From: Netvort@aol.com
Sent: Friday, November 21, 2008 11:34 AM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort : parshas Chayei Soroh, 5769
Team Work
By Rabbi Joshua (collaboratively known as The Hoffer) Hoffman
After the episode of Avrohom's purchase of a burial place for Soroh,
most of the rest of the parsha deals with finding a wife for Yitzchok. First,
the Torah records Avrohom's instructions to his servant Eliezer on how
and where to find Yitzchok a wife, and then it records the actual mission, and
Yitzchok's marriage to Rivkoh. This entire section is preceded by the verse
(Bereishis 24:1), "Avrohom was old, well on in years, and God blessed
Avrohom with everything." Many explanations have been given to this
verse, with particular emphasis on the meaning of the word 'bakol', or everything.
On a peshat level, emphasizing the plain meaning of the text, Ramban says that
God blessed Avrohom with wealth, possessions, honor, children, in short,
everything a man could want. Realizing that he was approaching the end of his
life, he wanted to pass what he had on to the next generation. Therefore,
he arranged for his son to get married.
Ramban then goes on to cite a midrash, which brings various opinions
about the meaning of the word 'bakol.' According to one opinion,it means that
Avrohom had a daughter, whose name was 'bakol.' Ramban says that it cannot be
that the great teachers of the midrash merely wanted to teach us the name of
Avrohom's daughter. He therefore says that there is a deeper teaching in this
comment,and goes on to present what that teaching is. He says that 'bakol' is
the eighth of the thirteen midos, or traits, of God, and it was a trait which
with Avrohom was blessed. My teacher, Rav Aharon Soloveichik, zt"l,
explained this to refer to the trait of 'rav emes', or an abundance of truth,
which, depending on where you start the count, is the eighth of the thirteen
attributes of rachamim, or mercy, that he told to Moshe after the sin of the
eigel, or golden calf, as mentioned in parshas Ki Sisa. The meaning of this
trait is that God has invested an abundance of truth, or meaning, into
everything that He has created in the universe. The Torah is thus telling us,
according to this opinion in the midrash, that there is a feminine trait,
called 'bakol,' or everything, that consists in the ability to see meaning, or
truth, in everything in life, even the seemingly small, trivial things. Rav
Aharon said that this is a uniquely feminine trait and it explains why Chazal
said that if a person has a daughter first, it is a good sign for sons.This
does not mean, as commonly thought, that if a person has a daughter first, it
is a good sign that he will then have sons. Rather, it means that if a girl is
born first, it is a good sign for the sons that will follow, because their
older sister will teach them this important trait. This understanding of the
Ramban is very inspiring, but it does not explain why we need to know this as
an introduction to Avrohom's decision to find a wife for Yitzchok. I would
therefore like to suggest a different explanation of the Ramban, which will
also explain the connection between God's blessing to Avrohom and with
Avrohom's arrangement for Yitzchok's marriage, as well as the death and burial
of Soroh which is recorded in the previous verses, which describe the death and
burial of Soroh.
One of the things that Ramban says in explaining the trait of 'bakol',
is that it corresponds to the concept of Knesses Yisroel. He says that this
refers to the collective character of the Jewish people. Although the Ramban does
not mention this, in kabbalah, this middah corresponds to the sephirah of
'malchus,' which is feminine, and, therefore, is referred to in the midrash as
a daughter. Thus, Avrohom was connected to the development of the collective
character of the Jewish people. This is actually the deeper meaning of Ramban's
principle,taken from another midrash, that the actions of the patriarchs are a
sign for the children. The acts of the patriarchs, according to the Ramban,
helped form the collective character of the Jewish people. Rav Yosef Dov
Soloveitchik, zt"l, in an essay included in his recently published
Abraham's Journey, says that the patriarchs and matriarchs were teams,
and worked together in forming the Jewish nation. That is why, after Soroh's
death, we do not find anything recorded of Avrohom's life besides the episode
of Yitzchok's marriage, and Avrohom's subsequent marriage to Keturah. Once
Soroh died, the team of Avrohom and Soroh was no longer active, and Avrohom was
no longer contributing to the further development of the collective character
of the Jewish nation. Perhaps, then, the Torah is telling us, when it mentions
the blessing of 'bakol' after the death and burial of Soroh and immediately
before the arrangement for Yitzchok's marriage, Avrohom realized that with
Soroh's death, it was now necessary, in order to continue the work of shaping
the collective nature of the Jewish people, for Yitzchok to get married and
thereby form a new team to implement the middah of 'bakol', just as Soroh and
he had done while she was alive.
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