DailyHalacha.com

Rabbi Mansour 2009
??????
"????? ???? ??' ???? ????"
"Yitzhak entreated Hashem opposite his wife"
Rashi on this pasuk comments:" "?? ???? ????? ?? ??????, ??? ????? ????? ??
??????? - Yishak and Rivkah each went into their own corner and prayed.
What is the significance of Rashi telling us that they went into
opposite corners to pray?? One reason is that by the ?????? the mere fact
that a ???? looks at a person, infuses him with ???? , and makes him ???? for
a ????? . This is why before a ???? blesses a person he looks at him first.
We see this illustrated in a story with ????? ????? . There was a barren
?????? woman that ????? would stay by when he was in town. ????? had
promised that she would have a baby boy. A few years later she came to
him crying that the boy had died. So ????? put his mouth on the boy’s
mouth, eyes to eyes, palm to palm, body to body, and the boy came back
to life (the boy became ????? ????? - alluding to the fact that ????? "hugged"
him, to bring him back to life. This is also hinting to the promise of ????? to
the boy’s mother of " ?? ???? ?? " –you will be hugging a child). We also see
this concept even after the death of a ???? , when another ???? is ????? on
his grave, and "faces" the ???? by laying down on the grave of the ???? , and
is able to connect to his holiness. This is because the Neshama has a
spark that is always lit, even after death (like a pilot light that stays lit even
when you close flame) the Sadik connects to this light, and gets "ignited"
from it. All this shows us the power of a ???? facing a person.
In this case, Yitzhak went to the opposite corner so he would face
Rivkah to infuse her with his holiness, to make her ???? for a child, and to
give her life. It says that a barren woman is as if she is dead, The Chida z’tl
says that the Egyptian exile was originally supposed to be 400 years but it
only ended up being 210 years. What happened to the 190 years of
slavery? Abraham was without children for 100 years and Sarah for 90
years which totals 190 so they were "without life" for 190 years like a slave
that has no life of his own and only does whatever his master says. This
took 190 years of slavery off of the Jewish nation.
Another reason why Rashi mentions that they prayed in opposite
corners is because we see in various places that a physical action has an
effect, that brings down holiness. One example ??? ???? ?'? taught the
boys, that when saying the ??? not only should they concentrate that
Hashem is in all four directions, but they should actually move their heads
in all four directions, showing that Hashem is everywhere. Another example
is what was said about Rabbi Dovid Kviat z’tl from the Mir Yeshiva who
used to spell out the name of Hashem on the table with his finger. To do an
action that would bring holiness.
The four letters of Hashem’s name of ???? correspond to the four
directions of the world; East, West, North, South. ' ? = East, ' ? = South,
?' = North, ' ? = West. By going to the opposite corners (southwest corner
and northeast corner) they did an action to connect all four letters, to bring
down the name of Hashem of ??? . This is hinted in the words of ??'? that
says: " 13 = ?? ,"????? ?? and the second ????-?? of Rivkah =13. 13+13=26, they
were bringing down the name of Hashem of ??? to have a baby.
This explains the stories in ???? of ??? ????? and ???) ??'? ?????
????? and his wife prayed for rain in opposite corners – and when ?'?
prayed ????? he would start in one corner of the room and end up in the
other corner). ??? ????? would do this only ????? , because Hashem’s
presence rests in the ???? when there is a ???? , therefore he did not need to
"bring down" the letters of ???? . However ????? he needed to. He therefore
connected himself to the 4 corners to do so.
Yitzhak Avinu was the aspect of ??? , and Rivkah was the aspect of
??? (in every marriage there is one spouse with a "harsher" ???? than the
other, this is in order to maintain a proper balance. If both would be harsh
or both would be kind it wouldn’t work out. That’s why they say "opposites
attract"). By Yitzhak facing Rivkah he was trying to put his " ??? " into the
???" " of Rivkah, this would create an even higher level of ??? (as the Rabbi
mentioned many times that when you add ??? to ??? it is like adding milk to
coffee. This creates a higher level of ??? , then ??? on its own). We see this
reflected in the child they had. Yaakov Avinu was the aspect of ,?????
which is the combination of ??? & ??? . We also see this combination of ???
??? & of Yitzhak and Rivkah hinted in the ????? of ???? ????? in Shaharit of
Shabbat where it says:
??? ????? ??????
?????? ?????? ?????
?????? ?????? ?????
????? ?????? ?????
We see the names of Yitzhak and Rivkah spelled out to allude to
this high ??? of the combination of ??? & ??? . We also see that the ????
used by Yitzhak’s prayer is ????? - which is one of the ten ?????? that there
are for prayer (ex: ????? ???? ????? ). Why specifically did the Torah use this
????? ????? literally means to turn over, (like a pitch fork that turns over the
earth it is placed in) So too Yitzhak was trying to "turn over" the ??? into
????? by praying with Rivkah in this manner.
Another explanation as to why Rashi points out that they were
praying "in there corners" is that we find many times throughout the Torah
that when it comes to children, the name of Hashem of ?-?-? is used (ex:
???? ?' ?? ???? ????? ???? ??? ? -? ???.????? ???? ???? ). One reason why
specifically the name of ?-? -? is used with regard to having children is that
man has 248 limbs and the woman (who has the womb etc..) has 252.
Together they total 500. If we take the ' ??? of the "inner" letters of ?-?-? , we
have:
? - ?? = 60
? - ?? = 430
? - ?? = 10
500
The union of man and woman makes 500 limbs which is the
"inner" ' ??? of ?-? -? . We also find a connection in the first ???? of the Torah
which is ??? ???? (to have children). The ' ??? of ??? ???? is also 500.
If we analyze the names Yitzhak and Rivkah from "corner to corner"
(from between corner letter to corner letter) it equals 500
as follows;
? -??? ??? -?
302 + 198 = 500
They both went to a "corner" meaning; they focused on what is in
between the corner letters of their names (the letters between the first letter
? of ???? and the last letter ? from ???? ) which equal 500, this was in order
to have the effect of the name of ?-?-? that is conducive for having children.