Torah Ohr · Sefer Bereishis · Shabbos November 7
פרשת חיי שרה
Parshas Chayei Sarah
3 maamarim of the Alter Rebbe on the parsha, in the Hebrew of the Kehot edition, with every marei makom opened right where it appears. Each small section with a faithful English translation and a short explanation.
Your progress in Parshas Chayei Sarah
The maamarim 3
- The Subject of the Field of Machpelah G‑dliness reaches the created world only through garments and reflections: the doubled hei of Machpelah, the food of Shabbos, the mitzvos that clothe the soul. Yet because these garments come from G‑d’s will itself, what is done with them below reaches higher than the revealed light of the World to Come.
- לשון אדמו״ר נ״ע בעצמו The very words of our master himself The soul's garments, the reward of the mitzvos, are not created anew but refined out of kelipas nogah, and each soul must refine its own through the practical mitzvos. Yet every refinement is completed through a union in Atzilus, so even the simplest mitzvah and the plainest Torah study are rooted in the highest world.
- ויצא יצחק לשוח בשדה כו׳ “And Isaac went out to converse in the field” What comes last and lowest was first in G‑d’s thought: the Baraisa’s reasonless details stand above the Mishnah’s reasoned rules, and the bare deed of a mitzvah stands above the delight of the World to Come. Torah descends into darkness and even falsehood in order to clear it away and turn it into light, and that work needs Isaac’s awe of G‑d.
Learn it in seven days Sunday to Shabbos
The Rebbe asked that all the maamarim of the week’s parsha be learned in that week, spread over its seven days. Here is the parsha in seven portions of about equal length.