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(the Festival of Unleavened Bread), whereas we refer to it as Pesach, At the Akeidah, the binding of Isaac by his father Abraham, an
quite literally “pass over.” God chose to stress the unleavened bread archetypal exchange of spiritual energies occurred. To perform God’s
the Jews ate because He wished to honor their faith in Him. They command, Abraham had to transcend his definitive characteristic
left Egypt and followed Him into the wilderness with only the most of chesed, while Isaac had to go beyond his fundamental attribute
basic of necessities, namely matzot (unleavened bread). On the other of gevurah. As a result of undergoing this test, each learned how
hand, we wish to honor God by naming the holiday Pesach, after to integrate the other’s form of spiritual energy and, consequently,
God’s “passing over” our houses on the night the first born were slain both reached entirely new levels of consciousness.
(Ohel Shlomo, Introduction, p. 10).
Chassidut finds this spiritual process alluded to in our verse: Isaac
Clearly the commandment of lech lecha – to search deep within is the son of Abraham, as he now contains an aspect of chesed too,
ourselves – was not merely given to Abraham alone. All of his while Abraham is now able to “give birth” to the aspect of Isaac –
descendants are constantly challenged to find God in the innermost gevurah. Kabbalah and Chassidut refer to this holistic dynamic as
recesses of their souls and simultaneously serve Him in the everyday inter-inclusion, a highly-developed stage of spiritual growth.
world by studying Torah, fulfilling the mitzvot, and performing acts The difficulty that both Abraham (in his relationship with Sarah)
of kindness. Indeed, Isaac his son, understood this message as the and Isaac had in conceiving children can also be understood on a
verse tells us that “Isaac sowed in that land and he found in that mystical level alluded to by the necessity of inter-inclusion referred
year a hundred fold, and God blessed him” (Genesis 26:12). Following to in this verse. As mentioned above, Abraham and Sarah were not
Abraham’s death Isaac was blessed a hundred fold, a number destined to have children in a natural way. Only Divine intervention
symbolic of the lech lecha process his father had undertaken. After and a new state of consciousness represented by God changing their
receiving this blessing, he began to re-dig the wells that Abraham names enabled them to overcome nature and give birth to Isaac.
had dug and the Philistines had buried. After many attempts, Isaac
finally succeeded in uncovering the wells. Isaac’s revelation of the In contrast, Isaac’s obstacle to conceiving children was spiritual,
living waters hidden in the earth is an external manifestation of his not physical. Although Isaac was able to have marital relations his
attempt to carry on the traditions of inner spiritual searching and deep inner essence of introversion prevented him from conceiving
action inititiated by Abraham. Our inner search provides us with the children. Only after fully integrating a portion of Abraham’s aspect
strength to express our ultimate potential in the physical world, and of chesed at the Akeidah was he able to give in such a way that
our expression of this potential, through the observance of Torah he could have children. “Abraham gave birth to Isaac,” thus means
and mitzvot, further enhances this inner revelation. (This insight that Abraham imparted to Isaac the ability to give birth.
was discussed in Seeds and Sparks, pp. 239-243.) From these teachings, we learn the importance of going beyond our
basic inbred natures so as to make room for and validate character
traits wholly inimical to us. By allowing these opposite attributes in,
we provide ourselves with the opportunity to give birth to new levels
of self and to fully actualize our potentials. Some of life’s hardest
tests are specifically in this area. Yet, just as Abraham and Isaac
were able to pass their respective tests, so too, we, their descendants,
can pass ours.

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