Rabbi Mansour 2010 5771

Shabbat Morning Class

פרשת תולדות

"ויתרצצו הבנים בקרבה ותאמר אם כן למה זה אנכי ותלך לדרש את ה' "

"And the children struggled together inside her; and she said if so why me? And she

went to inquire to Hashem"

"ויאמר ה' לה שני גיים בבטנך"

"And Hashem said to her, there are two nations in your womb"

After intense praying, Rivkah was finally pregnant. After a while she began to feel

unbearable pain and she asked, "why me"? Why did I pray so hard for this?! "She went

to ask Hashem"; Rashi explains that she went to the emissary of Hashem; Shem (the

son of Noah). Shem informed her that she was having twins, and that they both will

prosper into great nations.

Rashi explains that when Rivkah passed a house of Torah, she would feel her

baby kicking and trying to "run" out of her womb. When she would pass a house of idol

worship, she would also feel kicking and the baby trying to escape. She did not realize

that she was having twins, she thought that there was only one baby inside of her! This

terrified her; would she be having a schizophrenic child that one day wants to serve

Hashem and the next worship idols?! Shem calmed her by explaining that in fact there

were two children in her womb. Each would take their separate paths, one for the good

and one for the bad. This calmed Rivkah to a degree. At least she would have one of

her children as a Sadik, as opposed to one very confused child.

Shem told Rivkah that she has two גיים in her womb. The word גיים (nations) is

spelled in the Torah without the Vav (instead of גוים it says גיים ), the word גיים means

literally "proud ones". Rashi explains that these proud ones refer to Rebbi (Rabbi

Yehudah Hanasi or "Rabeinu Hakadosh") and Antoninus (Marcus Aurelius- the Roman

Ceasar). They were going to be the descendants of Yaakov and Eisav and this is what

Shem informed Rivkah to calm her.

It is understood why knowing that such a great Sadik as Rebbi (the redactor of

the Mishnayot, and to whose credit all of the Torah Shebeal Peh is today) was

destined to come from her would gladden Rivkah. What needs to be clarified is; why

would her knowing that Antoninus- a roman Caesar- was destined to come from her

make Rivkah feel better?! It seems that when she was informed about both she felt

better, but why would her knowing of a descendant - that was a non Jewish Romancalm

her?!

To understand this, we need to explain the history and relationship between

Rebbi and Antoninus, and the deeper connection between Rebbi and Yaakov Avinu

and the connection of Eisav with Antoninus.

Antonenus lived in the same time as Rabeinu Hakadosh, and would sneak out

via an underground tunnel to study Torah with Rebbi. This needed to be done in

private. It would have been a great disgrace for the Romans to find out that their leader

was studying the Jewish religion! He would study with Rebbi daily and even serve him.

Eventually Antonenus circumcised himself and converted. Tosafot (Avodah Zarah 10b)

mentions the Midrash that says that this relationship began when they were both just

infants. The Roman Caesar issued a decree that banned circumcision. Raban Gamliel,

the chief Rabbi of the Jews had a baby and circumcised him. There was a Jewish

informer that told the Caesar of Raban Gamliel’s disobedience of his edict. The Caesar

summoned Raban Gamliel and his wife to bring their baby to the palace. Raban

Gamliel and his wife arrived at the palace, and waited in the antechamber to be called

in by the Caesar. While they were waiting, the wife of the Caesar entered the

antechamber, and sensed the distress of the wife of Raban Gamliel. What is the

Matter? ; asked the Caesar’s wife. The wife of Raban Gamliel explained that they were

summoned to the Caesar because they violated his command by circumcising their

son, and they were now facing almost certain death! The wife of the Caesar also had

an infant, and offered to save Raban Gamliel, his wife, and child by temporarily

switching her own baby with theirs! This way, when the Caesar would inspect the baby

he will find that it is not circumcised! She did this, and when the Caesar found the baby

to be uncircumcised he killed the informant and ended up abolishing the decree. These

two babies were Rebbi and Antoninus.

Tosafot says " חלב מטמא חלב מטהר "-"the milk of the mother can either bring purity

or impurity". He explains that after the wife of the Caesar switched her baby with

Raban Gamliel’s wife, the Caesar’s baby began to cry. Raban Gamliel’s wife nursed

the baby in order to soothe him. It was from these pure drops of milk that Antonenus

suckled from the mother of Rebbi that enabled him to end up studying Torah and

converting. We see how powerful the effects of the milk of a Sadeket! We also see this

by Sarah Imenu. When she gave birth to Yishak, there were some people who doubted

that it was really her baby. Avraham Avinu advised her to offer to nurse other people’s

babies, and in this way everyone will see that she indeed bore Yishak and was nursing

him. People brought their children for Sarah to nurse (some came to test her to see if

she can indeed nurse and some came to give their child the merit of nursing from the

holy Sarah). It says that any child that nursed from Sarah ended up having a

descendant that converted to Judaism, and all the converts throughout history come

from the children that nursed from the milk of Sarah Imenu. Sarah was nurturing and

giving sustenance to the holy spark that was destined to come from these babies.

