A.
Immediately following the account of Sara’s death and burial in the cave of Machpéla, and before Avraham sends his servant Eli‘ezer to Haran in search of a wife for Yitzhaq, we read: ואברהם זקן בא בימים וד' ברך את אברהם בכל (“And Avraham was elderly, coming into days [zaqén ba’ ba-yamim], and Ha-Shem blessed Avraham with everything”; XXIV, 1). At the prodigious age of 137, the judgment seems justified.
Earlier, before Yitzhaq’s birth, we read: ואברהם ושרה זקנים באים בימים וגו' (“And Avraham and Sara were zëqénim ba’im ba-yamim....”; XVIII, 11), when he was ninety-nine years old and she eighty-nine. The parallelism of the language is very striking; why does the Torah repeat the words here, 38years later? What is the Torah telling us?
B.
Turn back for a moment to the account of the ‘aqédath Yitzhaq, in last week’s parasha. The Torah introduces the episode by telling us: והאלקים נסה את אברהם וגו' (“...and the Eloqim tested [nissa] Avraham....”; XXII, 1). The holy Zohar remarks: מאי "נסה"? הרמת נס, כמה דאת אמר "הרימו נס", "שאו נס", ארים דגלא דילי' בכל עלמא וכו' אוף הכי קב"ה בגין לארמא דגלא דצדיקיא איהו בחין לון לארמא רישייהו בכל עלמא (“What is nissa? The raising of a banner [nés], as you say, ‘Raise a nés’ [Isaiah LXII, 10], ‘Lift up a nés’ [Jeremiah IV, 6], He raised up the flag of Avraham in the whole world... So the Holy One, Blessed is He, in order to raise the flag of the tzaddiqim, tests them, to raise their profile in the whole world”; ח"א ק"מ.). Hazal here interpret the meaning of nissa, whose root is nun-samech-hé, in terms of the primal root nun-vav-samech, one of whose derivatives is the word nés, signifying “standard, banner”, and also the most commonly used term for “miracle.”
Avraham’s achievement of exalted status in the world through the ‘aqéda also finds allusion in our parasha, where Rashi comments, concerning ‘Efron ha-Hitti, the Canaanite from whom Avraham bought the Cave of Machpéla: אותו היום מנוהו שוטר עליהם מפני חשיבותו של אברהם שהי' צריך לו עלה לגדולה (“That very day [the Hittim] named him an executive over them; because of the importance of Avraham, who needed him, he ascended in greatness”), and also, commenting on XXIII, 17: "ויקם שדה עפרון" תקומה היתה שיצא מיד הדיוט ליד מלך (“‘And ‘Efron’s field rose’ – there was a rise [in status] since it had left the possession of a commoner for that of a king”).
To understand the nature of this elevation in stature, first recall that Yitzhaq was to be what the Torah calls an ‘ola (“ascending”), or an ishe (from ésh, fire) offering, because it is entirely burnt up on top of the altar. One of the sacrifices which takes this form is the tamid, offered twice daily, in the morning and toward evening, which G-d calls: קרבני לחמי לאשי ריח נחחי להקריב לי במועדו (“My sacrifice, My bread for My ishim, My savory aroma, to bring close to Me at its appointed time [bë-mo‘ado]”; Numbers XXVIII, 2), prompting the Zohar to ask: מאן "מועדו" בזמן דאתער אברהם למעבד רעותי' כדכתיב "וישכם אברהם בבקר" ובזמנא דאתעקד יצחק על גבי מדבחא דההיא שעתא בין הערבים הוה ואמר רבי ייסא אי הכי הא דכתיב "במועדו" "במועדים" מבעי לי' אמר לי' ההיא שעתא אתכליל אשא במיא ומיא באשא ובגין כך כתיב "במועדו" (“What is mo‘ado? At the time that Avraham was awakened to do His will, as it is written, ‘And Avraham got up early in the morning’ [XXII, 30], and at the time that Yitzhaq was bound atop the altar, for that moment was twilight [i.e., morning and evening]. And Rabbi Yisa said, 'If so, what is written, "bë-mo‘ado", should be "at the appointed times" [ba-mo‘adim].' He was answered, '[At] that moment, fire was subsumed in water and water in fire, and for this reason it is written, "bë-mo‘ado" [i.e., the moment of the ‘aqéda was a supremely important event, worthy of singular mention]”; ח"א קס"ד:).
