Toldot
What are the qualities that live within us?
Reflection by Carrie Watkins, Or HaLev US Community Manager
"This week’s parsha starts telling the story of Isaac’s life by saying `and these are the generations of Isaac, son of Abraham; Abraham begot Isaac` (Gen 25:19).
The early Chasidic Master, the Meor Eynaim, asks two questions about this opening - why is Abraham so strongly emphasized in the opening of this story about Isaac, and what does this have to do with us today?
The Meor Eynaim then asks another series of questions, seemingly out of nowhere. How are we to fulfill the commandments to love Hashem with all our hearts - `You shall love Hashem our God` (Deut 6:5) - if we can’t even begin to conceptualize what G-d is? And not just love, but how can we fulfill the commandments to fear or find awe in Hashem, `you shall fear Hashem your G-d` (Deut 6:13) and to know The Holy One, `Know the G-d of your ancestors and serve G-d` (1 Chronicles 28:9)? How can we relate to the Infinite Source of Life enough to love, to awe, or to know?
The Meor Eynaim then answers all three questions together.
In the Kabbalistic imagination, Avraham represents the divine quality of חסד, of love. Yitzchak represents גבורה, boundaries and fear, and Ya’akov represents דעת, knowing. Our forefathers passed these qualities onto us as an inheritance. And through these qualities, we can access love, awe, and the experiential knowing of The Divine.
Why is Abraham so central to Isaac’s story? Because his inheritance of love lives in Isaac. What does that have to do with us, the spiritual ancestors of Avraham, Isaac and Ya’akov? Those qualities live within us, too.
All the love, awe, and knowing we need to relate to Divinity is already within us. May our mindfulness practice this coming week give us only the quiet we need to find it."