Okay. The topic tonight is, was thinking something that has to do with the parsha of the week, even though this is not a shiur on the parsha, but you know with different topics of Jewish history or different people in Jewish history or different things that happened in Jewish history, different ימים טובים. So anyway, in connection to the parsha I was thinking about the difference between Yishmael and Esav in the light of Chasidus. In other words, technically we know the difference between Yishmael and Esav. Physically, Yishmael was the son of Avraham, Esav was the son of Yitzchak. We know both of them were רשעים, were evil people. Actually, the Gemara says concerning both of them, it says, אברהם יצא ממנו ישמעאל, יצחק יצא ממנו עשו, which the literal translation means, Avraham, out of him came Yishmael; Yitzchak, out of him came Esav. Chasidus says a little deeper peshat than just the simple translation, but it means אברהם יצא ממנו ישמעאל, ישמעאל went out of him, went away from him. Yishmael was נפרד, separated himself from him. Yishmael was not along the same line, didn't continue the tradition of Avraham. And the same thing with Esav. יצחק יצא ממנו עשו, עשו left him, Esav went away, Esav was נפרד, Esav separated, Esav went on a different path. And from Yishmael became a nation, a goyishe nation called the Yishmaelim, and from Esav came a goyishe nation called Edom. And we had צרות, צרורות, all kinds of troubles from both of these nations throughout Jewish history, and that we know is Esav and Yishmael. But we know that everything that we learn in the Torah, even the stories of the Torah have much deeper meaning than what they just seem, and there must be some Chasidic explanation in the difference between Esav, what Esav represents and what Yishmael represents, and why that is different, etc., etc. So this is what I'm going to try to explain. First to see the difference between Esav and Yishmael, and then to see the Chasidish explanation why there is this difference. Now, we find there is a difference between Esav and Yishmael. Yishmael seems to be better than Esav. The Gemara says, Rashi brings that ישמעאל עשה תשובה. Yishmael did teshuvah, he returned. Actually, in the end of the parashah, when it says that Yishmael died, it says an expression of ויגוע, which is only used by tzadikim, because Yishmael became, himself, personally, became a tzadik, he did teshuvah. Hashem actually promised Avraham Avinu earlier, He said to him, you will die בשיבה טובה, which means with a good old age. And imagine if he would have died still seeing Yishmael being a rasha, then this wouldn't have been בשיבה טובה. So Hashem really kept His promise and Yishmael did teshuvah. While Esav, we don't find anywhere that Esav did teshuvah. Esav did not do teshuvah. Esav remained a rasha throughout his whole lifetime. Actually, we find the opposite. We find when Yaakov Avinu passed away, and they took him from Egypt to bury him in Eretz Yisrael in the Me'arat haMachpelah, so the Gemara tells us a story that when they were waiting there to going to bury him in the Me'arat haMachpelah, Esav came. And Esav said, \"I'm not letting you bury him in the Me'arat haMachpelah, because we both inherited it from our father Yitzchak, and therefore it's even. Half is his, half is mine. He already buried his wife Leah there, so the other half is mine.\" He didn't want to let them bury Yaakov in the Me'arat haMachpelah. And this definitely didn't come from his goodness of his heart. It came because he was a rasha, because this was not true. He didn't inherit it. Because he sold it! He sold his share to Yaakov Avinu. It says before Yaakov went to Mitzrayim, he gave him a whole pile of gold and silver as payment to buy his share in the Me'arat HaMachpelah. He was just lying! He was a rasha. Well, the end of the story is that they told him, \"We bought it.\" And he said, \"Well, show me the document.\" So they said, \"We left the document in Mitzrayim.\" \"Well, go bring it.\" So they sent somebody to bring the document. Who did they send? So they picked a person who runs very fast, because they didn't want to waste any time. So they picked Naftali. It says, נפתלי אילה שלוחה, נפתלי is like a deer, he ran fast as a deer. So they sent Naftali back to Mitzrayim all the way from Chevron, imagine, from Chevron all the way to Egypt. He ran back and was going to, would take, he would do a fast job, but he still would take some time. In the meantime, the Gemara says that Chushim, the son of Dan, Dan had one son Chushim, he was deaf. So he couldn't hear what was going on. So he saw the whole commotion, so he turns around and he says, \"What's going on here? Why aren't you burying my grandfather?\" So they told him that, they motioned him, they showed him that Esav is not allowing. So he says, \"What are we doing about it?\" So they told him, \"We sent somebody to get the papers.