Another aspect of the ‘aqéda is addressed elsewhere in the Zohar: "והאלקים נסה את אברהם" את יצחק מבעי לי' דהא יצחק בר תלתין ושבע שנין הוה והא אבוי לאו בר עונשא דילי' הוה כו' אלא "את אברהם" ודאי דבעי לאתכללא בדינא כו' והשתא אתכליל מיא באשא ואברהם לא הוה שלים עד השתא וגו' (“And the Eloqim tested Avraham’ [XXII, 1]; it should be Yitzhaq, for Yitzhaq was 37 years old, and his father was not liable for his punishment... But it should certainly be Avraham, for it was necessary to be subsumed in din [judgment].... and now water was subsumed in fire; and Avraham had not been perfected until now...;” שם קי"ט:).
And a third time: "ויתן אברהם את כל אשר לו ליצחק" רזא דמהימנותא עלאה לאתדבקא יצחק בדרגא דחולקי' כדקא יאות. ת"ח הכא דאתכליל מיא באשא וגו' (“‘And Avraham gave all he had to Yitzhaq’ [XXV, 8], the secret of exalted faith [mëhemnutha ‘ila’a], that Yitzhaq adhere to the level proper to his portion. Come, see, it was here that water was subsumed in fire....”; שם קל"ג:).
What is this subsumption of water in fire and fire in water on which the Zohar is so insistent in connection with Avraham and Yitzhaq?
C.
In last week’s parasha, we noted an insight of Rabbi Yoséf Dov ha-Lévi Soloveitchik זצ"ל, into the interplay between the divine names Eloqim, emblematic of din in the world, and the shém Ha-Shem, emblematic of divine hesed. With this in mind, consider what the Nitzotzei Oroth has to tell us about the second Zoharic passage: כי ברחמים יש דין ויש רחמים שהוא רחום בדין ולכן רחמים כולל חסד וגבורה כי ר"ח עולה יצחק ומים היינו חסד שאם יתנהג העולם בחסד אינם ראוים ואם בגבורה לבד יחרב העולם אלא שיהי' מסטרא דרחמי רחום בדין כנזכר (“For in rahamim there is din,and there is [being] merciful in din [rahum bë-din]; and therefore rahamim contains hesed and gëvura, [‘strength, power, valor’], for réysh-heth [the first two letters of rahamim, equal to 208] have the value of Yitzhaq, and mem-yud-mem [the last three letters, which spell mayim, ‘water’] is hesed [וע"ע זוה"ק ח"א רמ"ז.], since if the world be conducted [only] with hesed, [it would cease, for [its inhabitants] are not worthy, and if through gëvura alone, the world would be laid waste; rather it must be from the side of rahamim, rahum bë-din, as was mentioned”).
The quality which we know as rahamim, then, is a hybrid, consisting of din, or gëvura, (על כן שם אלקים גם בחינת גבורה, עיי' זוה"ק ח"ב פ"ג: וח"ג ה'. וי"א. וע"ע בראשית רבה פל"ג סי' ג' ) contained by or subsumed in hesed. This, I believe, is what Rashi meant by his famous comment on Genesis I, 1, cited last week, about the preëmption of din by rahamim: pure din must be tempered with hesed to yield rahamim. The process of translating the metaphysical reality set up at Creation (as Rashi informs us; וע"ע זוה"ק ח"א רנ"ו:-רנ"ז.) into the physical realm through human action, combining the fire of the ‘aqéda through which Yitzhaq became an ‘ola/ishe (if only in Avraham’s intent) with the “water” of hesed, was their mission.
D.
As we said, Avraham rediscovered the transcendent Creator’s existence in a world which had tried, under Nimrod, to replace transcendancy with anthropolatry, in which “man is the measure of all things” (as the Greek philosopher Protagoras later put it). Avraham’s nature was entirely hesed, as Hazal tell us concerning the beginning of last week’s parasha, when Avraham, in pain from his recent circumcision, insistently sat at the entrance to his tent to watch for guests (בבא מציעא פ"ו.), and as the prophet also attests, hesed lë-Avraham (Micha VII, 20), but the process by which his rediscovery took place, through logical deductions and dialectic based on his observations, are the stuff of din (עיי' עירובין נ"ג., מדרש הגדול פר' נח סי' י"א וכ"ח, תנא דבי אלי' זוטא סי' כ"ה ובראשית רבה סוף פל"ח).
