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Orchard of Delights
from Esau, his soul root was more closely connected to Jacob. While
Rabbi Akiba was born into a family of converts who descended from
Esau, the Arizal connects the souls of Jacob, Issachar, and Moses to
Rabbi Akiba. The Hebrew letters of “Akiba” are the same as those of
“Jacob,” except for an additional letter alef. Both names contain the
Hebrew word for “heel” (akev), Jacob’s because at birth he held onto
his twin brother Esau’s heel, and Rabbi Akiba’s because, according
to Kabbalah and Chassidut, the heel Jacob had been holding onto
was symbolically the soul of Rabbi Akiba.
The Torah states that Isaac loved Esau because “hunt was in his
mouth” (Genesis 25:28). The Arizal taught that Isaac was hunting
for holy sparks in the domain of Esau, souls like Rabbi Akiba (Torah
Or 20c). Rebecca, though, realized that Rabbi Akiba’s essential soul
root was more connected to Jacob than to Esau. Jacob and Esau’s
highly complex relationship is illustrated by Rabbi Akiba who, on
the one hand, led a revolt against the Roman Empire and, on the
other hand, married a convert descended from the Roman aristocracy
after his first wife died.
These explanations shed light on both Isaac and Rebecca’s profound
prophetic abilities and the spiritual motivations guiding their actions
in this complex and enigmatic incident. As stated above, Esau and
Jacob’s story is far more than a series of events that took place over a
limited period of time thousands of years ago. It contains archetypal
energies that recur in each and every generation.
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up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was hot and
out of the fire went forth lightning. And the living creatures ran and 4
returned like the appearance of a flash of lightning. (Ezekiel 1:13-14)
The run and return of these angels, which Ezekiel describes as “living
creatures,” appears similar to the angels ascending and descending
on the ladder in Jacob’s dream. The run and return dynamic is
employed in Kabbalah and Chassidut to describe the pulse of life
and existence manifest in countless ways throughout creation: from
the contraction and expansion at the very origins of the universe to
the pulse of blood running through our veins; from the cycles of the
seasons to the ebb and flow of the tides; from the exhalation and
inhalation of breath to the beating of the heart; from the give and
take of relationships to the cycle of life and death itself.
King Solomon, the wisest of men, used the following description in
the book of Ecclesiastes (1:4-7):
One generation passes away and another comes, but the earth
abides forever. The sun also rises and the sun goes down and hastens
to its place where it rises again. The wind goes toward the south and
then veers to the north, round and round goes the wind, and on its
circuits the wind returns. All the rivers run to the sea, yet the sea is
not full; to the place where the rivers flow, there they return to flow.
The ladder symbolizes life itself, while the angels represent the
constant dynamic of change and motion. A Chassidic teaching
admonishes that if you are not ascending the ladder of life, you are
by definition descending, in as much as there is no such thing in
life as “standing still.” Although in this verse, angels – in contrast
to human beings – represent the run and return of all things, the
prophet Zechariah actually depicts angels as “standing”: “then I
will give you access among these who stand by” (Zechariah 3:7).
The Sages taught that in this verse those “who stand by” are the
angels. Angels are described as “standing by” because they do not
possess free will. Most angels are said to emanate from the World of
Formation, instead of the higher World of Creation where the soul
emanates from, because they lack free will. The importance of free
will was discussed earlier in this portion in “Awakening from Below
– Awakening from Above.”
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