11/16/17 Gal Einai: Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh
Toldot: Thursday: A Mother’s Love
Jacob manages to receive/steal the blessing from his father Isaac in place of Esau, his brother. But Jacob is just a _shaliach_, a messenger of his mother, Rebecca. She is the person who initiates the plan for Jacob to receive Isaac’s blessing and she takes responsibility for it, telling Jacob that if Isaac discovers that he is not Esau and curses him, _“your curse will be upon me”_. Actually, there is a conflict between two sides in this story: Isaac and Esau on one side and Rebecca and Jacob on the other. And the second side triumphs.
On a deeper level, the struggle is between two loves: Isaac loves Esau and Rebecca loves Jacob – and Rebecca’s love for Jacob triumphs. Why is Rebecca’s love greater than Isaac’s love?
We read in the Torah, _“And Isaac loved Esau for venison was in his mouth, and Rebecca loves Jacob.”_ Isaac has a very good reason to love Esau: _“venison was in his mouth”_. Esau honors his father and brings him delicacies. Kabbalah explains that Isaac sees the holy sparks in Esau, the sparks that were revealed in subsequent generations as great righteous converts who descended from Esau. But _“Rebecca loves Jacob”_. She simply loves him, no reason given.
In other words: Isaac’s love for Esau, in a certain way, is “love dependent upon a reason.” But Rebecca’s love for Jacob is “love that is not dependent upon a reason.” It is the pure love of a mother for her son. And it triumphs.
⭐ *Tonight*, Thursday night, or-l’28 Cheshvan, farbrengen with Rabbi Ginsburgh in honor of his birthday.
10 PM at the Talmud Torah in Kfar Chabad. *Live broadcast* (Hebrew) here - https://goo.gl/da9fF3
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11/16/17, 9:00 AM - Gal Einai: AUD-20171116-WA0000.mp3 (file attached)
11/16/17, 9:00 AM - Gal Einai: A New Nigun By the Rav
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