Rabeinu Hakadosh was deeply connected to Yaakov Avinu. The Ben Ish Chai

explains that Rabbi was actually the Gilgul (reincarnation) of Yaakov. This is hinted to

in his name ר' יהודה הנשיא , the word נשיא stands for " הוא נצוץ של יעקב אבינו " (he is the

spark of Yaakov Avinu).

We find this connection hinted to in several places. For example; Rebbi stated

the Mishnayot with the laws of Shema of Arbit ( מאמתי קורין את שמע בערבין ), and Arbit

was the Tefilah established by Yaakov Avinu. In addition, we see that the first three

Berachot of the Amidah correspond to the three Avot. The first Berachah corresponds

to Avraham Avinu, as it ends "Magen Avraham". The second corresponds to Yishak

Avinu, it ends with " מחיה המתים " because Yishak was "revived" from the dead upon

being taken down from the alter at the time of Akeidat Yishak. The third Berachah

corresponds to Yaakov Avinu, it ends with האל הקדוש . Rebbi was also called רבינו

.הקדוש

Another example of these connections is that each one of the Avot represented a

different aspect of Hashem. Avraham Avinu represents Hesed, Yishak represents

Gevurah, and Yaakov represents Tiferet. If we analyze the Pirkei Avot we find that the

first mention of Rebbi’s name is the beginning of ' פרק ב when it says; "רבי אומר איזוהי

דרך ישרה שיברור לו האדם? כל שהיא תפארת לעשיה ותפארת לו מן האדם"

"Rebbi says; what is the best path a man should choose? Whatever is תפארת (lit;

adornment)" etc. We see the connection between the attribute of Yaakov and the

advice of Rabeinu Hakadosh.

Antonenus on the other hand, was connected to Eisav Harasha. Eisav was

almost entirely evil. He did however have a little bit of good in him. We see this in his

death, when his head rolled into the Mearat Hamachpela to be buried with the Avot

and Imahot. His head represented the little bit of good that he contained, and therefore

merited burial in the holy Mearat Hamachpela. The good in Eisav finally materialized in

his descendant Antoninus. Antoninus was the Gilgul of Eisav, except in him the good

of Eisav came out! The Megaleh Amukot says that this is hinted to in the prayer of

Moshe Rabeinu to enter Israel, when he prayed " אעברה נא ואראה "-"may I pass over and

see". The words אעברא נא stand for:

אנטונינוס עשו בימי רבינו הקדוש- ניצוץ אחד" " –"Antoninus and Eisav in the time of Rebbi

were one spark".

Antonenus actually served Rebbe, and in his time the Pasuk was fulfilled; "ורב

יעבד צעיר" -"the older one will serve the younger one". The descendant of Eisav-the

older son, served the descendant of Yaakov- the younger son.

The Gemarah hints to the eventual emergence of Eisav’s good when it says

(Niddah 9a) " דם נעכר ונעשה חלב "-"the blood of a woman turns into milk". After a woman

gives birth, her blood - that would normally make her impure as a Niddah- turns into

milk to nurse the baby. For this reason as long as the mother is nursing she does not

become Niddah. [A Niddah waits seven days before she can become pure, so too the

Jews waited seven weeks as a nation before they received the Torah. After seven

weeks the Jews received the Torah on the holiday of Shavuot and on Shavuot we eat

dairy products to allude to the cessation of Tumah (the Tumah represented by blood)

and the purity that we’ve reached (the purity is represented by the milk -dairy)]. When

the Gemarah says that the "blood turns to milk" it is hinting to Eisav (who is

synonymous with [Edom] red-blood), turned to milk. The milk is the purity of

Antonenus, when the "blood" of Eisav finally turned into the "milk" of Antoninus.

This explains why Rivkah was satisfied with the report that Rebbi and Antoninus

would be the descendants of her children. She realized that she would have a wicked

child in Eisav. She was worried about this, and was also concerned about the pure milk

that she would feed him. The milk of Rivkah was "extra holy". Where was the holiness

in Eisav that her milk would helped nourish?! When she found out that there would

indeed be some good that comes from Eisav, she was happy. Her milk would be used

to nourish the spark of goodness that was hidden deep inside of Eisav, and it would

help eventually bring out his righteous descendant Antonenus.

