What is the meaning of íãà äùòð - We will make a man?
Why is the plural form used?
Many explanations are given.
(áåè ç÷ì ùøãî) åðì éååöë íé÷ìà øîàéå éëå úåøåãä ìëì íãà äùòð ùøéô äéãòñ 'ø éë íéøîåà ùé
When ä"á÷ä said- We will make a man in our image
in our likeness, He addresses
Himself to the future generations, to the future fathers and
mothers in the world.
The íìåò ìù åðåáø
said íãà äùòð - We will make
a man. It is an imperative. It is a
command to the future fathers and mothers and teachers.
The íìåò ìù åðåáø
imposes an obligation upon the fathers and mothers that they
should co-operate
with Him in moulding the íé÷ìà
íìö , the Godly image inherent in each person.
äùà àì ,åðúåîãë
åðîìöá êìéàå
ïàëî .íãàî äåçå
äîãàî àøáð íãà
øáòùì - éàìîù
'ø øîà
(úåëøá éîìùåøé)
äðéëù àìá íäéðù
àìå äùà àìá
ùéà àìå ùéà
àìá
R' Simlaii said: In the past Adam was created from earth and Chavah
was created
from Adam; but henceforth it shall be "in our image in
our likeness", neither man
without woman nor woman without man and neither of them without
the Shechinah.
åðúåîãë åðîìöá
íãà äùòð - In this ÷åñô
the ò"ùáø addresses Himself to
the future
fathers and mothers in the world and tells them - I created the
first man and the
first woman íé÷ìà íìöá
, in the Godly image. Every child that is born in the course
of the future generations will also be born íé÷ìà
íìöá . However, this is only
potential. This íé÷ìà
íìö has to be asserted. It must be perfected
and
galvanized.
Every human being was created in the image of God, as àáé÷ò
éáø says, íãà áéáç
íìöá àøáðù
- How dear is man, created in the Godly image. You, parents, must
co-
operate in actualizing this potential. Otherwise, the
íé÷ìà íìö will
be impaired.
* * *
ïéãä ïî åìåë
íìåòä ìë úà øåèôì
éðà ìåëé - éàçåé
øá ïåòîù éáø
íåùî äéîøé ø"à
äé÷æç øîà
.åéùëò ãòå
íìåòä àøáðù
íåéî éîò éðá
øæòéìà éìîìéàå
äúò ãò éúàøáðù
íåéî
Chizkiyah stated in the name of R. Yirmiyah who said it in the name
of R. Shimon
bar Yochai - I am able to exempt the whole world from judgment
from the day that I
was born until now, and were Eliezer my son to be with me, we
could exempt it
from the day of creation of the world to the present time...
éðà ïä óìà íà
ïéèòåî íäå äééìò
éðá éúéàø -
éàçåé øá ïåòîù
éáø íåùî äéîøé
ø"à äé÷æç øîàå
.ïä éðáå éðà
ïä íéðù íà ïäî
éðáå éðà ïä äàî
íà ïäî éðáå
Chizkiyah further stated in the name of R. Yirmiyah who said it in
the name of R.
Shimon bar Yochai - I have seen superior beings and they are
but few. If there be
a thousand, I and my son are among them; if a hundred, I and
my son are among
them; and if only two, they are I and my son.
It is remarkable that whenever R. Shimon bar Yochai talks of his own
greatness or
he talks of his son's greatness, he talks of both of them in
one breath.
ïåøéîá éàçåé
øá ïåòîù éáø
úøòî
R. Shimon bar Yochai, together with his son, spent thirteen years in
a cave. He
suffered all those years together with his son Eliezer, and there
he composed the
Zohar. R. Eliezer was not just a great tzaddik and gadol,
the son of a great tzaddik
and gadol. It seems that R. Shimon bar Yochai raised his
son R. Eliezer in such a
way that he actually infused his own image, his own neshamah
into his son.
R. Shimon bar Yochai conformed to the method the íìåò
ìù åðåáø imposed upon
him of åðúåîãë
åðîìöá íãà äùòð
. He instilled his own íìö into his
son R. Eliezer.
