Inheritance of Jacob

According to what we have said previously, namely that 'Satan' has no power to remove a Jewish soul in Eretz Yisrael. That concept shall smooth out a seemingly difficult saying of the Sages: "Regarding the verse 'The land upon which you [Jacob] lay, I [G‑d] am giving to you and your descendents,' (Gen. 28:13) what kind of great gift is the space of four cubits as an inheritance? Rather Rav Yitzchak teaches that the true meaning of this verse is as follows: G‑d folded the entire land of Israel underneath Jacob to indicate to him that the conquest of the entire land will be as simple as conquering four cubits." (Chullin 91b) From here we should be exacting and deduce that if G‑d had not folded the land underneath Jacob, then we wouldn't be able to conquer it. If that is so, what happened to the promise G‑d made to Abraham at the Covenant Between the Parts? As it says, "On that day G‑d made a covenant with Abraham saying, 'For your descendents I have given the land.'" (Gen. 15:18) It is possible to say that what G‑d promised to Jacob was that his children will eternally inherit the land, yet conquering it might be accomplished with much strife and difficulty. Therefore it was imperative that G‑d would promise the inheritance through ease.

Yet still a question arises: Couldn't G‑d have made that same promise through a mere statement? What was the necessity of folding up the land underneath Jacob?

Based on the secret [sod] level of Torah interpretation, we can say as follows: "And he touched the "makom" [Hebrew for 'place'] and rested there". (Gen. 28:11) That night Jacob touched [or attained] and connected to the level of Malchut of Atzilut, which is known as "Makom". For the letters that are used to spell out "malchut" have the same numerical value as "makom". That realm is also known as "Eretz Yisrael Zuta [small]". Its place in the stellar world of partzufim is four cubits behind Zeir Anpin, corresponding to tiferet, netzach, hod, and yesod. Likewise Jacob (the partzuf of Yaakov) stands in front of Zeir Anpin, at the level that corresponds to those four as well. Yet when the patriarch Jacob connected with the Makom, it became conquered underneath him as the secret of the Yichud [unification]. That is why G‑d told him that the land upon which he lays shall be given to him; just as in marriage, the pair connect eternally.

"…[to him] and to 'zaro' [Hebrew for 'his descendants'] - as in the verse "A light is 'zarua' [Hebrew for 'sown'] for the righteous," (Psalms 97:12) as per the explanation of the children of Rav Safra. (Zohar parashat Teruma p. 187) The intention of folding the entire land of Israel under Jacob was to envelope the Malchut in its garments.

Her [Malchut's] most external garments are from the aspect of the Neshama of Asiya; the middle garments are from the aspect of the Neshama of Yetzira; the innermost garments are from the aspect of the Neshama of Beriya. Yet her "Ten Lights" remain in Atzilut. They are the ten sefirot of Mah with its ten lights. The thirty garments that descend they are from the aspect of Ban.

Just as the one who has lost something is the one who goes searching for it, the purpose of the descent is to refine the refinement of the vessels of Ban that had shattered and to re-elevate them to their roots. This is what the idea of the land of Israel stretching out until it is four hundred miles square means. This is so, for each sefira is comprised of its own ten. Behold, the three worlds Beriya, Yetzira and Asiya make up three hundred miles, and the ten sefirot of Mah that remain in Atzilut are also comprised of their own ten, giving us the total of four hundred square cubits as the area of Eretz Yisrael.

What did G‑d do? He folded up the thirty vessels one atop the other, and then brought them face to face with Jacob opposite his four cubits which represent his tiferet, netzach, hod, and yesod. Then they all united. That is the meaning of "And he [Jacob] lay down in that place", for we would really desire that all her [Malchut's] thirty sefirot would be enough that she could stand next to Zeir Anpin, face to face.

This is the mystery of the statement "it was folded that it should be as easy to conquer as four cubits": that it should be easy for his descendants to rectify her [the malchut and the land], similar to the rectification of tiferet, netzach, hod, yesod of Zeir Anpin himself.

This Malchut at times connects with Jacob at the stage of "Katnut" [immaturity], at times with Yeshurun during the stage of "Yenika" [nursing], and with Yisrael at the stage of Gadlut [maturity], as we shall discuss later, G‑d willing, in the second book about the Mishna of "The ten sanctifications" [Ed.: not yet available]. This instructs us that Eretz Yisrael is the land in which is planted the above-mentioned three [Yisrael, Yeshurun, and Yaakov], whose numerical value equals "Eretz" [1290, with alef meaning "1000"]; the ending letters of those three spell "Lavan" [Hebrew for "Laban"], which indicates to us that through the house of Laban, Jacob [Yaakov] merited to ascend to the level of Yisrael and Yeshurun. That was accomplished by his marrying Rachel and Leah.