\" So he said, \"And the meantime, what's going to happen? My grandfather is going to lay like this in bizayon, in an embarrassing state? I won't allow it.\" So he took a sword. So the Gemara says he took a sword and knocked Esav over the head and knocked his eyes out. In Midrash it says that he chopped his head off, and the head rolled and rolled into the lap of Yitzchak, in the Me'arat HaMachpelah, Yitzchak is buried in the Me'arat HaMachpelah, it rolled into the lap of Yitzchak. It says the lashon, רישא דעשו בעטפוי דיצחק, the head of Esav in the lap of Yitzchak, and that's how he was buried. So he was actually buried, part of him was buried in the Me'arat HaMachpelah. But all I'm trying to bring out is that Esav did not do teshuvah. He was still a rasha till the last minute of his life, and he actually got killed because of his rishut. So here we see that Yishmael was closer, so to speak, to the level of Avraham, that Yishmael did teshuvah while Esav did not do teshuvah. So Esav is further away from his father Yitzchak, not like Yishmael, who is closer, because you see that Avraham's influence worked on Esav, and he caused Esav to do teshuvah, because why else did Esav do teshuvah, I mean Yishmael do teshuvah, why else did Yishmael do teshuvah? Didn't do it on his own. We can imagine Avraham probably spoke to him, and spoke to him again, and spoke to him again, and tried to convince him. He was mekarev him, and he finally convinced him to do teshuvah. So Yishmael was to a certain degree closer to Avraham than Esav was close to Yitzchak, because you see Yitzchak did not have that influence, that hashpa'ah on Esav to make him do teshuvah. On the other hand, we find something the opposite. We find that Yishmael is not considered really a son of Avraham. Yishmael is not considered a yoresh, he's not considered an heir to Avraham, because Sarah we find said to אברהם, כי לא יירש בן האמה הזאת עם בני עם יצחק. \"I want to chase out this son Yishmael because he is not going to inherit together with my son Yitzchak.\" And Hashem said, \"She's right. Listen to her.\" So she was right that Yishmael was not an heir. So Yishmael is not really considered a son of Avraham, he's not an heir of Avraham. Esav is considered a son of Yitzchak. The pasuk says כי ביצחק יקרא לך זרע. Hashem said to Avraham, forget about ישמעאל, כי ביצחק יקרא לך זרע, your children will be Yitzchak. So we see Yitzchak, not Yishmael. The Gemara does say, when Hashem said כי ביצחק יקרא לך זרע, in יצחק ולא כל יצחק, it's only part of Yitzchak. Yitzchak himself had two children so he's divided into two, Esav and Yaakov. So only Yaakov is your real son, but nevertheless we see from this pasuk that Esav is part of יצחק. So he said, \"Not the whole of Yitzchak, part of יצחק is going to continue.\" Part of יצחק is יעקב, he is going to be the real heir, but obviously Esav is also part of Yitzchak, but the Torah just said he's the real one. So here we see that Esav is considered part of Yitzchak, and Esav is an heir, because we see that even though Yaakov was the one that got everything, got Eretz Yisrael, but when Hashem gave to Esav Har Seir, it says Hashem gave away to Esav Edom, which is Har Seir, so the pasuk says in Devarim, He gave him הר שעיר לרשת אותה, to inherit it. It was an inheritance, because Hashem promised to Yitzchak that you will, your children will have a land, so He kept His promise even to Esav. So Esav, when Esav got his share, he got Edom, Rome, that was as an inheritance from his son Yitzchak. So here we see that Esav is closer to Yitzchak than Yishmael is to Avraham. Yishmael is not considered an heir of Avraham, Yishmael is not considered like a son of Avraham, and Yitzchak is. We actually say in davenen in Rosh Hashanah, we say we ask Hashem to listen to the blowing of the shofar, which reminds us of the akedah, and you should remember the akedah of Yitzchak for his children. Now, Esav was also one of the children of Yitzchak. Yitzchak. And we definitely don't mean Hashem should remember the zechut of the akeidah for Esav. It only means Yitzchak, even though we don't mention I mean only means Yaakov, we don't mention Yaakov. We say remember לזרעו היום ברחמים תזכור. Today remember the akeidah for his children. And we mean only Yaakov. On one hand. But on the other hand, some say in the mefarshim it says some say that we should mention specifically Bnei Yisrael because otherwise it would include Esav. The halachah is that we don't mention because we know what we mean. But there is opinion that we should specify that we mean Yaakov because Esav would also be considered one of his children. So basically it comes out here that on one hand Yishmael is closer to Avraham than Esav is to Yitzchak, and on the other, because Yishmael did teshuvah, so the influence of Avraham worked and and Esav didn't, on the other hand we find that Esav is closer to Yitzchak. The main part that we find that Esav is closer to Yitzchak than