“Jacob sent malachim (messengers) ahead of him to his brother Esau.” (Genesis 32:4)
The question concerning this verse is well known. Rashi (ibid.), quoting the Midrash (Genesis Rabbah 75:4), says: “Jacob sent actual malachim—angels—ahead of him.” Why did he need to send actual angels? Another question is this: In praying to God, Jacob said (Genesis 32:12), “[I am afraid] lest he come and kill us all—mothers and children together.” Why did Jacob need to explain what it was that Esau could do? Why was it not enough to say, “I am afraid of him”? Jacob might have said either “I am afraid of him,” or “He might come and kill us all.” Why did he need to say both?
We learn in the Talmud (Hullin 7b): “While R. Pinchas b. Yair was on a mission to redeem captives, he stopped at an inn. To accommodate him, the innkeeper tried feeding R. Pinchas’s donkey, placing some barley before it, but it would not eat. He tried winnowing the barley, but the animal still refused. The barley was carefully sifted, but still the donkey would not eat it. ‘Perhaps,’ suggested R. Pinchas, ‘it is not properly tithed?’ It was at once tithed, and the donkey ate it. Thereupon he exclaimed, ‘This poor creature goes to do the will of the Creator, and you would feed it untithed produce?’ ” Regarding this anecdote, the Talmud (ibid.) comments: “If the previous generation were people, then we are like animals, and not even like the donkey of R. Pinchas b. Yair.”
Because R. Pinchas b. Yair rode on the donkey while fulfilling a commandment, the animal was elevated to a very lofty spiritual plane. If this is the case, we need to understand the following talmudic teaching (Kiddushin 68a) regarding the verse (Genesis 22:5) “He saw the place from the distance, and Abraham said to the young men with him, ‘Stay here with the ass. The boy and I will go yonder, bow down, and return to you.’ ” The Talmud comments, “Im ha’chamor—with the ass—should actually be read am ha’chamor—people of the ass,” comparing the people to the ass.
Why does the Talmud, in making a derogatory statement about the young men who traveled with Abraham and Isaac, support the comment with a reading from the text that compares them to the ass? In that particular instance, the ass was going to do the will of its Creator; Abraham was riding it to the Akeidah (Binding of Isaac). Why was the animal of such little worth that it was used as a basis of comparison for people who were considered to be of very low stature?
At a simple level it could be understood as follows. R. Pinchas b. Yair had already observed the commandment to redeem captives, as the Talmud narrative implies, and so the animal was elevated to a high level because it had been sanctified by the commandment. This was not the case in the narrative of the Akeidah. There, when Abraham said, “Stay here with the ass,” prior to the Akeidah, he had not yet performed the commandment. Therefore, his words im ha’chamor contain the hint “people of the ass.” There is some validity to this idea because, as is well known, the verse (Zachariah 9:9) “A poor man, riding on the ass,” refers to the Messiah, who will ride the very same ass. So we see that after the Akeidah the status of the ass was elevated, and the Messiah will ride upon it.
In general, we need to understand why Abraham abandoned the two young men while on his way with Isaac to the Akeidah. The Midrash (Leviticus Rabbah 20:2) explains it as follows. It became apparent to Abraham and Isaac that the young men could not see the cloud suspended over the mountain, while they could see it. The Patriarch Abraham understood this to be sign that he should continue on without them. His saying to them, “Stay here im ha’chamor (with the ass),” can be read am ha’chamor (people of the ass)” for it is as though Abraham had said, “The ass cannot see the cloud and nor can you, so stay here with the ass.” But why was their inability to see the cloud taken by Abraham as such a strong indication that he ought to part with them?
We also need to understand the reason why the Patriarch Abraham saw the cloud over the mountain only on the third day (Genesis 22:4). If the cloud were a natural phenomenon, it is understandable that he could not see it earlier, as he was too far away. However, what he saw was a holy, supernatural vision, one that the young men and the animal could not see. If only Abraham and Isaac could see it, why did they not see it from a greater distance, and prior to the third day?
