe goes so far as to say that the yechidah of the soul is not vested even in the human body. There is also the power of will, which permeates all the limbs, but it is present throughout the body. The body is not even a vessel for the yechidah. Where is a person’s yechidah? The Mitteler

06:03 Rebbe offers a remarkable insight: a person’s yechidah, the yechidah of the soul, is found in the four amos surrounding the person. That is, in terms of its revelation, because this level is so lofty, it cannot be vested within and confined to the person’s boundaries; rather, it is found in the four amos outside and around him. That is why we find the whole concept of acquisition through one’s four amos in halachah. We find in halachah that a person’s four amos acquire things for him wherever he is, and therefore the law is that they acquire things for him even without his knowledge. And that is remarkable: ordinarily an acquisition requires a person’s knowledge, whereas here we say that his four amos acquire things for him without his knowledge. It is an entire discussion in Bava Metzia, with all its details. But looking at the substance of the matter, at its inner meaning, the Mitteler Rebbe says that acquisition through one’s four amos is connected to the yechidah—the Jew’s bond that transcends reason and understanding, beyond the measures and limits of the intellect. That is why it is an acquisition even without his knowledge. This is the yechidah of the soul that surrounds a person. And that is why we find the whole matter of four amos in the laws of Shabbos: four amos in the laws of carrying on Shabbos, and four amos in the laws of techumin—how far a person may walk when he is outside the boundary, so that he does not walk more than

07:24 four amos. This is “Let no man go out from his place.” As cited also in the saying of our Sages, “Let no man go out from his place”: this concerns four amos, and some say [unclear] the laws of carrying and transferring from one domain to another. In any case, “his place” means the person’s own place. In other words, the definition of four amos that we find on Shabbos more than in other matters fits precisely with the fact that four amos are especially connected to a person’s yechidah, the yechidah of the soul. And this is what is said of Yaakov Avinu, “upon which you are lying”: that was Yaakov Avinu’s place, his four amos, and there Hashem revealed Himself to him. And Hashem tells him: “The land upon which you are lying, I will give to you and to your descendants… and you shall spread out westward and eastward, northward and southward.” The reason is simple: that is where the yechidah is found. Yaakov Avinu was there and revealed the yechidah of the soul, and therefore boundlessness was revealed to him as well, for the yechidah is a vessel for true boundlessness. And there, all the more so, is an everlasting inheritance—“you shall spread out”—without any measure or limit. And this is what is said in [unclear]: when a Jew has Shabbos rest—and when there is Shabbos rest, [unclear] says, it is not merely physical rest, but inner rest: a person connects with the yechidah of his soul,

08:47 he connects with the essence of his neshamah, which is the yechidah of the soul, “the singular one to unite with You.” And on Shabbos this is more apparent, as the Rebbe says: on Shabbos, the yechidah of the soul is revealed more within every Jew. That is why he has true rest, connected with greatness: on Shabbos there is the greatest connection with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And when there is Shabbos rest, the Rebbe writes, it is a taste of the World to Come. This prepares a person to be a vessel to receive even the greatest reward, of which the Torah tells us: “an inheritance without bounds,” “the inheritance of Yaakov,” “for the mouth of Hashem has spoken.” And this is also connected to the everlasting inheritance, to “you shall spread out westward and eastward, northward and southward,” in the true and complete Geulah through Moshiach Tzidkeinu.