Yishmael is to Avraham, Yishmael is considered על פי הלכה a goy. Yishmael was a goy. Esav, the Gemara says, was a yid. Esav was called ישראל מומר. He was a bad yid, but Esav was a yid. So here right away we see that Yishmael is a goy, so obviously if he is a goy, he's not considered a son of Avraham. If a person has a son a goy, unfortunately it's not his son. So Yishmael is called a goy, while Esav is called a Yid. ישראל מומר is called a Yid. Now at first glance, we would say why is Esav called a Yid and Yishmael not? Because Yishmael's mother was Hagar and Esav's mother was Rivka. Hagar was only a שפחה, was only a maid that Avraham married, while Yitzchak married Rivka who's his wife, his real wife, and had two children, Yaakov and Esav. And we know al pi halacha, if the mother is non-Jewish, then the child is non-Jewish. If the mother is Jewish, the child is Jewish. So the mother of Esav was a Jew, was Rivka, and the mother of Yishmael was Hagar. But it is not so simple, it is not so simple. Because if we're going to say that this is what counts, then we have a big problem. We know that Yaakov Avinu himself married four wives. Two of them were the real Imahot, Rachel and Leah, and two of them were שפחות, were also maids, Bilhah and Zilpah. And we don't consider the children of Bilhah and Zilpah as being non-Jewish, even though they were שפחות and not not better than Hagar. Obviously it shows that before Matan Torah it didn't count that way. Before Matan Torah, if you married a שפחה, since she became your wife, just like Rivka came from wherever she came and she became his wife, and Sarah became his wife, that is considered Jewish or whatever we call it in those days, the שפחה was the same. In that case, so Hagar, the fact that she was a שפחה doesn't make a difference. So it's not because of that. Must be something more to it. And we'll explain al pi chassidus, I'm not going to go into the הלכה aspect of it, al pi chassidus, what is the difference why Yishmael is not considered a Jew, Yishmael is away from Avraham that he's completely cut off from Avraham, even though Avraham's influence on him was stronger that he did teshuvah, while Yitzchak's influence on Esav was so that he is a continuation of Yitzchak, he's a Jew, and at the same time he did not influence him to do teshuvah, and Esav remained the same Esav from beginning through the end. Now we see that in Esav there is something different than in Yishmael, something special we see, and therefore Esav is considered a Yid, is in that statement of the Chazal that I mentioned before that Esav's head fell into the lap of Yitzchak and was buried in the Me'arat HaMachpelah together with Yitzchak. And this sounds very strange. We know that there is a הלכה, אין קוברין רשע אצל צדיק, you're not allowed to bury a rasha, an evil person, next to a tzaddik. And that halachah is so important that the Gemara tells us, based on the pesukim in Tanach, that there was a נביא שקר, there was once a false prophet, who was a rasha, and he died, and somehow it turned out that his body fell into the grave right next to Elisha, Elisha the famous Elisha the student of Eliyahu HaNavi. So he was a rasha that was laying, being buried next to a tzaddik. Hashem made a miracle, and the miracle was that this rasha got up תחיית המתים, became alive again, walked out of the kever walked away someplace else and died over there and was buried over there. So Hashem made this miracle especially in order for a rasha not to be buried next to a tzaddik. And here we see that Esav, who was a rasha, was buried not only next to a tzaddik, next to Yitzchak, but buried in the lap of Yitzchak. Says that's how he was buried. This is taken from Targum Yonatan ben Uziel. Targum Yonatan ben Uziel calls him, at this story calls him רישא דעשו רשיעא, the head of Esav HaRasha is buried in the flap of Yitzchak. So here we call him a rasha, that's on one hand, and at the same time Hashem allowed that his head, part of Esav, should be buried in the lap of Yitzchak. So obviously there was something there in Esav that shows that his connection to Yitzchak is not so far, and that's the reason why he was a Yid. Now, it obviously is not the way Esav was down here in this world, the way Esav was his in simple behavior, he was a very big rasha, he did all the aveirot, but in the shoresh, now we're getting a little bit into Chassidus part, in the shoresh, in the root of from where Esav comes from, his shoresh had something good, which Chassidus says is hinted in the words רישא דעשו בעטפא דיצחק, the head of Esav. What does the head mean? So physically it means his head, but it comes to hint that the way it is as far as his head is concerned, which means as far as his roots are concerned, as far as his shoresh is concerned, where he comes from, just like the head is the beginning of the body, where it starts, so there Esav is not far from his influence of Yitzchak. And