One could argue that the reason was simply because Abraham first had to pass through a variety of tests encountered on the way, as we learn in the Midrash (Genesis Rabbah, cap. 55–56). But there may be another more fundamental reason. God said to him (Genesis 22:2), “Take your son, the only one, the one you love—Isaac—and go away to the Moriah area. Bring him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I will designate to you.” God had not yet told Abraham which particular mountain it would be; the holy place that was designated for the Akeidah was still, as it were, a thought in the mind of God. If it had not yet been revealed in the universe of Speech, how much less, then, had it been revealed in the universe of Action, and on the actual protrusion of the mountain. The Divine Light had not yet come to rest in any way upon the physical form of the mountain. It was only when the Patriarch Abraham elevated himself, drawing close to the mind of God, that he could sense the holiness of that particular place. By doing this, he brought the holiness down into the universe of Action, and onto the mountain, until he could actually see the cloud over the mountain. How did our father Abraham draw himself close to the mind of God? By drawing closer to the commandment with the physical act of walking to fulfill it. As is well known, the reason why a Divine Commandment is a command is only because it is the will of God, having so arisen in His thought. Therefore, when a Jewish person observes the commandment, he cleaves to God, blessed be He, to the commandment of God, to God’s mind, and to His desire. The degree to which a person cleaves unto God, soaring to His thought, exactly reflects the degree to which His thought is revealed below, in this world. Therefore, only Abraham and Isaac, acting of their own free will and desire and elevated thereby to the desire of God, were able to see the cloud. The opposite, however, applies to the ass, for, while it did perform part of the commandment—in the words of R. Pinchas b. Yair, “It was going to do the will of the Creator”—nevertheless, its actions were not of its own volition or choice, and so it was not drawn to the desire of God. The desire of God was not revealed to it, and so it did not see the cloud.
This is one of the fundamental principles of prayer, and of Torah, which itself is a requirement of prayer, as it is written (Proverbs 28:9): “He who turns away his ear from hearing Torah, even his prayer is an abomination.” Truly, it must be said of all trouble and suffering that in the mind of God they are nothing but chesed (loving-kindness). Therefore, by elevating himself and merging with the thought of God, blessed be He, the Jew draws God’s thought down into the universe of Speech and the universe of Action. Then, the chesed is also revealed in this world, and there is no more Din (Judgment) and Hester (Concealment) of chesed. In his prayers, a person enumerates requests for health or for sustenance with all the desire in his heart. He also learns Torah, which is the desire and will of God, and through it, he is elevated into the chesed that is hidden inside the Din of his illness or poverty. He draws it down into the universe of Speech with his words of Torah and prayer, and hence into the world below. Thus, the chesed is also revealed below, in the universe of Action.
We learn in the Talmud (Berachoth 61b): “When they took R. Akiba out to kill him, it was time for recitation of the morning Sh’ma. They tore his flesh with iron combs, while he took upon himself the yoke of heaven. His students said to him, ‘Our rabbi, this far?’ He replied, ‘All my days, have I been at pain over the verse in Scripture (Deut. 6:4–5) “Love God your Lord with all you heart, all your soul, and all your might.” “When will I ever have the opportunity to fulfill it?” I asked myself. And now that I have the opportunity, should I not fulfill it?’ He was drawing out the word ‘One’ and meditating upon it when his soul departed.” With total self-abandonment, and through the elevation of his thoughts, he unified the name of God as he meditated upon the word “One.” He did not continue onward with the next words of the Sh’ma, “Love God your Lord with all your heart,” but if he had, this would have connected God’s thought of love with the words, thereby drawing them down into the universe of Speech and further into the universe of Action, so that the chesed would have been revealed in the world below. And so his students asked him, “Our rabbi, this far?” meaning “This far and no further?” They were asking why he did not continue with “Love God your Lord . . .”
This explains the teaching in the Talmud (Menachoth 29b): “When God showed Moses the martyrdom of R. Akiba, Moses cried, ‘Lord of the Universe! Is this Torah, and this its reward?’ God replied, ‘Be silent, for so it arose in the Thought before Me.’ ” He, R. Akiba, arose in the Thought, but did not want to draw it down into the universe of Speech. Therefore, the chesed was not revealed below and the Concealment and Judgment remained.
Let us return to our discussion above. By specifying the details of our requests in our prayers, we draw the requests and the chesed into the universe of Speech and the universe of Action. Then, the kindness and the salvation and the healing are also revealed below. This explains the significance of the Torah we say in times of suffering. For when we say Torah, some of the pain and the prayers and the salvation enter into the words of Torah, in the same way that they enter into the words during our prayers, thus drawing down and revealing the chesed in the universe of Speech, as we explained above. Therefore, by allowing all the things that Esau might possibly do to enter into the words of his prayer, the Patriarch Jacob drew down the salvation into the universe of Action, and God saved him.