Expanding Our Perspective
Understanding context can make all the difference in the world. For example, take this (admittedly cringy) joke: “A Buddhist monk approaches a burger food-truck and says ‘make me one with everything.’ The Buddhist monk then pays with a $20 bill, which the vendor takes, puts in his cash box, and closes the lid. ‘Where’s my change?’ the monk asks. The vendor replies, ‘change comes from within.’” At first glance this is just a simple economic exchange and a perplexing conversation. However, with a little background information on Buddist beliefs it is transformed. It becomes a perplexing conversation that is a bad joke relying on two bad puns.
Jokes aside, we are missing something when we view anything in this world at face value. We humans, miraculous creations that we are, exist on multiple levels simultaneously. In one and the same action we are able to activate physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual facets of ourselves, and we can affect the world around us on all of those levels simultaneously. Reading through Rav Schorr’s comments on Parshat Vayera, what really struck me was the way in which he was able to add new dimensions to the events of the parsha.
The Three Angels
The parsha opens with the three angels coming to visit Avraham in the guise of men. There is no indication in the psukim that Avraham knew these men were angels. However, to explain what was going on, Rav Schorr tells a story he heard from Rav Kotler about a time that the Gra went into voluntary exile. The Gra was hiding his identity and ended up staying the night at the home of Rabbi Pinchas HaLevi Horowitz, the Ba’al HaHafla’ah. The Gra recounted that from Rav Horowitz he learned how to guard a secret, for he was certain that Rav Horowitz knew his identity, and yet Rav Horowitz, who knew that the Gra was purposefully hiding his identity, made no mention of it whatsoever. This was the sensitivity of Avraham Avinu. The angels appeared to him as men, and although he recognized them as angels, he also recognized that they wished to appear as men, and so he treated them in the way they wished to be treated.
To a casual observer, the moment no doubt appeared to be a simple case of hospitality, like so many others that undoubtably took place in Avraham’s home. Rav Schorr gives us a deeper perspective. These were neither random men nor random angels. These three angels were an expression of a spiritual reality which Avraham had created through the brit milah he had just performed with tremendous misirat nefesh. Although the brit was an action Avraham performed alone it was done in such a powerful way that it created an independent spiritual reality. This reality, in turn, became a force that was revealed in the world. What began on the level of nefesh, the personal level of spiritual relationship with Hashem, expanded to the level of Olam, and gained the ability to affect the world as a whole. The three angels that came to Avraham were an expression of that reality, as it expanded into the level of Olam.
The details are as follows: the angel Gavriel, who expresses the middah of din, came to inform Avraham of the destruction of the city of Sdom. Removing Sdom from Eretz Yisrael was analogous on a global level of the removal of the orlah that takes place on a personal level during a brit. The angel Michael, who expresses the middah of chessed, was tasked with informing Sara that Yitzchak would soon be born. Yitzchak was the beginning of the Jewish nation, and his birth was the beginning of the revelation of Am Yisrael as a “light unto the nations.” This was a global reflection of the personal spiritual reality created through the p’riah, which is a step in the brit process which is a form of uncovering, or revealing. Finally, the angel Rephael not only healed Avraham, but brought healing to the world on a global level. By saving Lot from Sdom, he brought into existence the beginning of the messianic line, the ultimate healing for the world as a whole. The entire incident with the angels and the destruction of Sdom, when viewed from this perspective, is a physical unfolding of a spiritual reality created during Avraham’s brit milah.
And Sara Laughed
Another aspect of the parsha where Rav Shorr adds depth to our understanding is the astonishing dialogue between Hashem, Avraham and Sara after the angels deliver the news that Yitzchak will be born within a year. The Torah tells us that Sara laughed, and yet, when confronted with this laughter by Hashem, she denies it. Rav Schorr points out the opinion in Chazal that Avraham wrote the Eishet Chayil poem to describe Sara. It is inconceivable that she would lie, and to Hashem, no less! She clearly did not perceive herself to be laughing. And yet, the Torah tells us, “she laughed within herself.” There was a place within her where that laughter existed. Bereisheit Rabbah (9:3) tells us that “A thought, even before it is created, is recognized by Hashem.” Hashem was pointing out to her something that was happening within her on a subconscious level, a level she can barely even recognize. What was the point of this?
