All Classes

Theology, Sociology, Psychology and Sheep. Four Sages Debate What the Most Important Idea of Judaism Is

Why Does the Soul Descend to Earth? To Touch the Infinite Essence. Likkutei Torah Balak Maamar Mi Manah Afar Yaakov

Ten Spies Obsessed with Love. But Sometimes Love Is a Sin

Why We Eat Fish Before Meat. Likkutei Torah Behaaloscha Maamar Eim Es Kal Dagei Hayam.

A Tale of 3 Relationships: The Story of a Triple Reincarnation- Dignity & Loyalty In the Depths of Pain. Studying the Book of Ruth, Class 2

The Forgotten Souls - When Rabbi Akiva showed Moses how to appreciate the alienated Jews

Isaac grows old and his eyes dim. He expresses his desire to bless his beloved and eldest son Esau before he dies. While Esau goes off to hunt for his father's favorite food, Rebecca – his wife – dresses Jacob in Esau's clothes, covers his arms and neck with goatskins to simulate the feel of his hairier brother, prepares a similar dish, and sends Jacob to his father with the food. Isaac suspects that something is amiss and insists on feeling his son. He concludes that the ‘voice is the voice of Jacob, and the hands are the hands of Esau.’ Isaac also mentions that the smell of Jacob’s garments are like the smell of ‘the field that G-d has blessed.’ Isaac then blesses Jacob with ‘the dew of the heaven and the fat of the land’ and mastery over his brother.'

The questions cannot be ignored: If Rebecca had a good reason as to why Esau was undeserving of his father's blessings, why couldn't she communicate directly to Isaac? Why couldn't Rebecca ""follow"" the glorious old tradition of Jewish wives who commonly explain to their husbands how wrong they are?

Indeed, Rebecca had a good argument against granting the blessings to Esau, one that Isaac would certainly understand. Jacob is ""a wholesome man, a dweller of the tents of study,"" whereas Esau is described as a ""skilled hunter, a man of the field."" Jacob's descendants became the nation of Israel, who granted the world the vision of ethical monotheism, while Esau fathered Roman civilization with its culture of ruthless power and great material achievement. Couldn’t she explain this to Isaac?"

Also, what was the uniqueness of the smell of Jacob’s garments? Goatskins actually have a terrible stench! The Talmud tells us that Isaac did not smell ‘Jacob’s garments’ (begadav) rather he smelled ‘Jacob’s traitors’ (bogdav). And this is the fragrance he so enjoyed. This, too, is deeply disturbing. What is so pleasant about the “aroma of traitors?” And why would they inspire Isaac to bless their grandfather Jacob?

The great souls and spiritual giants that would emerge from Jacob’s seed throughout history did not suffice to entice Isaac to confer the blessings upon the wearer of the garments; it was only the traitors that moved him so deeply. Why?" "A penetrating insight by Rabbi Yitzchak Meir Alter of Ger (1799-1866) reveals the depth of Rebecca’s wisdom and foresight. Rebecca was seeking a blessing not for Jacob himself, but for Jacob as he was dressed in Esau’s garments. Rebecca knew of the state of many a Jew today: A Jacob who presents himself to the world as an Esau. It was Isaac’s blessings to even this type of ‘betrayer’ that has made the Jewish identity so deep and unshakeable in even the most distant and self-hating Jew. The incredible Midrashic stories of Yosef Meshisa illustrate this point unforgettably.

The shalsheles is an unusual note. It goes up and down, up and down, as if unable to move forward to the next note. It was the 16th century commentator Rabbi Joseph Ibn Caspi (in his commentary to Bereishis 19:16) who best understood what it was meant to convey, namely a psychological state of uncertainty and indecision. The graphic notation of the shalsheles itself looks like a streak of lightning, a zigzag movement, a mark that goes repeatedly backwards and forwards. It conveys frozen motion - in which the agent is torn by inner conflict. The shalsheles is the music of ambivalence.

As Rabbi Jonothan Sacks explains in an essay, the Torah does not have a word for ambivalence. It does, however, have a tune for it. This is the rare note known as the shalsheles. It appears three times in Bereishis, each time at a moment of crisis for the individual concerned. In each case it signifies an existential crisis. The agent is called on to make a choice, one on which his whole future will depend, but he finds that he cannot. He is torn between two alternatives, both of which exercise a powerful sway on him. He must resolve the dilemma one way or another, but either way will involve letting go of deeply felt temptations or deeply held aspirations. It is a moment of high psychological drama. Understanding one’s deepest conflict reveals the essence of their personality.

This class will analyze three personalities: Lot, Eliezer, and Joseph (order of appearance) and demonstrate the crucial struggle of each, immortalized in synagogues until today with the remarkable tune of shalsheles. We will also seek to understand the shalsheles’s fourth and final appearance in Vayikra 8: 23, in the middle of a discussion of sacrifices.