that's why he was able to be buried in the lap of Yitzchak. So his shoresh was good, and I'll explain soon why, but when it came down, it turned out to be an Esav. We find that in other places, too. Just to give you an example, the Gemara says that שטן ופנינה לשם שמים נתכוונו. There were two that we find in Tanach that did all kinds of trouble. Peninah was the wife of Elkanah, who was the competition, the tzarah of Chana, the mother of Shmuel. And Peninah, it says she was the bad woman, Chana was the great tzadeket. Peninah had children, Chana did not have any children. And it says in Tanach, in the pesukim, we read it actually on the haftarah of Rosh Hashanah, that Peninah used to tease Chana, like, \"You see, I have children, you don't.\" So the Gemara says really she meant לשם שמים. She saw that Chana was not davenen, because Chana was such a great tzadeikes that whatever Hashem made gave her, she said, \"That's the right thing. Hashem knows what He's doing.\" So she didn't even daven. So she wanted her to daven, and then Hashem would listen to her tefilot, so she used to tease her, tease her to get her nervous. So she meant l'shem Shamayim. That's one thing. Then the Gemara says also בנוגע the Satan. We know the Tanach in the story of Iyov. So it says that the Satan came together with the other malachim and they were standing in front of Hashem on Rosh Hashanah, and Hashem says to the Satan, \"Where are you coming from?\" And he says, \"I'm coming from the world. I'm fooling around. I'm looking, seeing what's going on.\" So He says, \"Did you pay attention to My servant Iyov, what kind of great tzadik he is?\" So the Satan answers, \"Iyov is a tzadik, sure, he is very rich, he has a lot of money, a lot of good, nice children, he has everything good, so why shouldn't he be a tzadik? Try to give him some make him suffer, and you'll see what will happen.\" So Hashem said, \"Okay, you're right, I want to test him.\" And He said to the Satan, \"You be the one. Go and test him. Do all kinds of things to ruin it for him, just don't kill him.\" He gave an example: שבירת החבית ושמירת יינה, break the vessel, but guard the wine. Don't let the wine spill. Anyway, he went and we all know the story, what happened later, and finally the end was that Iyov stood by the nisayon, this test, and he became even richer later. So it says in the in the Midrash that the Satan, when he did this, also meant l'shem Shamayim. He wanted to bring out Iyov's koachot, how strong he is in his connection to Hashem, that even if he suffers he'll be close to Hashem, that's why he said this to Hashem. So here we see the Satan, in one way, he meant l'shem Shamayim, but the same Satan, we all know who the Satan is. The Satan is the most terrible thing that exists in the whole of existence is the Satan. It says the Satan was the one that destroyed the Beit Hamikdash. The Midrash says נתן עיניו בו, he looked, and with his fierce look he burned the Beit Hamikdash, the first Beit Hamikdash, the second Beit Hamikdash. So it says in חסידות that it depends. If you look at the Satan the way he is in higher worlds, in the שורש, he's l'shem shamayim. The way the Satan turns out when he comes down as a השתלשלות, as he comes down into being a Satan the way he is in lower levels, then he turns out to be a Satan. And the same is concerning Esav. Esav, that עשו, רישא דעשו, the head of Esav, is בחיק of the Yitzchak, he's close to Yitzchak. But the way he comes down, then it's Esav HaRasha. But otherwise, as far as his שורש, he's in a higher level. But this is just to show that as bad as Esav is, we see not the good side of Esav's behavior, but we see there is something in Esav that is connected to Yitzchak more than Yishmael. On the other hand, we see a connection to Yishmael to more than Yishmael to Avraham, and on the other hand we see a connection of Yishmael to Avraham that Avraham made him do teshuvah and and he didn't.

Now, we know that Esav and Yishmael were both children of the Avot, Esav of Yitzchak and Yishmael of Avraham. There has to be some influence or some connection between the Avot and their children. We know that when a tzaddik even makes something, there is a certain kedushah that comes into the object that he made. We know that when a tzaddik has money, just use as an example, a tzaddik has money, there is a certain kedushah in that money because it belongs to the tzaddik, because he earned it, he made he did it. What was the whole thing of getting a dollar from the Rebbe? It was to be a shaliach from the Rebbe to give tzedakah, true. But we kept the dollar, why did you keep the dollar? Because there is something special about, what's so special about it? It's a regular dollar bill, because a dollar bill that came from a tzaddik has a certain kedushah. It says, any object that belonged to a tzaddik, a table that a tzaddik learned over, because he used it, there is kedushah. Imagine, not