The purpose of rebuke is clarity. Rebuke, as it is meant to be, is simply a revelation of truth to someone who is blind to that truth for whatever reason. When Hashem points out to Sara what is going on in her subconscious, He is creating within her a sensitivity to that truth. Later in the story, it is Sara’s ability to see and recognize the danger in Yishmael’s laughter that protects Yitzchak, and the entire Jewish nation. She can ascertain that which even Avraham cannot recognize. Rav Schorr says that the act of calling out Yishmael on his dangerous laughter was an act of tikkun, rectification, for Sara, for the laughter she experienced within herself earlier in the parsha.
The Akeidah
Finally, there is the akeidah. Rav Schorr discusses it at length, and we cannot do justice to the entire discussion. However, there are a few points that I would like to share. Similarly to what happened during Avraham’s brit milah, the akeidah created a spiritual reality that is infinitely greater than what is observable in the physical world. The spiritual reality of the akeidah was that Yitzchak was brought as a sacrifice. Chazal tell us that his ashes are still resting on the heavenly alter. This reality did not come into the world of action but was completely realized in the world of thought. In this way, the akeidah parallels the creation of the world. Rashi brings a midrash (Bereisheit 1:1) that “in the beginning it came into His thought to create the world with Din, and He saw the world couldn’t continue to exist and so joined together with it Rachamim.” This midrash, says the Sfat Emet, is not describing, chas vashalom, how Hashem changed His mind. Instead, it is describing some of the many layers of our world. Our physical world can only exist through a combination of Din and Rachamim. However, there is an aspect of the world that exists only in thought, and there din prevails alone. There was similarly an aspect of the akeidah that existed only in thought, and there Yitzchak was slaughtered.
Rav Schorr tells us that part of Avraham’s job in the world was to begin to fix that which Adam HaRishon had ruined, and this is what Avraham accomplished through his ten tests. With the akeidah, his task was almost completed. However, there was one aspect of tikkun that Avraham couldn’t accomplish. Adam was a direct creation of Hashem, “the work of His Hands” and Avraham was not. At the time of the akeidah, Yitzchak’s soul left him. Hashem blew a new soul directly into him. It was like a techiyat hamaytim. Yitzchak became “the work of Hashem’s hands” and finished the final step of the tikkun.
Rav Schorr explains that this moment of receiving a new soul was a moment that fundamentally changed Yitzchak’s essence. The neshama that Yitzchak had before was not fit to have children, but this new soul was. For this reason, we only hear of Rivkah’s birth after Yitzchak goes through the process of the akeidah (see Ohr Chachaim, Bereisheit 22:20). When it was possible for Yitzchak to have children, Rivkah was brought into the world.
With this in mind, we can shift our entire perspective on the akeidah. When Hashem came to Avraham and asked him to bring Yitzchak up as a korban, Avraham was surely convinced that this was the end of the promise of “in Yitzchak will be called your seed” (Bereisheit 21:12). It appeared that there would be no Jewish nation, no continuation of Avraham’s legacy in history. However, the spiritual reality was the exact opposite. It was only through the akeidah that Yitzchak could acquire the neshama that would enable him to have children. It was only through the akeidah that the nevuah of “in Yitzchak will be called your seed” could be fulfilled.
As I write this, our world is in the midst of an upheaval. There a good number of changes and events happening that we can’t even pretend to understand. We are missing too much of the background knowledge. But we do know this. If we could see the spiritual reality, if we could see what was happening in a deeper, more complete way, things would become a whole lot clearer. There is a plan that plays out on many levels, we just can’t see it yet.