There is still one more point that needs to be clarified. At the time Rebbi and

Antoninus were switched as infants, Antoninus nursed from the wife of Raban Gamliel

as mentioned. However when Rebbi was in the hands of the wife of the Caesar, he too

became hungry and nursed from her!! Regarding the milk of a non Jewish woman the

Halacha states that, strictly speaking it is permitted. However it is not suggested

because it will create in the baby a tendency to sin, and it "blocks" his heart from being

sensitive to the will of Hashem. We see that as an infant, Moshe Rabeinu refused to

nurse from the non Jewish Egyptian women who attempted to nurse him. If this is so,

the question is; how could it have transpired that Rebbi should nurse from a non Jew?!

How can it be that the Sadik Rabeinu Hakadosh nursed from an impure source?!

One explanation is based upon a Gemarah in Shabbat (53) that tells the story of

a righteous man whose wife passed away leaving him with an infant. Having no money

to pay for a wet nurse, a miracle occurred and the man grew breasts and was able to

nurse his own son! The Rama Mifano explains that the man in this story was a

reincarnation of the wife of the Caesar! She merited to nurse Rebbi, and now "came

back" and had a miracle occur to her to be able to nurse her own son! This miracle was

"measure for measure". She gave the child "miracle" milk that was not tainted, so too

later on she experienced a miracle with milk! We see from here that in fact, her milk did

have purity to it, as she ended up becoming a Jew! This is why he was called Rabeinu

Hakadosh,- to show that he remained Kadosh even after drinking her milk! This was

because the nature of the queen was good, which she displayed by having

compassion on Rebbi.

There is another explanation, and in order to understand it, we need to first

explain a different episode in the Parasha.

Rivkah instructed her son Yaakov to pretend he was Eisav in order to take the

Berachot. She dressed Yaakov in the garments of Eisav in order that Yishak would not

feel Yaakov’s smooth skin. Why was it necessary for her to dress him Eisav’s clothes?

Why not simply place something rough on him, or for that matter put any type of

clothing that would make his skin feel hairy?

The explanation is that Rivkah knew that Yaakov’s trait was Emmet-truth, as it

says " תתן אמת ליעקב ". Yaakov was so truthful, that there was no way that he would be

able to trick his father into giving him the blessings. For this reason Rivkah chose to

dress him with the clothes of Eisav. "The clothes make the man". The clothes of Eisav

had an impurity to them. Rivkah purposely dressed Yaakov in them so that - through

the impurity of Eisav's clothing - Yaakov would deviate slightly from the Path of perfect

Emmet. This of course was necessary in order that Yaakov would receive the

blessings that he needed for the entire Jewish nation.

A similar concept existed here. Rabeinu Hakadosh was the first Rabbi to write

down the oral Torah. Until his time the laws of the Torah were strictly oral from father to

son. It was not allowed to be written. Rebbi realized that if he did not compile and write

down the oral Torah in his time, the Torah would be forgotten forever! The Pasuk says

עת לעשות לה' הפרו תורתך" "-"there are times that one must transgress for the sake of

Hashem". Rebbi realized that he had to be the one to permit the writing of the oral

torah in order to preserve it for the future generations. This explains why Hashem

allowed Rebbe to drink from the milk of a non Jew as an infant. Like Yaakov, Rebbe

needed to be "injected" with something impure to make him deviate slightly, and

"transgress". Thus, by drinking the milk of a non Jew, Rebbi was able to "transgress"

the law by putting the oral Torah in writing. This too was crucial for the continuation of

the Jewish nation. The entire oral Torah today is to the credit of Rebbe!

Rebbi’s mouth benefited from the milk of the non Jew because it was the תורה

שבעל פה -the oral Torah that he needed to preserve by transgressing the law that it not

be written.

We find however that even though there was good reason for Rebbe to drink

from the milk of the Caesar’s wife, he still suffered because of it. The Pasuk says; "ולבן

שנים מחלב" –"his teeth white from milk". We see from this Pasuk that the teeth are the

part of the body that benefits most from milk. Rebbe suffered for thirteen years with

intense toothaches. This was on account of his holy mouth benefiting from the milk of a

non Jew - even though it was for good reason! He suffered for thirteen years

corresponding to the thirteen principles of the Torah that the oral Torah is based upon.

It was his Tikkun for having written down the oral Torah which came about from

drinking the milk of a non Jew.

We see how careful we must be with what we ingest, and how the slightest bit of

impure or unkosher food or drink can affect us negatively! It says that if one sees a

child that is misbehaving in school, he should check into the food the child is eating!

Perhaps he is being fed a non kosher product that "clogs" the spiritual sensitivity of his

heart! Unkosher food creates an evil nature inside of a Jew, and because of this we

must be vigilant on every level to insure that we maintain the highest level in kosher

standards!