Yet in similar fashion, according to the book Galya Razya1 by Rav Eliezer from Garmiza [known as the "Rokeach"], we can understand why G‑d folded up the entire land under Jacob:

"When G‑d saw that his children would sin and perish from the world, G‑d, being that he desires that no soul of the Jews be lost, established circumcision upon the flesh of all males. If a person fails to perform this rite he has cut himself off of the nation. He also established reincarnation, to rectify oneself, in order to return to its original source.

At that moment, 'Satan' and his seventy generals gathered before G‑d. They said, "Master of the world, we have also been formed by the work of Your hands, You are the father for all creatures. Just as You have established a path of rectification for the souls of the Jews by means of reincarnation that each one will ultimately receive a portion of the World to Come, so too do for us. What did You see that you chose the seed of Abraham over us?

At that moment G‑d responds to them, "Have you done for me as Abraham did? Abraham recognized me even from his youth. He lovingly and willingly subjected himself to enter the fiery furnace for Me, yet you saw how I saved him from you and from the fiery furnace and nonetheless you didn't believe Me to sanctify Me. Therefore, from here and onwards don't say a word, neither positive nor negative. 'Satan'2 responds, "The daughters are my daughters and the sons are my sons, and all you see belongs to me. For I cause them to have a desire for intimacy, Therefore I am the ultimate cause of their creation."

G‑d replies, "Evil-one, being that I had known that you would say such vile things, I preempted you and commanded Abraham to circumcise his whole household. Further I wrote in the Torah, 'Any uncircumcised man who doesn't remove his foreskin shall be cut off from his nation' (Gen. 17:14); your portion shall be the foreskin, being that you arouse lust."

When 'Satan' saw that the judgement wasn't in his favor, he requested from G‑d to grant him permission to make a covenant with Jacob, saying, "In the future he [Jacob] shall be my son-in-law, I ['Satan'] will give him my daughters as wives and we shall live in peace together." At that point G‑d granted him permission to give his daughters to Jacob as wives.

Then ['Satan' left the heavenly courthouse in a similar fashion to the way that his descendent Haman Left the palace of Ahasuerus. As it says,] "And Haman left with happiness and content of heart." (Esther 4:9) Then 'Satan' waited until the time when Isaac and Rebecca sent Jacob to Paden Aram. He plotted to follow him and kill him for he was enraged with him in regards to Jacob's deceiving Esau out of the blessing and birth rite, especially after Isaac ratified it, as it says, "And the Lord Sha-dai shall bless you…." (Gen. 28:3) Therefore, what did he do? As soon as Jacob left Beer Sheva, 'Satan' sent Elifaz to confront Jacob. Elifaz caught Jacob on that very day and took every thing that Jacob owned. This is why the verse "And Jacob left Beer Sheva and went to Haran" (Gen. 28:10), the comma [or pause] indicates that each was its own episode. This also indicates to us that 'Satan' is associated with "Charon Af" [meaning the characteristic of rage, a play on the name "Haran"] because of his anger. This was displayed by his going out to exact vengeance upon Jacob.

We see that after the sun had set on Jacob he was overcome with fear, becauase he was left all alone in a field at night; as we know, a Torah scholar requires guarding. At that point Jacob began crying and established the Evening Prayer through his tears. Upon viewing Jacob's fear and humility, 'Satan' left him, causing him no harm. Thus far the book Galia Razia.

In my opinion the above is very far-fetched, for just because it seemed that Jacob was afraid, 'Satan' decided to leave him alone? On the contrary, when one is afraid then his heavenly assistance is worsened and it is very easy to do away with him, as it is said, "When the ox falls sharpen the knife." (Shabbat 32a) Especially having such a deep-seated hatred towards Jacob from the day he was born, how could he be transformed into pitying him right when he had fallen into his hands? Furthermore, does 'Satan' even have the capacity for pity, for all bile and fury dwell within him?

We can resolve this problem with what we had mentioned previously. Namely, being that 'Satan' has no power over a Jew in Eretz Yisrael, G‑d saw a way to protect Jacob. What did he do? He folded the entire land of Israel underneath Jacob, which effectively prevented 'Satan' from harming Jacob. That caused 'Satan' to grind his teeth at Jacob trying to figure a way to harm him. Especially after G‑d had shown Jacob all he promises (by means of the dream with the angels and the ladder), 'Satan' also saw part of Jacob promises. This enraged him even more. For all was futile. That is why the next morning when Jacob got up the Torah describes it as, "And Jacob lifted his feet and traveled to the land of the sons of Kedem." (Gen. 29:1) The term of lifting feet implies the alacrity and joy Jacob was feeling after receiving the promises and reassurances from G‑d. As our sages say, "the belly carries the feet" (Bereishit Rabba 70:8), meaning that when Jacob received the good tidings from G‑d his heart was elevated and lifted his feet. When the verse states, "...And he traveled..", it is preceded by a comma [or pause]. That indicates to us that there are two distinct occurrences: one was Jacob's joyous departure, the other was 'Satan''s journey to the land of the sons of Kedem, where he tried attaining advice from the two fallen angels Aza and Aza'el as to how to destroy Jacob .

