BOSTONER TORAH INSIGHTS II BOSTONER ‘CHASSIDUS’ IN ENGLISH Parshas Vayeitzei – 6 Kislev 5774

Bostoner Rebbe shlit”a – Yerushalayim Secretariat E–mail: [email protected]

“Yaakov awoke from his sleeping and said, 'It must be that Hashem is present in this place and I had not known'. He became frightened and said, 'How awesome is this place! This is none other than the House of Elokim as well as the Gate of Heaven”. (Beraishis 28:16-17) As Rashi explains, Yaakov was expressing that he never would have slept in this place had he known that it was so holy. Rashi further explains, based on the Gemara (Chullin 91b and Sanhedrin 95b), that Yaakov had actually arrived in Charan and said, ‘Is it possible that I passed by a place where my ancestors prayed and I did not pray there’. He then decided to turn around and travel back to Har HaMoriah. Hashem miraculously caused Yaakov to experience Kefitzas HaDerech, which can either be understood as rapid transportation or a contraction of the physical earth. Rashi introduces his novel approach that Har HaMoriah was uprooted from its place in Yerushalayim and met with Yaakov midway in Beit El. This would explain how 'the place' could be call the 'House of Elokim' as well as 'Beit El'. In an earlier comment (Beraishis 28:11), Rashi links the word for ‘place’ – Makom ‫ – מקום‬used in this Pasuk regarding Yaakov, with the same word used to describe Har HaMoriah by Akeidas Yitzchak (Beraishis 22:4), providing further support that it was Har HaMoriah. Finally, in his comments to Pesachim 88a, Rashi states that Avraham, Yitzhak and Yaakov all davened on the Har HaBayis, the location on Har HaMoriah where the Beis HaMikdash would stand in the future. As the Gemara there states, Avraham called this place ‘a mountain’ (Beraishis 22:14), regarding Yitzchak the Torah refers to it as ‘a field’ (24:63), and Yaakov calls ‘a house’ here in our Parsha (28:17). The Chasam Sofer asks how it is possible that Yaakov didn’t recognize Har HaMoriah. Presumably, the Mizbayach that Avraham built at the Akeidah or the remnants of it would have been found at that location. Additionally, if Yitzchak had davened there, perhaps there were natural or man-made items marking the location, which Yitzchak might have mentioned to Yaakov about. It would even be plausible that Yitzchak might have even brought Yaakov on a pilgrimage to that location during the first 63 years that Yaakov lived in Yitzchak’s home. One might simply answer that it was dark when Yaakov arrived at night and/or that he was not expecting to arrive at Har HaMoriah after such a short time of traveling. However, a more profound answer can be found in the Midrash Tehillim (#68) which explains that Har Sinai “was extracted from Har HaMoriah, the way that [the sanctified portion of] Challah is [pulled off and set aside] from [its] dough, from the place that Yitzchak was bound to the altar”. According to this Midrash, it is possible that when Yaakov arrived at Har HaMoriah it was unrecognizable, because the top portion of the mountain was sliced off and repositioned in the Sinai Desert. Yaakov essentially came to a level plateau where the top of Har HaMoriah once stood during Akeidas Yitzchak. This may also explain, why Pesachim 88a states that in regards to Yitzchak it was referred to as ‘a field’, as its flat top no longer resembled the ‘mountain’ during the time of the Akeidah. It was only after Yaakov ‘took from the stones of the place’ and built a makeshift structure in the vicinity where he slept that he called it afterwards ‘a house’ of Elokim. This also sheds new light into why Hashem lifted Har Sinai over Klal Yisroel during Matan Torah and coerced them to accept the Torah with it. Hashem could have threatened them with any natural phenomenon or plague. Perhaps, Hashem was reminding the Jewish People that their acceptance of Torah was not only a continuation of the Exodus from Egypt, but it was also connected to Har HaMoriah, to Avraham, to Akeidas Yitzchak, and to the future Beis HaMikdash. Both Avraham and Yaakov were able to travel to Chutz L’Aretz. Only Yitzchak was prohibited to leave Eretz Yisroel. Rashi (to Beraishis 26:2) references Beraishis Rabba (64:3) which explains that as a result of the Akeidah, Yitzchak was an Olah Temimah, an unblemished Olah-offering. Just as an Olah becomes unfit if it is removed beyond the laced-cloth fencing of the Mishkan Courtyard, so too Yitzchak would become ‘unfit’ if he went beyond the boundaries of Eretz Yisroel. If Yitzchak was indeed compared to a Korban, one might ask how the Midrash would permit him to leave the Har HaBayis area of Har HaMoriah, or at the very least the city of Yerushalayim. The Mishnah (Megillah 1:11) explains that the difference between the era of Yerushalayim and the era of Shilo was that sanctified foods needed to be eaten within the walls of Yerushalayim, but when the Mishkan stood in Shilo, these sanctified foods could be eaten from anywhere that the Mishkan in Shilo could be seen. Therefore, when there was no Mishkan, nor any wall or border around Har HaMoriah, in the days of Yitzchak, it would be logical that the natural borders would extend to the entire Land of Israel. In fact, Chaza"l tell us that in the future, Hashem will expand the city of Yerushalayim (Pesachim 50a, Baba Basra 75b) and spread its Kedusha. Rashi to Zecharia 9:1 goes as far as to say the in the future Yerushalayim will reach Damascus. This coming week, on the 8th of Cheshvan, we commemorate the Yahrtzeit of my grandfather, the first Bostoner Rebbe zt”l, Rebbe Pinchos Dovid HaLevy Horowitz. He too was able to spread Kedusha to the places he traveled. In his case, it was taking the Kedusha from its source in Eretz Yisroel and bringing it to the shores of America, a place that until his time was almost completely void of Yeshivos, void of Chassidus, and void of Yiddishkeit in general. He was able to lay the groundwork so that his son, the late Bostoner Rebbe zt”l, Grand Rabbi Levy Yitzchok HaLevy Horowitz, was able to build on that foundation many Torah institutions and bastions of Chassidus over a 60-year period, in Boston and beyond. May it be a lesson to us that a Jew can consecrate any place in which he finds himself and bring holiness to it. May our Torah and Mitzvos provide enough cumulative Kedusha to sanctify this world to the extent that we may merit the rebuilding of the Beis HaMikdosh with the coming of Moshiach Tzidkeynu, Bimhera Biyamenu Amen.