Thus surrounded by and immersed in din (but unalloyed with it; by analogy, iron immersed in coal is dirty; iron alloyed with coal becomes steel), hesed was prevented from propagating itself in the world. Avraham was informed: ויאמר ד' אל אברם לך לך מארצך כו' ואעשך לגוי גדול (“And Ha-Shem said to Avram, 'Go for yourself from your land... And I shall make you a great nation'”; XII, 1-2), and Rashi elucidates: "לך לך" להנאתך ולטובתך ושם אעשך לגוי גדול וכאן אי אתה זוכה לבנים (“‘Go for yourself’, for your benefit and good, and there ‘I shall make you a great nation’, and here, you do not merit children”).
Avraham was then 75 years old; the birth of Yitzhaq lay 25 years in the future, after Avraham withstood additional trials. His and Sara’s spiritual maturation, their arrival at a stage such that they could embark on the next stage of the evolution of the goy gadol, the “great nation” which Avram had been promised, is heralded by the phrase zëqénim ba’im ba-yamim. A year later, Yitzhaq was born, the embodiment of gëvura, of din, as his son Ya‘aqov attested in his allusion to pahad Yitzhaq, “Yitzhaq’s fear/awe,” fear of the middath ha-din (XXXI, 42). But Yitzhaq could not be allowed to propagate himself, for the world would not long survive a heroic regime conducted strictly according to din; the emergence of pure din in Yitzhaq’s person was the necessary and inevitable result of frustrated, unalloyed hesed, as the Nitzotzei Oroth notes, because the denizens of this world are ultimately undeserving of such hesed. The recombination of din with hesed, yielding the compound hybrid called rahamim, is necessary for this world to be sustainable (וה"ק ח"א רנ"ו:-רנ"ז.). This was accomplished through the ‘aqéda; turning again to the Nitzotzei Oroth, we learn, כי כן הי' יצחק עקוד לפניו ונמצא האש כפוף ונכלל תחת ידי המים (“For so was Yitzhaq bound before [Avraham], and the fire is found to be subjugated and subsumed under the hands of the water”; זוה"ק ח"א קל"ג: אות ד').
Avraham’s achievement of this level of maturation is what is meant by zaqén, and readi-ness to enter the next stage, is, I believe, indicated by the phrase ba’ ba-yamim (just as it indicated the imminence of the intermediate stage, earlier) immediately before Eli‘ezer is sent to find Yitzhaq a suitable bride, at which point the next stage begins. The fruit of Yitzhaq’s union with Rivqa would be Ya‘aqov, the embodiment of rahamim (זוה"ק ח"א פ"ז:, רנ"ז.) who, on his maturation and the culmination of the process would produce the bënei Yisra’él, the ethnic basis of the ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש, the “kingdom of kohanim and holy nation” (Exodus XIX, 6), able to receive and administer the Torah, itself the amalgamation and subsumption of din in hesed, the fire of the ‘olath ha-‘aqéda with the soothing waters, and guarantee this world’s continued existence, the fulfillment or perfection of the patriarchal mission, the mëhemnutha ‘ila’a, the “all” with which Avraham was blessed and which he bequeathed to Yitzhaq.
For as the prophet Yirmëya warned, אם לא בריתי יומם ולילה חקות שמים וארץ לא שמתי (“If My covenant is not [observed] by day and by night, I do not set the laws of heaven and earth”; Jeremiah XXXIII, 28) and Hazal echo: התנה הקב"ה עם מעשה בראשית וא"ל אם ישראל מקבלים התורה אתם מתקיימים ואם לאו אני מחזיר אתכם לתהו ובהו (“The Holy One, Blessed is He, made a condition with Creation, and said, 'If Israel accept the Torah, you will continue to exist; and if not, I am returning you to chaos'”; שבת פ"ח. וזוה"ק ח"ג קצ"ג. רח"צ:).
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