only something that a tzaddik used, but something that a tzaddik made. So you can imagine how much of the person is in it, because not only he used it, he actually made it. When a person makes something, there is part of the person that's put into the thing that he makes, not even by a tzaddik. They say that the Mezeritcher Maggid, the Mezeritcher Maggid once looked at a table and he said that I could look at the table, I could tell that the one that made this table was a person that limped on one foot. And they asked him, how do you see it, the table is crooked? He said, no, when a person makes something, you put yourself into it. Sometimes you see it. When a person, an artist paints an a painting, so then after a while, and you get to know the artist and the painting, you could see, you could see he puts himself into it. The themes that he paints are what he lives with, it's his you could tell, if you're a מבין, you could tell in the painting who the art artist is. What even if you can't tell who it is, you could tell what kind of artist it is. You could see if this artist is a happy person, the artist is a serious person, is a you could you could tell from the painting. And a lot of things you could tell even if it comes to גשמיותדיקע things. Just like when a person writes a book, a person writes a book, if the book in order for the book to come out to be a good book, you have to put yourself into it, and you could see where this author is at, you could tell the author from the book. That's begashmiyus, even in a physical sense. Certainly beruchniyus, you give yourself over into the things that you make. So a tzaddik, when he makes something, another tzaddik would be able to tell, looking at the object, who the tzaddik is, what kind of tzaddik it is, because he put himself in. Now, if we say that when you make something, a physical thing, a tzaddik makes something, there is part of the tzaddik, his kedushah in the object, imagine a child of a tzaddik, that the tzaddik gave birth, created this person, this child. The tzaddik was the one is the father, so certainly part of the tzaddik has to be in it. So therefore, definitely, it says in Chassidus that the כח האב, the power of the father is in the child by the tzaddikim. So the power of Avraham is in Yishmael, and the power of Yitzchak is in Esav. But we see what happened to them: the power of Avraham was there, the power of Yitzchak was there, but they turned away. יצא ממנו, that they left. So obviously, this means that this represents the power of Avraham and the power of Yitzchak as their koach goes out of them to something that's far away. This is what Chassidus says. Esav and Yishmael both went far away from Avraham and Yitzchak. And nevertheless, they had the koach of their father with them. So this represents the koach of Avraham and the koach of Yitzchak not the way it's within Avraham and Yitzchak themselves, but the way Avraham and Yitzchak's koach is able to go out to a level away from them. And this is the difference between Avraham and Yitzchak. The way as I will explain, the way Avraham's עבודת השם was, when his power, when his koach goes into something that's far away from him, and it's there, it has an effect in one way, and the effect in this case would be that his son would do teshuvah, and nevertheless remain far away and remain a goy. Yitzchak's avodah, as I will explain, is in such a way that when his koach goes someplace far, it will not make the person do teshuvah, but on the other hand, the connection is much stronger. And why is it? Well, that depends on what the difference between the avodah of Avraham and the avodah of Yitzchak is. And when we will understand what Chassidus has to say concerning the עבודת השם of Avraham and the עבודת השם of Yitzchak, we will see how this fits to these two ways of having an effect on something that's far away from them.

We all know that Avraham represents chesed and Yitzchak represents gevurah. In other words, Avraham represents ahavah. Chesed, kindness, is connected to love. So when we talk about Avraham's way of serving Hashem, it came through אהבת השם, loving Hashem, because Avraham's midah is the midah of chesed. We see Avraham had the greatest midah of גמילות חסדים, while Yitzchak, it says in Chassidus, and it's not even from Chassidus, from other sefarim also, Yitzchak's level was gevurah, which is yirah, yirat Hashem, as the pasuk says, פחד יצחק היה לי. When he referred to Hashem in reference to Yitzchak, he called him פחד יצחק, the פחד. פחד means the fear, because Yitzchak's way of serving Hashem was through fear. Avraham, Hashem called אברהם אוהבי, אברהם the one that loves me. And on Yitzchak, he's referred to as פחד יצחק. Because Avraham was chesed and Yitzchak was the level of yirah, which is according to Chassidus connected to gevurah. When we talk about chesed and gevurah, we find in Chassidus, and it's all based on Kabbalah, that