Parshat Chayei Sarah 5786
Rabbi Jablinowitz
We read at the end of this week’s parsha that Avraham gave away his possessions to his children. The pasuk states (Chapter 25, Pasuk 5), ויתן את כל אשר לו ליצחק; Avraham Avinu gave everything he had to his son Yitzchak. And the very next pasuk states, ולבני הפילגשים אשר לאברהם נתן אברהם מתנת; and to the sons of the Pilagshim (Rashi teaches that this is a reference to Hagar, who the Torah refers to here as Keturah), he gave presents. How could Avraham have given his other offspring presents if he gave Yitzchak everything he had?
Rashi asked this question as well (see the complete Sifsei Chachamim), and taught that he didn’t actually give them physical presents. Rashi states שם טומאה מסר להם, and the commentaries give different explanations. Some explain it means he taught them the name of Hashem which they could utter in a state of impurity, and some explain it to be a matter of sorcery in which he gave them dominion over שדים. Either way, it wasn’t a physical present. But Rashi adds another explanation, that he gave the sons of Keturah presents he received from Avimelech and others because of Sarah, which he didn’t want to keep. But how does this explanation answer our question; if he gave everything to Yitzchak, כל אשר לו, how was anything left for the others?
We read earlier in the parsha (Chapter 24, Pasuk 1), וד' ברך את אברהם בכל. Rashi teaches that the word כל is equivalent in Gematria to the word בן. Now that Avraham had a son he had everything, and he needed now to find his son a wife. This is why the parsha continues with the story of Avraham sending Eliezer out to find Yitzchak a wife.
The Gemara in Baba Basra 17A teaches that three people did not have the yetzer hara rule over them; Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov. The Gemara learns this from the fact that each one has the word כל mentioned by them. The pasuk in our parsha, וד' ברך את אברהם בכל, by Avraham Avinu. In next week’s parsha Yitzchak says (Chapter 27, Pasuk 33), ואכל מכל. And in parshat Vayishlach, when Yaakov meets Eisav, he says to him (Chapter 33, Pasuk 11), יש לי כל.
The Maharal teaches that this concept of "כל" which the Avos had indicates a wholeness and a sense of having everything. And this is why Chazal teach that they didn’t have a yetzer hara. The yetzer hara expresses the notion of missing or wanting something we don’t have. When we desire something, it’s because we feel we’re lacking or missing. This is the essence of the yetzer hara. Chazal teach in Koheles Rabbah (1,13), אין אדם מת וחצי תאוותו בידו; when a person dies, he still has half of his desires unfulfilled. Lacking is the essence of the yetzer hara.
The Sfas Emes teaches that when the pasuk says, ויתן את כל אשר לו ליצחק, it means that Avraham Avinu gave his midah of כל over to Yitzchak. The Maharal also explains that the Avos were unique in that they were one unit and not considered as separate individuals. Separate implies lacking. But when Avraham passed on the unique trait of כל over to Yitzchak this established the Avos as not separate, but rather as a unit of perfection and of not lacking or missing. And this was further passed on to Yaakov, making them an inseparable unit, not susceptible to the yetzer hara of wanting and needing more, as the pasuk says (Koheles, Chapter 4, Pasuk 12), החוט המשלש לא במהרה ינתק. The string wound from three threads will not be broken and remained connected as one unit.
When the next pasuk says that Avraham gave presents to the Bnei Keturah, Rashi teaches that it was the gifts that Avraham received on account of Sarah. Avraham wasn’t interested in these gifts, he didn’t need them nor desire them, and he passed them on. They represented the desire for more things and since he had כל, he had no purpose in keeping them.
This is what the pasuk means when it says כל אשר לו. These possessions weren’t essential to him. The only thing essential to Avraham was his midah of wholeness and completion, and of being the first in a unit of fatherhood for the Jewish people. And this is what he gave to Yitzchak. It was only כל which was אשר לו, which was essential and definitional to who he was. Everything else was just unnecessary baggage, and he passed all that on to the Bnei Keturah.
Good Shabbos
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