ספר בראשית

‎The author now reverts back to Yaakov’s blessing of ‎Yehudah in Genesis 49,10 where Yaakov said: ‎לא יסור שבט מיהודה ‏ומחוקק מבין רגליו‎, commonly translated as: “the scepter shall not ‎depart from Yehudah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his ‎feet.” According to our author, if I understood him correctly, a ‎King’s primary concern is the political freedom of the people ‎under his rule and to ensure that they have adequate food ‎supplies. Midrash Tehillim 80,2 alludes to this when it states ‎that the provision of an adequate livelihood is more important ‎than the provision of political freedom, ‎גאולה‎, as the former is ‎provided by G’d personally, whereas the latter has been entrusted ‎to one of His angels. The author of the Midrash bases ‎himself on Genesis 48,16 where Yaakov commands the “angel” ‎who ensures political freedom, i.e. ‎המלאך הגואל‎, whereas ‎concerning the provision of adequate food supplies, i.e. ‎livelihood, this is something that G’d personally is involved in, ‎based on David in psalms 145,16 speaking of G’d opening His ‎hand to all living creatures (to supply their needs). In Exodus ‎‎23,20 the Torah also writes of the angel that G’d will send ahead ‎of the Jewish people,‎הנה אנכי שולח מלאך לפניך לשמרך בדרך וגו' ‏‎, ‎whereas when it came to supplying the manna, the Israelites’ ‎food, no mention is made of an angel being involved. This is also ‎how we must understand Song of Songs 8,10, “then I was in his ‎eyes as someone who has found an abundance of peace.”‎אז הייתי ‏בעיניו כמוצאת שלום רב‎. According to the Talmud Pessachim, ‎‎87 the composer, Solomon, compares the “bride,” simile for the ‎people of Israel, as feeling secure in the house of her husband, i.e. ‎G’d. In this verse Solomon also distinguishes between the “bride,” ‎and her “breasts” as two different parts of herself, an allusion to ‎the Jewish people either serving the Lord as “recipients,” or as ‎having attained a level where they are entitled to also feel as ‎‎“donors” vis a vis G’d as we have explained . The bride’s father in ‎law’s house is a simile for the ‎עלמא דנוקבא‎, whereas when ‎mention is made by the composer of ‎בית אביה‎, “her father’s ‎house,” this is an allusion to the ‎עלמא דדכורא‎, “the predominantly ‎masculine domain in the celestial spheres.” When the “human ‎donor” has succeeded to provide his Heavenly Father with joy ‎through the manner in which he serves Him, then, in the words ‎of Rav Chisda, his daughters would provide enduring joy to their ‎husbands.‎Having appreciated this concept, we can also understand the ‎verse in which ‎גאולה‎, “political freedom”, as we termed it earlier, ‎when discussing the comparison made between the relative worth ‎of political freedom and an adequate livelihood in the two verses ‎quoted in Midrash Tehillim, 80,2. This Midrash is based ‎on Bereshit Rabbah 20,9 where two verses are cited, i.e. ‎suggesting that ‎גאולה‎ “redemption” has to occur on two levels. ‎Man has to be redeemed from the repercussions of Adam’s ‎original sin, and we have to be redeemed collectively from the ‎exile in which we have waited for the redeemer for 2000 years.‎ In the book ‎ראשית חכמה‎, by the famous Rabbi Eliyahu ‎Vidash, the point is made that due to man’s original sin he had ‎acquired (sustained) a blemish on his soul as an integral part of ‎his being. Just as physical man consists of 248 limbs and 365 ‎tendons, muscular tissue, a total of 613 parts corresponding to ‎the 613 commandments in the written Torah, so there is a ‎parallel division between 248 plus 365 parts in the spiritual part ‎of man, his soul. The “damage” inflicted on our souls is known as ‎חלל‎. In other words, any sin committed by one of these 613 parts ‎of his body results in commensurate damage, or ‎חלל‎ in his soul. In ‎order to cleanse the soul of these “holes,” it has to spend a period ‎of time in gehinom, purgatory, until this damage has been ‎repaired. This is man’s fate if he has not repented for his sins ‎prior to his death, of course.‎When Moses, in Deut. 32,18 says ‎צור ילדך תשי ותשכח ‏אלמחוללך‎, where the name for G’d as both ‎צור‎ and ‎א-ל‎ is repeated, ‎this is also an allusion to the two types of ‎גאולה‎, redemption, we ‎need in order to recapture the pure state in which original man ‎had been created. When describing the impending redemption ‎after the people have done teshuvah Moses says:, ‎ושב ה' ‏אלוקיך את שבותך ורחמך ושב וקבצך מכל העמים אשר הפיצך ה' אלוקיך שמה‎, ‎‎“and the Lord your G’d will return with your captives and have ‎mercy upon you; and He will return and gather you in from ‎among all the nations that he had scattered you to.” (30,3) The ‎word: ‎ושב‎, appears to have been repeated twice for no good ‎reason. Actually, this verse alludes to two separate “returns” from ‎‎“exile,” the physical as well as spiritual exile suffered by the souls. ‎We find that just as when it came to ‎פרנסה‎, two verses describe ‎that G’d looks after this directly, i.e. for the nourishment of the ‎body as well as that for the soul, so when it comes to ‎‎“redemption”, a prerequisite for our being able to serve the Lord ‎with maximum devotion, both the body and the damaged soul ‎will be redeemed separately. Alternately, the two verses allude to ‎the concept that G’d is both dispenser of largesse and recipient of ‎the joy and selflessness that some of His creatures display by ‎serve Him.”