there are more things that come as a result of being chesed or gevurah. And Chassidus calls it, chesed is an עבודה מלמעלה למטה, and Chassidus and and gevurah is an עבודה מלמטה למעלה. The literal translation is מלמעלה למטה means from above down, מלמטה למעלה means from down up. And doing something מלמעלה למטה, from above down, is connected to chesed, because chesed means that you are giving to somebody who is lower than you, somebody that's less than you, you're giving him. That's why we always compare in Chassidus chesed to water, because the nature of water is, that Gemara says, יורדים ממקום גבוה למקום נמוך, water will always come down, it'll always come to the lowest point. So water, the nature of water is to come down. And gevurah, it says, is מלמטה למעלה, is taking from down up, that's why in Chassidus it's compared to esh, to fire, because the nature of esh is that fire tries to go up, always the flame tries to go up. So Chassidus says the difference between Avraham and Yitzchak was in their serving of Hashem the difference of ahavah and yirah, also the difference between מלמעלה למטה and מלמטה למעלה. And now I'll say what that means, I'll explain it in simpler more simple terms. Avraham's avodah, when he worked with trying to accomplish his mission in this world, which is connecting Hashem and the world, that's really why was the world created? Hashem wants this world to be a דירה בתחתונים, to be a dwelling place for him. So the whole idea is to connect the world with Hashem, to make the world recognize Hashem. And that's what Avraham did. Avraham came to the people who were low and he brought them, spoke to them, made them recognize the truth of Hashem. And he did this to even those who were very far away, even to those who worshipped idols and worshipped the lowest type of idols, they worshipped the dust on their feet. Why did Avraham tell the מלאכים to wash their feet? Because he thought they were ערביים, they were Arabs who were משתחוה, who worshiped the dust of their feet. And even to them he was going to do chesed, thinking that they were human beings, because that's what he used to do. He had his tent, the people used to come, and he would feed them, and the whole purpose of his feeding them, besides giving them food, he gave them he told them to thank Hashem for all the food. They thanked him and he said, \"No, don't thank me, thank Hashem,\" and that's how he made them recognize Hashem. The pasuk says, ויקרא שם בשם השם קל עולם, he made other people call out in the name of Hashem. And that's an avodah which we call מלמעלה למטה. That means he came From his high level, took the way he understood Hashem, and he brought it down low to them, מלמעלה למטה. So this is connected to the fact that Avraham Avinu was the level of chesed, which chesed is when you give מלמעלה למטה. So he, מלמעלה למטה, was mashpia to them. Yitzchak, it says in chassidus, that's not how he worked. He worked from מטה למעלה. He tried not to bring to them his philosophy, he tried from within them themselves to uncover the truth of Hashem that might be found in their own mind. And where do we see it? We see an interesting thing in the Torah that when it talks about Yitzchak, a lot of the stories concerning Yitzchak is that he used to dig wells. Now, who cares? Why is that such an important issue in the Torah? Spends pesukim upon pesukim upon pesukim to tell us that Yitzchak used to dig wells. One well and they argued, another well they argued, and this place they argued, and all kinds of wells. So Chasidus it says, taken I guess from the Zohar, that this is not just plain idea to tell us that he dug wells. We have to look at what it means to dig a well, and from that we'll understand how he performed. When you dig a well, the whole idea of digging a well is that you uncover the dust and the sand that covers up the water, and then you have fresh water. Digging a well does not mean that you take water from you make a hole and you take water from someplace else. This place is lower, it doesn't have water, it's missing something, and you take the water from someplace else and you bring it here. That would be called מלמעלה למטה. When you dig here and you have the water come up, that's called מלמטה למעלה. מלמטה למעלה means from down up, that you uncover in the מטה itself to try to raise the מטה to the מעלה. מלמעלה למטה, this is the way Chasidus explains, it's hard to explain it in simple words, but this is what Chasidus says. מלמעלה למטה means that you would bring the godly light from a high level down to the מטה, to the low level, to the one that's down. מלמטה למעלה means you're trying to raise the one that's below and have him come up to the higher level. Now, both accomplish the same thing basically. We'll show soon the difference. Basically it's the same thing. The whole idea is that the מטה, and we'll refer now to the place that you're trying to reach out to is called the מטה, the