Rabbi Mansour 2009

תולדות

"ויעתר יצחק לה' לנכח אשתו"

"Yitzhak entreated Hashem opposite his wife"

Rashi on this pasuk comments:" "זה עומד בזוית זו ומתפלל, וזו עומדת בזוית זו

ומתפללת - 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 צדיקים the mere fact

that a צדיק looks at a person, infuses him with ברכה , and makes him ראוי for

a ישועה . This is why before a צדיק blesses a person he looks at him first.

We see this illustrated in a story with אלישע הנביא . There was a barren

שונמית woman that אלישע would stay by when he was in town. אלישע had

promised that she would have a baby boy. A few years later she came to

him crying that the boy had died. So אלישע 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 חבקוק הנביא - alluding to the fact that אלישע "hugged"

him, to bring him back to life. This is also hinting to the promise of אלישע to

the boy’s mother of " את חבקת בן " –you will be hugging a child). We also see

this concept even after the death of a צדיק , when another צדיק is משטתח on

his grave, and "faces" the צדיק by laying down on the grave of the צדיק , 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 צדיק 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 ראוי 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 חכם ברוך ז'ל taught the

boys, that when saying the שמע 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 הויה correspond to the four

directions of the world; East, West, North, South. ' י = East, ' ה = South,

ו' = North, ' ה = 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 חסד . This is hinted in the words of רש'י that

says: " 13 = זו ,"בזוית זו and the second זוית-זו of Rivkah =13. 13+13=26, they

were bringing down the name of Hashem of חסד to have a baby.

This explains the stories in גמרא of אבא חלקיה and אבא) רב'י עקיבה

חלקיה and his wife prayed for rain in opposite corners – and when ר'ע

prayed ביחיד he would start in one corner of the room and end up in the

other corner). רבי עקיבה would do this only ביחיד , because Hashem’s

presence rests in the צבור when there is a מנין , therefore he did not need to

"bring down" the letters of הויה . However ביחיד he needed to. He therefore

connected himself to the 4 corners to do so.

Yitzhak Avinu was the aspect of דין , and Rivkah was the aspect of

חסד (in every marriage there is one spouse with a "harsher" מידה 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 " דין " into the

חסד" " of Rivkah, this would create an even higher level of חסד (as the Rabbi

mentioned many times that when you add חסד to דין it is like adding milk to

coffee. This creates a higher level of חסד , then חסד on its own). We see this

reflected in the child they had. Yaakov Avinu was the aspect of ,תפארת

which is the combination of דין & חסד . We also see this combination of חסד

דין & of Yitzhak and Rivkah hinted in the תפילה of שועת עניים in Shaharit of

Shabbat where it says:

בפי ישרים תתרומם

ובשפתי צדיקים תתברך

ובלשון חסידים תתקדש

ובקרב קדושים תתהלל

We see the names of Yitzhak and Rivkah spelled out to allude to

this high חסד of the combination of דין & חסד . We also see that the לשון

used by Yitzhak’s prayer is ויעתר - which is one of the ten לשונות that there

are for prayer (ex: תפילה צעקה ויפגע ). Why specifically did the Torah use this

ויעתר ?לשון 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 דין into

רחמים 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 ש-ד-י is used (ex:

וירא ה' אל אברם ויאמר אילו אני א -ל שקי.וארבה אותך במאד ). One reason why

specifically the name of ש-ד -י 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 ' גמט of the "inner" letters of ש-ד-י , we

have:

ש - ין = 60

ד - לת = 430

י - וד = 10

500

The union of man and woman makes 500 limbs which is the

"inner" ' גמט of ש-ד -י . We also find a connection in the first מצוה of the Torah

which is פרו ורבו (to have children). The ' גמט of פרו ורבו 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;

י -צחק רבק -ה

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

י of יצחק and the last letter ה from רבקה ) which equal 500, this was in order

to have the effect of the name of ש-ד-י that is conducive for having children.