While you cannot separate R. Eliezer from R. Shimon bar Yochai,
you also cannot
separate R. Shimon bar Yochai from his son R. Eliezer.
They both had one heart,
one mind, one soul.
åðúåîãë åðîìöá
íãà äùòð A father and
mother dare not allow a child to grow like wild
grass. The child can have the biggest potential, the greatest
spiritual potential, but
if the father and mother do not exert the effort and are not
ready to bring sacrifices
in order to perfect the íìö , then the
íé÷ìà íìö will be
abused.
This, according to R. Saadiah Gaon, is the first mitzvah in the Torah,
imposed
upon all of mankind.
* * *
When the ò"ùáø revealed Himself to Yitzchak Avinu, He blessed Yitzchak, saying:
õøàä ééåâ ìë
êòøæá åëøáúäå
ìàä úåöøàä ìë
úà êòøæì éúúðå
íéîùä éáëåëë
êòøæ úà éúéáøäå
And I will multiply your offspring as the stars of the heaven and I
will give unto your
offspring all these lands, and all the nations of the earth will
bless themselves
through your offspring.
The last expression, êòøæá åëøáúäå
- and they will bless themselves through your
offspring, is not a simple expression. What does it mean?
Rashi explains - ÷çöé ìù åòøæë êòøæ àäé åðáì øîåà íãà .
The bracha to Yitzchak was that all men, all the nations of the world
will use
Yitzchak's offspring as a symbol, a prototype of blessing.
A father, blessing his
son, will say - may your son be as the son of Yitzchak.
Similar to this is the bracha of Hashem to Avraham Avinu-
äîãàä úçôùî
ìë êá åëøáðå
- Rashi explains that Avraham will be treated by all the
families of the earth as a symbol of blessing. Whenever
a person will desire to
bless his son or his friend, he will say íäøáàë
àäú - May you be as Avraham.
Similar again is the meaning of the bracha that Yaakov conferred upon
Ephraim
and Menashe:
äùðîëå íéøôàë
íé÷ìà êîùé
øîàì ìàøùé
êøáé êá øåîàì
àåää íåéá íëøáéå
And he blessed them on that day saying - By you Yisrael shall bless
saying - May
God make you as Ephraim and as Menashe.
In these cases we understand that Avraham Avinu or Ephraim and Menashe
are
the symbols of blessing. However, in the blessing to Yitzchak,
the ò"ùáø says
êòøæá åëøáúäå
- The nations of the earth will bless themselves by saying - May your
son be as the son of Yitzchak.
Why does the ò"ùáø bless Yitzchak
by declaring Yitzchak's son as the prototype of
blessing, and not Yitzchak himself, as in the blessing to Avraham
Avinu and to
Ephraim and Menashe?!
Should this not have been a bracha to Yaakov rather than to Yitzchak?
Why was the bracha formulated differently?
There is a very simple answer.
The ï"áéø explains the éîìùåøé in íéøãð :
ììë - íãà úãìåú
øôñ äæ øîåà éàæò
ïá .äøåúá ìåãâ
ììë äæ àáé÷ò
éáø øîà - êåîë
êòøì úáäàå
.äæî ìåãâ
Rabbi Akiva expressed the view that loving one's neighbor as much as
one loves
himself represents the highest moral devotion.
Ben Azzai stated that there is a greater devotion that is more sublime
than loving
the other fellow as much as one loves himself. íãà
úãìåú øôñ äæ
- If one would
show love and devotion to his neighbor as he shows to his own
son, this would
constitute an even greater degree of devotion.
The ï"áéø says that a devoted father
is more devoted to his son than he is to
himself. A devoted father is ready to give up his life
in order to spare the life of his
son.
This is what Ben Azzai said to Rabbi Akiva.
We now understand the bracha that the ò"ùáø
bestowed upon Yitzchak. The
bracha to Yitzchak was even of a greater magnitude than the bracha
to Avraham.