low place, the bottom, to combine the מעלה and the מטה. The מעלה is godliness and you want to combine the two. That's where the problem is. Hashem created the world, the world does not recognize Hashem. There is a division between the מעלה, the above, which is Hashem, godliness, and the מטה. What we have to do is combine the two. And these are the two ways. By combining two things, one that's low and one that's high, you could do it in two ways. You could take the one from high and bring it down, or you could take the one from low and bring it up. And you combine them. Avodah of Avraham was מלמעלה למטה. He came from above down. He called made them call out. He gave them his level and he brought it to them. And Yitzchak was trying to, within them, to bring out to get them themselves to recognize. I don't know if it says this clearly, but I imagine the way it would be is that Avraham פשוט sat down and tried to explain his ideas to them, and Yitzchak what he tried to do tried to make them come up with their own idea to understand that this is Hashem. He tried to bring them to understand it themselves in מטה למעלה. So these are the two different ways. Now, it says in Chasidus, which of the two ways is greater or stronger or has the מעלות? So it says there is a מעלה there's something special in מלמעלה למטה over מלמטה למעלה, and in מלמטה למעלה over מלמעלה למטה. And I'll explain, I'll try to put it into simple words even though this is a very deep inyan in Chasidus, but I'm going to try to Sometimes this is the shiur. The shiur is sometimes we have simpler things, sometimes harder things, sometimes Chasidus, sometimes simpler things, so those that are not so sensitive to these issues, sorry, another time we'll have simpler things. The difference is like this. When you have מלמעלה למטה, when the מעלה comes and brings down, using the term of Kabbalah, the גילוי אור, the great light into the to the מטה, and the מטה gets it, it does not transform the מטה. The מטה remains as is. It just has that light. It didn't change him. As long as that light is there, it'll affect him. The moment that would leave, if for some reason it would leave, he's back to before because he's not transformed. It didn't bring him up closer the way he is closer to the higher level. It's a גילוי מלמעלה, like we find by Yetzias Mitzrayim, just as an example. It says, נגלה עליהם מלך מלכי המלכים הקדוש ברוך הוא וגאלם. Hashem revealed himself to them and took them out. Imagine. It says who came? Who revealed himself to them? It says in the הגדה, הקדוש ברוך הוא בכבודו ובעצמו, השם by himself, imagine. Nevertheless, it says that the Yidden were in such a low madreigah it says they ran away from מצרים, כי ברח העם. In Tanya, he asks the question, they ran away from מצרים? Why did they have to run? No one was chasing them. But the opposite. Paro told them to go, wanted them to go faster. No one was chasing them to bring them back. So, why does it say כי ברח העם they ran away? So, in Tanya, he says he didn't run away from Paro, they ran away from themselves, because they did not change. They saw the גילוי אור of Hashem, but they remained in their level, the way they were before. That's when it comes ממעלה למטה. So, when ממעלה למטה it comes down, it comes מלמעלה. But when it's ממטה למעלה, then it transforms the one that gets this revelation, since it comes from within himself, ממטה למעלה, it transforms him. That this person now is a it he becomes different, because it came from within him. And that stays, that lasts longer, and that's something that's more eternal and more פנימיות'דיק, that's something that goes is internalized more, but the other one is more מקיף. The truth is, when it comes מלמעלה למטה, on one hand, since it comes from above, it's a stronger light, because since it comes from above, the whole light that comes from above, that's there. מלמטה למעלה, it comes only as much as you could take, as much as you are able to within yourself to reach, because it comes from within you. But when it comes from above, you could have much more. So, on one hand, the light that comes from above is a stronger light. And the effect it will have, in a superficial way, it didn't transform you, but in a superficial way it will have an effect, a stronger effect than the one that will be ממטה למעלה, because in ממטה למעלה the effect is not so strong because it's from with you within you, whatever you are able to do. On the other hand, there's something special ממטה למעלה, that you were changed over and that becomes your מהות, that becomes who you are, while מלמעלה למטה it doesn't be- it's not the way who it's not who you are, it's still not you. Just like by Avraham Avinu. Avraham Avinu, he made them all call out, they thanked Hashem, they blessed Hashem, but it didn't change them. They remained the same ערביים as they were before. They just recognized Hashem because Avraham pushed it into their mind. And later what happened, what happened to all the people Avraham Avinu was mekarev? It says he was mekarev thousands and thousands of people. What happened to them? They left. The one that Yitzchak did was in a different way, so there it says they also left, but for a different reason. But Avraham's השפעה was מלמעלה למטה. So, it had these two things: one מעלה, one חסרון. The מעלה was that it's a stronger light. The חסרון is, it didn't change, didn't transform. Yitzchak, the way he worked, it was not such a strong light, but whatever it was, it lasted, it transformed the person. We see by Avraham that Avraham married Hagar. And Yitzchak, Hashem said, \"You cannot marry a שפחה.