Toldot - The Moment Our Children Really Make Us Parents - Rabbi Shlomo Katz

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BH Toldot – Giving Holiness To My Children Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach zt’l November 24, 1979 When Yaakov and Esav were born, the craziest thing happened. Since Esav was also involved in that birth, Ya’akov did not get the holiness of what we call השורש קדושת by the mere fact of being born, because Esav was involved. Why was Rivka going Lidrosh es HaShem? Why did she think something was wrong? She assumed that since she is having children from Yitzchak, that whatever they may end up doing, eventually the holiness which they are born with will get to them. When did Ya’akov receive from Yitzchak the holiness of the shoresh, that holiness which nobody can take away? Yitzchak thought if he blesses Esav and gives him over this holiness, he will do tshuvah. Esav is so bad because nebech he doesn’t have this holiness that I have from my father Avraham Avinu. If I give it over to him, he will shine. But you know something friends, the holiness which you get when your born is only deep inside until it comes out and appears in your life. If you don’t want to serve G-d, what do you need it for? Esav doesn’t need that holiness, he is doing everything he can to drive out that holiness from the world. He doesn’t want to be holy. Rivkah is the one who knows this. Yitzchak thought of blessing Esav with kduashas ha’avoda. He thought that since Ya’akov is serving G-d anybody, he doesn’t need my blessings, I will give it to Esav. I want you to know something very deep. Avraham Avinu is serving G-d by loving G-d, by loving people. Yitzchak is strength. This is all very beautiful, but there is something deeper than all this, much deeper than all this. These are all manifestations of how and what to serve g-d, but lemala min hamidos, the Ribbono shel Olam is deeper than all this. When someone says G-d is love, G-d is light, it’s true but it’s deeper than everything in the world. It’s deeper than all of this. Suddenly when Ya’akov stood before Yitzchak, Yitzchak realized that what I have to give over to Ya’akov is not k’dushas avoda, it’s kdushas hashoresh, the depths of that holiness which cannot be destroyed. Yitzchak did not know to whom to give the blessings. So when Ya’akov walked in, he mamesh knew the blessings belonged to Ya’akov. The Divrei Chaim says that when Yaakov walked in, Yitzchak had no idea how deep it is to bless your child. However much Yitzchak thought it was deep to bless a child, when Ya’akov walked in it was something else. The whole time he was preparing himself to bless Esav. When he heard Ya’akov walking in, Yaakov opened gates in Yitzchak’s heart which reached the deepest nekudas of Yitzchak. It was this kind of holiness which Yitzchak never felt, and this is when kdushas hashoresh was given over. You see what it is, it was aroused from own child. Yitzchak Avinu was the one was lying on the altar, can anyone feel more G-dly than that? But it doesn’t compare to one second of what he felt when Yaakov walked in to receive his blessing. Re’eh Reiach Bni Kere’iach Hasade Asher Bercho Hashem. Yitzchak didn’t even know what he was blessing because the blessing was just coming through him. It was not even Yitzchak blessing, it was clear that G-d was putting the words into his mouth. So the Zohar Hakadosh says, Ya'akov is standing before Yitzchak and suddenly Yitzchak's heart was so open. Yitzchak is surprised, he never dreamt that this is the way to bless a child. 'I didn’t know it was so deep. I didn’t know it was so deep'. www.shlomokatz.com