According to the above, we must try to understand what message G‑d was conveying to Jacob by showing him the vision of the Ladder.

Apparently, when G‑d saw the fear of 'Satan' upon Jacob, He wanted to show Jacob the truth about the power of 'Satan'. Therefore G‑d showed him the Ladder [in Hebrew, "Sulam" = 130 plus one for the kollel] whose numerical value equals that of "'Satan'" [= 131], for 'Satan' is the symbol of denying the unity of G‑d.

Yet G‑d was revealing to Jacob that even though 'Satan' (i.e. the "sulam"/"ladder") is on the earth attempting to eliminate you, nonetheless "his head reaches heaven" (ibid.). This means that while 'Satan''s head is rooted in the heavens, he's ultimately controlled by G‑d and has no permission to do neither good nor bad to you. His head reaches the angel Meta‑tron in the heavens; he has no permission to take any so/ul without the permission of Meta‑tron.

Furthermore when the verse says, "The angels were ascending and descending upon it", "it" refers to Meta‑tron. In other words 'Satan' has no permission in Eretz Yisrael, rather it is Gabriel who was granted permission. This is why the Torah uses the term "Malachei Elokim" ["Angels of G‑d"], For "Elokim" implies the quality of judgment, and Gabriel and 'Satan' are both angels of judgment. "Ascending " - to prosecute and "descending" - to take the soul. "Upon it" - with the permission of Meta‑tron, who is the ruler of the six days of the week.

"And behold G‑d was standing above of him (Meta‑tron)" - this was to teach us not to make the same mistake that Elisha ben Avuya made. For Elisha mistook Meta‑tron as an independent power (G‑d forbid). Therefore, when you see all the heavenly angels performing the bidding of Meta‑tron, taking the quota of souls he assigns them, don't think that it is his independent decision. For "G‑d is standing above him", and therefore don't be afraid, for, "Behold I am with you and I shall guard you wherever you shall go".

Even though Michael came and wrestled with Jacob, he is just one of the seventy names of Meta‑tron. "And he bruised him in the indent of the hip", this happened when Jacob refused to let go of Michael. The forces of Michael wanted to endanger Jacob, and at that point G‑d appeared, frightening the hosts of Michael, yet simultaneously weakening Jacob. This gave Michael the opportunity to break free. He did this by bruising Jacob in his hip.

At that point, G‑d rebuked Michael saying, "Nice job. You've just rendered my High Priest invalid for service." Immediately Michael set out to find Raphael [the angel of healing] to come and heal Jacob. After that, "And Jacob lifted his feet", implying that Jacob was elated at the news of his elevated stature, whereas 'Satan' went to seek council from Nofel and Giluyi Aynayim, as to how to contend with Jacob. The advice he received was to go to Laban and convince him to give his daughters to Jacob.

Immediately, 'Satan' went to Laban's house and enclothed himself in the terafim [idols] of Laban. When Jacob made it to Laban's house empty handed, Laban didn't want to receive him, for Laban remembered how Jacob's grandfather's servant [Eliezer] had brought such lavish gifts when looking for a wife for Isaac. Laban went to the terafim for advice. 'Satan', through the terafim responded, "Don't send him away, rather give your daughters to him so that they shall rule over him, he will thus be subjugated to the kelipot and we'll be able to do what ever we want with him." Hence Laban returned to Jacob saying, "Just because we are related should you work without pay? Tell me your wages." (Gen. 29:15) Jacob responded that he only wanted to marry Rachel. Subsequently, he married both of Laban's daughters.

Laban was under the impression that his daughters sided with him and would be victorious over Jacob. Yet G‑d foiled his plans, and in the very same pot Laban planned to boil-up Jacob, he himself got boiled in. (His daughters became completely righteous, giving birth to 12 tribes without flaw.) That's how the advice of the general opposite holiness can reflect all ones' strategies back upon the planner. That's what is meant by the verse. "Your ruiners and your destroyers shall emerge from you." (Isaiah 49:17) Laban thought his daughters would seduce Jacob to follow Laban's gods, yet they rebelled against their father and his gods, as is says, "And they said we have no more portion in our fathers' house". (Gen. 31:14)