The bracha to Avraham was that Avraham's personality will be
treated as a
prototype of blessing. The bracha to Yitzchak, however,
because he was an äìåò
äîéîú, a "perfect sacrifice",
was even of a greater magnitude. Not Yitzchak, but
Yitzchak's son would be treated as the symbol of blessing.
Whenever a father will express blessing to his son, he will say
àäé
÷çöé ìù åòøæë
êòøæ -May your offspring be as the offspring
of Yitzchak, rather than
÷çöéë àäú
-May you be as Yitzchak.
This is the even greater blessing, because a devoted father is more
devoted to his
son than to himself.
* * *
Yitzchak had two sons, Yaakov and Eisav.
The bracha bestowed upon Yitzchak was õøàä
ééåâ ìë êòøæá
åëøáúäå - And all the
nations of the earth will bless themselves through your
offspring.
Obviously, the ò"ùáø did not mean Eisav.
Why did the ò"ùáø not formulate the
bracha to Yitzchak by saying á÷òéá
åëøáúäå -
and they shall bless themselves through Yaakov?
*
When one delves into the whole episode of how Rivkah directed Yaakov
to obtain
the brachos from his father in an apparently deceptive
way, the question arises -
why was it necessary?
òúòúîë åéðéòá
éúééäå éáà
éðùîé éìåà øîàù
á÷òé äæ - åááìá
úîà øáåãå
And he speaks truth in his heart - this refers to Yaakov Avinu who
said - Perhaps
my father will feel me and I will be in his eyes as a deceiver.
Our íéîëç use these words of Yaakov
Avinu to illustrate that Yaakov Avinu
personified the midah of úîà, truth.
Everyone asks the question - how does this remark indicate that Yaakov
Avinu
personified this midah? He was afraid that he would be
caught in the lie?
The Vilna Gaon explains that in Lashon HaKodesh there are two
words that
indicate doubt: One is ïô and the other
is éìåà .
Sometimes a person expresses a doubt and he hopes that this will not
happen. In
this case, one uses the expression ïô .
íëááì äúôé ïô íëì åøîùä - Guard yourselves lest your hearts sway.
Sometimes a person expresses a doubt that he hopes will happen.
Then one uses
the expression éìåà.
If Yaakov Avinu feared being caught by his father, he would have said
ïô
éáà éðùîé
- lest my father will feel me. However, he said
éìåà
éáà éðùîé
- perhaps my father will feel me. Here is proof that Yaakov Avinu
was
hoping his father would discover his true identity. He
was very reluctant to obtain
the brachos from Yitzchak Avinu in an apparently deceptive way.
Targum Onkelos says that Rivkah said through äàåáð
to Yaakov éðá êúìì÷
éìò .
Rivkah prophesied that he must present himself as his brother
Eisav and thus
obtain the brachos.
This was the 'ã øáã , and this was the directive by his mother Rivkah.
Yaakov Avinu hoped that he would not succeed in deceiving, in being
áðåâ the úòã
of his father. He hoped that his father would catch
him in the lie, and thus he
would not have been deceptive and still he would have fulfilled
the 'ã øáã and the
directive by his mother Rivkah.
Yaakov Avinu said - It is not good for me because even at best,
òúòúîë åéðéòá
éúééäå , my father will see
me as being deceptive. How can I be
happy to do such a thing?
This explains why our íéîëç say åðéáà á÷òé äæ - åááìá úîà øáåãå .
* *
This explains the behavior of Yaakov and Rivkah. Rivkah was told
äàåáðá to direct
Yaakov to obtain the brachos in an apparently deceptive way.
However, what was the purpose of the Hashgacha? If the ò"ùáø
had wanted
Yitzchak to give the brachos to Yaakov, all the ò"ùáø
had to do was to inspire the
right disposition in Yitzchak's mind that he should not be more
favorably disposed
toward Eisav than toward Yaakov.
Why did the Hashgacha have to manipulate and act in such an indirect
and
apparently haphazard way, when the Hashgacha had a very simple
way of
bestowing the brachos upon Yaakov?
