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Orchard of Delights Miketz
£Small VesselsSmall VesselsSmall Vessels we must always be on guard lest our baser desires consume all our
good works and intentions.
££
After Pharaoh’s first dream, the Torah mentions that he fell back
asleep and dreamt a second time. The Slonimer Rebbe interprets
The Torah tells us that the night before his confrontation with Esau,
Jacob took his wives, children, and possessions to safety on the other this to mean that even when we awake and begin changing our
side of the Yabbok stream. Then it relates that “Jacob was left alone priorities we may still fall back asleep, slipping once again into old
and a man wrestled with him till the daybreak” (Genesis 32:24). The habits and negative behaviors. In contrast, after Jacob dreamt of a
oral tradition picks up on this seeming contradiction: if Jacob had ladder reaching the heavens, he awoke and immediately exclaimed:
just brought his family and flocks to safety than how could he have “Surely God is in this place and I did not know” (Genesis 28:16).
been left alone? Rashi resolves this question by citing the tradition Jacob did not fall back asleep. Rather, he immediately took action
that Jacob crossed back to the Yabbok’s other bank. However, and integrated the dream’s meanings – especially that God was ever-
this merely raises another question: why did Jacob go back? Rashi present – into his life.
addresses this question by quoting the Talmud (Chullin 91a) which Continuing to examine these dreams for meaning, the Slonimer
reports that Jacob had forgotten to take some “small vessels,” so he Rebbe explains that the cows symbolize our carnal cravings (desires
returned to retrieve them. of the flesh), while the grain represents our desire for food. These,
This Talmudic explanation seems somewhat odd: would Jacob according to Chassidut, are the two main animalistic drives in man;
have really been so concerned about a few small items at such a if they are not correctly rectified, they have the power to consume
critical time? On the simple peshat level, we can explain that these the Divine soul. Rebbe Elimelech of Lyzhansk comments that the
vessels really were vessels. As for why Jacob cared about them so brothers’ descent into Egypt to obtain food may be compared to
much, based on the Talmud, Rashi explains that the righteous prize the soul’s descent into this world. The Hebrew verb denoting “to
their physical possessions because they know how much honest, hard obtain” food (lishbor) is derived from the same root as the Hebrew
work has gone into obtaining them. They know these possessions are word denoting “to break.” He explains that the soul’s challenge
free of any taint of sin. The Stone Chumash (published by ArtScroll) in this world is to break the hold of the physical world in order to
expands this notion by explaining that the righteous are able to infuse physicality with spiritual energy and content. This process
invest even their most mundane possessions with great holiness and subsequently propels the soul to an even higher spiritual level than
spiritual value. So for these reasons, Jacob prized his vessels. it would have reached had it not come into this world. The Talmud
recounts that God exclaims, “I created the evil inclination and I
Kabbalah and Chassidut, adopt a mystical approach, explaining created the Torah as its remedy” (Kiddushin 30). The Torah contains
that the numerical value of the Hebrew phrase for “small vessels” God’s advice on how human beings can overcome their baser desires
is 359. The Hebrew word for “Satan” is also 359; and the numerical and reach new spiritual heights.
value of the word “nachash” (the primordial snake in the Garden of
Eden) is 358. The Kabbalah teaches that in tabulating the numerical Joseph symbolizes humanity’s ability to overcome these desires
value of a word, the number one may be added to represent the entire and convert them into positive engines for change. It was he who
word. Therefore “Satan” and “Nachash,” both equaling 359, may be overcame the advances of Potiphar’s wife and by doing so began
viewed as alternate names for the same evil energy. Fittingly, the a chain of events that led him to become Egypt’s vizier. His sage
spiritual counterbalance to the primordial snake and Satan is the advice regarding how Egypt should store grain during the years of
plenty so that there would be food to eat during the years of famine
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