ספר בראשית

Genesis 29,11. “Yaakov gave Rachel a kiss, etc;” ‎‎[note that the Torah does not refer to Rachel’s physical ‎appearance until verse 17 after Yaakov had already worked for ‎him for over a month. Ed.]‎Genesis 29,17. “and Rachel was shapely and ‎beautiful.” At first glance it is surprising that the Torah ‎appears to link Yaakov’s falling in love with Rachel in verse 18, ‎ויאהב יעקב את רחל‎, “Yaakov loved Rachel,” to the description ‎of her physical assets in verse 17. Is it possible that Yaakov, the ‎most highly admired of our patriarchs, was attracted by Rachel’s ‎physical features, and that this is why the Torah reports matters ‎in this sequence? Our sages called our attention to Yaakov’s ‎message to his brother Esau in Genesis 32,4 where he told him ‎עם ‏לבן גרתי‎, ”I have remained a stranger while with Lavan, etc.” The ‎numerical value of the letters in the word ‎גרתי‎, equals 613, the ‎number of commandments in the Torah. Yaakov reminded his ‎brother that during the entire period that he spent in Charan he ‎had observed the Torah, and therefore had little to fear. A man ‎who could make such a statement certainly did not marry Rachel ‎because he was smitten by lust to possess her shapely body. ‎Anyone who observes the 613 commandments is well aware of ‎the statement by Solomon in Proverbs 31,30 that ‎שקר החן והבך ‏היופי‎, that external attributes such as physical beauty or even a ‎graceful walk, etc., are deceptive and offer no clue to the owner’s ‎character.‎We must look further for the reason why the Torah made a ‎point of mentioning Rachel’s physical attributes. I have heard ‎from my revered teacher the Maggid of Mezeritch Dov Baer, of ‎sainted memory, that we must understand this as follows. We ‎know that the principal attribute used by Yaakov in serving the ‎Lord is the attribute known as ‎תפארת‎, harmony, located in the ‎center of diagrams of the 10 emanations, ‎ספירות‎. Any physical ‎matter on earth, containing a “spark” from this emanation, is ‎spiritually elevated by the presence of this spark, regardless of ‎how secular it is by nature. Through this spark of the attribute of ‎תפארת‎, its host is brought closer to its roots in the celestial ‎regions, and engages in some degree of service to the Lord.‎We must look further for the reason why the Torah made a ‎point of mentioning Rachel’s physical attributes. I have heard ‎from my revered teacher the Maggid of Mezeritch Dov Baer, of ‎sainted memory, that we must understand this as follows. We ‎know that the principal attribute used by Yaakov in serving the ‎Lord is the attribute known as ‎תפארת‎, harmony, located in the ‎center of diagrams of the 10 emanations, ‎ספירות‎. Any physical ‎matter on earth, containing a “spark” from this emanation, is ‎spiritually elevated by the presence of this spark, regardless of ‎how secular it is by nature. Through this spark of the attribute of ‎תפארת‎, its host is brought closer to its roots in the celestial ‎regions, and engages in some degree of service to the Lord.‎When the Torah (Genesis 39,13) reports that Joseph ‎וינס ויצא ‏החוצה‎, “fled and went “outside,” to escape the efforts of ‎Potiphar’s wife to seduce him, he did so because he realized that ‎that woman had used her mode of dress to lure him into a sinful ‎relationship (Yuma 35). She had employed whatever holy ‎spark she possessed in a reverse manner, instead of a means to ‎come closer to her Creator. When Joseph escaped from her ‎presence he took with him this “holy spark” thereby serving his ‎Creator and paving the way for this “spark” that had escaped ‎from the Shechinah to find its way back to its roots.‎It is known that Joseph, though, of course also serving the ‎Lord, did not do so by using principally the attribute of harmony ‎as his father was in the habit of doing. However, at this critical ‎juncture, in his fateful seclusion with the wife of his master ‎Potiphar, he resorted to the attribute of ‎תפארת‎ as the means to ‎avoid sinning.‎It is also known that every tzaddik who serves the Lord, ‎regardless of which of the attributes in the diagram of the ‎emanations he uses as his primary model, will be granted a vision ‎of the tzaddik who had made that attribute his primary role ‎model in serving the Lord. When the Talmud Sotah 36 ‎relates that at the critical moment before the seduction, Joseph ‎had a vision of his father, it is a vision of the emanation of ‎תפארת‎ ‎that the Talmud refers to as having been seen by Joseph.‎