The answer lies in understanding why Yitzchak, at the outset, was more
favorably
disposed toward a son Eisav than toward a son Yaakov.
Is it because he was blind?
No. Even though Yitzchak Avinu was blind, he was quite alert.
He knew very well
that Eisav was not an íéìäà
áùé íú ùéà.
*
According to Kabbala, Yitzchak Avinu personified the midah of Gevurah.
Eisav, too, possessed the midah of Gevurah innately. It was part
of his heredity.
At the very outset, when Eisav was born, he was a son of Yitzchak
as much as
Yaakov. He forfeited, however, the heritage of Avraham
due to his misbehavior. If
Eisav had done teshuvah and had become an 'ã ãáåò
, a íéìäà áùé
as his brother
Yaakov, then he, together with Yaakov, would have been the yorshim
of Avraham
Avinu.
Eisav abused, by his misbehavior, the good fortune that he could have had.
Yaakov Avinu did not innately possess the midah of Gevurah. Yaakov
Avinu
possessed all the kochos hanefesh, all the midos tovos, the good
qualities in the
world. However, there was one midah tova that Yaakov did
not possess. Because
he was an íéìäà áùé
íú ùéà , completely immersed in the
study of Torah, Yaakov
did not innately possess the midah of Gevurah.
The Hashgacha wanted to involve Yaakov in a struggle against Eisav in
order to
strengthen Yaakov and to instill in him this midah.
*
At the conclusion of the Shemoneh Esrai, we make the following request:
äéäú ìëì øôòë
éùôðå - And my soul should be like dust to
all.
Is this the hashkafas olam, the way of Yahadus, that when the goyim
come and hit
the Jew on one cheek, he should present the other to be hit?
This is the pitiful
philosophy of many gentiles, but not the hashkafas olam of the
Torah!
äéäú ìëì øôòë éùôðå .
The gemara explains that there is a right of neighbors called àùååã .
If Reuven has a wall, and Shimon, his neighbor, wants to build a wall
opposite this
wall, Shimon must leave a space of four amos to be tread
upon. This makes the
earth sturdy and firm. This is a right called àùååã
.
äéäú ìëì øôòë
éùôðå does not mean that I must give the
person who pursues me
every opportunity to tread upon me and that I should not even
defend myself. Chas
Veshalom! åâøäå íëùä
êâøäì àáä - We are commanded
to defend ourselves!
What äéäú ìëì øôòë
éùôðå does mean is that when the ìàøùé
éàðåù start persecuting
the Jews and treading upon us, we should not become discouraged
and
despondent. We should be able to face the challenge and
to be strengthened by
the encounter.
This is the meaning of the tefillah of äéäú ìëì øôòë éùôðå .
This was the purpose of the Hashgacha directing Yaakov to obtain the
brachos in
an apparently deceptive way.
Eisav became convinced that Yaakov was pursuing him and this brought
about a
confrontation between Yaakov and Eisav.
This was the àùååã . It
served to strengthen Yaakov and thereby to infuse within
his soul the midah of Gevurah.
* *
Apparently this is the reason why the ò"ùáø
said to Yitzchak -
åëøáúäå
õøàä ééåâ
ìë êòøæá .
As R. Saadiah Gaon says on the pasuk åðúåîãë
åðîìöá íøà äùòð
, the ò"ùáø
addresses Himself to the future fathers and mothers, and He tells
them that they
must co-operate with Him in perfecting the íé÷ìà
íìö and in nurturing all the midos
tovos in their children.
Yaakov Avinu could not be the full heir of yerushas Avraham without
possessing
the midah of Gevurah, for otherwise, as a result of Eisav and
his descendants
oppressing, persecuting, and trampling upon Yaakov and his descendants,
the
Jewish people would chas veshalom be destroyed.
The Hashgacha chose to involve Yaakov in a confrontation with Eisav
in order to
implant in his character and soul the midah of Gevurah.
The ò"ùáø did not say to Yitzchak
- á÷òéá åëøáúäå
- and they shall bless
themselves through Yaakov, but êòøæá
åëøáúäå - and they shall bless
themselves
through your offspring.
If the ò"ùáø would have said
á÷òéá åëøáúäå
, then Yitzchak and Rivkah would not
have had to exert any effort.
Just as íãà äùòð is
an imperative, so êòøæá åëøáúäå
is not only a bracha but also an
imperative. Yitzchak and Rivkah were commanded to become
íéôúåù , partners of
ä"á÷ä in perfecting the íé÷ìà
íìö inherent in Yaakov.
Thus, there was no defect, no diminution. Yaakov Avinu became
the perfect and
complete heir to åðéáà íäøáà
úùåøé .
äìôëîä úøòî
* * *
Chaslavitch, Russia.
21 days in Chodesh Av, 5678 (1918).
A cry pierced through the still of the summer night. The family
of Rav Moshe
Soloveichik was shaken awake, only to find their father Rav Moshe
trembling.
Rav Moshe Soloveichik had a frightening dream.
Rav Moshe saw his father standing on board a ship. Rav Moshe stood
on the
shore and watched as the ship slowly departed towards the vague
horizon.
As the ship set sail, Rav Moshe beheld his father Rav Chaim looking
at his son and
waving.
Waving farewell.
*
Later, Rav Moshe compared himself to the íéàéáðä
éðá who, in their intense agony
over the loss of their great teacher Eliyahu Hanavi, whose influence
over them in
äàåáð had been immense, had refused
at first to accept his departure from them
íéîùä äøòñá
.
They went searching and wandering desperately through the desert wastelands,
through pits and caves, perhaps their beloved leader had not
left them, but had only
temporarily fallen.
Rav Moshe describes how he travelled to Smolensk and from there to Minsk
on his
way to Warsaw, hoping that he would discover that the newspapers
had not
reported truthfully. But this was not the case.
*
Rav Chaim Soloveichik was the descendant and namesake of Rav Chaim
MiVolozhin, the talmid muvhak of the Vilna Gaon. His father,
Rav Yosef Dov Ber
Soloveichik, the Bais HaLevi, had yet lived in the lifetime of
and had known his
great-grandfather, Rav Chaim MiVolozhin. He said about
his son that he
possessed the ùôðä úåçåë
of this great ancestor after whom he was named.
It is related how the Bais HaLevi was telling the story of Avraham Avinu
in the ïùáë
ùàä , the fiery furnace, when Rav Chaim was
a child of three years. As the
sagacious and saintly father told his son the story of mesirus
nefesh and kiddush
HaShem, deep interest was expressed by the child, and a profound
discussion
followed. It was apparent from this reaction that at the
tender age of three, Rav
Chaim was åàøåá úà
øéëî , that he recognized his Creator.
The Bais HaLevi cried
from joy.
It is said about Rav Chaim that he was able to understand Halacha on
the basis of
logic and intuition alone, even before he had actually learned
it. Rav Chaim, as
described by his son Rav Moshe, was on the level of the great
Rishonim who were
endowed from birth with special creative abilities, that their
every thought and word
had significance and was part of Torah, regardless of whether
or not it was finally
accepted as practical Halacha.
Rav Chaim was of a different substance, from higher spheres than his
generation.
* *
Rav Chaim said to his son Rav Moshe's father-in-law, Rav Eliyahu
Feinstein, that
his son Rav Moshe knew more than he, Rav Chaim, himself.
Rav Eliyahu later
remarked that Rav Chaim did not exaggerate in the praise of his
son.
When Rav Moshe Soloveichik was thirty-one years old, he was appointed
as the
Rav of the great city of Rasein. Rav Chaim told the
community leaders that Rav
Moshe could explain any difficult Rambam, and that his ability
to understand
learning was most superior amongst all the Rabbanim in Lithuania.
one mind, one heart, one soul
Legend tells that a constant tefillah of Rav Chaim was that his children
should
understand learning. Whereupon a voice
rang out from Heaven and declared:
"Zei kennen." (They are able)
* * *
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