\" Why not? Why could Avraham marry Hagar and Yitzchak could not? So, Hashem said, \"Because Yitzchak was a קרבן. Yitzchak was עקידה, he was a קרבן, you're holy, you can't marry a שפחה.\" But according to Chassidus, the reason is because Avraham's avodah was מלמעלה למטה, that he was able to bring a strong light, so he was able to bring a light so strong that would even overcome the fact that she was a שפחה, while Yitzchak couldn't, because Yitzchak's light that he was able to bring was not that strong, so he couldn't. There's another thing we find, the difference in Yitzchak and Avraham. Avraham went to Mitzrayim when it was there was a hunger, he went to Egypt. This week parashah we learn that when there was a hunger in Yitzchak's time, he also wants to go. Hashem said, \"גור בארץ הזאת, you stay here, you can't go. You have to stay in Eretz Yisrael.\" Why did he have to stay in Eretz Yisrael? He says, \"chutz la'aretz is not outside of it is not for you.\" The reason is, according to Chassidus again, because Avraham had the strong power of even penetrating into the מטה, penetrating into Mitzrayim, penetrating into marrying a שפחה, while Yitzchak did not have that strong power. Couldn't penetrate that strong. But on the other hand, whatever Yitzchak's avodah did accomplish, so it accomplished it much strong- stronger, it transformed it.

Now since these were the two avodot of Avraham and Yitzchak, now we understand how that happened, the same thing happened concerning their children, concerning Esav and concerning Yishmael. Avraham's השפעה to Esav, who was, in simple sense, he was מטה, he was so far away, and Avraham's השפעה, I mean to Yishmael, was far away, and Avraham's השפעה worked on him. So since Avraham's השפעה was ממעלה למטה, was so strong because it came from above, it had an influence on Yishmael, and Yishmael did teshuvah. Imagine. There was a גילוי אור, a special light that made Yishmael do teshuvah. But at the same time, because it came ממעלה למטה, we said it doesn't transform, it didn't change his true מהות, his true being. He didn't become a Yid. So we say Yishmael remains a goy. יצא ממנו ישמעאל, says left Avraham, it is said in the beginning of Chassidus that he left, he went away, נפרד, he left completely. And even though Avraham had השפעה, the השפעה was very strong, which caused him to do teshuvah, fine, but that's it. You can't say, well, now he's a different person, now he's not a goy anymore, now he's a Yid. No, because that's something it doesn't work, not the way Avraham's avodah was. But Yitzchak's avodah, Yitzchak was the opposite. Yitzchak was not able to cause Esav to do teshuvah, because the השפעה that Yitzchak gave, which was ממטה למעלה, did not really work so strongly to be able to make him do Teshuvah. But nevertheless, because Yitzchak worked with him, there was something that he caused in him that to change his מהות and made him into a Yid. And that's why Esav, in Halachah it wasn't through Avodah of Yitzchak that made him into a Yid, but I'm saying the reason על פי חסידות why he was a Yid, because if he was a child of Yitzchak, so the השפעה of Yitzchak was able to transform even though not able to make him do Teshuvah. You see, Yaakov, it says, Yaakov had both Maalot. Yaakov, it says, מיטתו שלימה, he had no Esav and no Yishmael. And Yaakov lived in מצר- in Mitzrayim, Yaakov lived by Lavan in חוץ לארץ, Yaakov married two שפחות like Avraham did. Just like Avraham was able to go outside of Eretz Yisrael, he was able to marry a שפחה and his light was able to overcome that problem too, so was Yaakov. And at the same time, the children of יעק- of Yaakov that were born from the שפחות were all Jewish, and not only Jewish, they were the שבטים, because he had both Maalot. We know Yaakov is the Midah, the third Midah, Chesed, Gevurah, Tiferet. Now Tiferet, it says, is a combination of Chesed and Gevurah, of of Ahavah and Yirah. Just a short why Tiferet means beauty. It says you have different colors. When you mix two colors together, that's when it becomes beautiful. So when you mix Chesed and גבורה and you make one מידה out of the two, and you have both מעלות, that's תפארת. But that's, but whatever it is, we're not going to get into the details. So Yaakov takeh had both מעלות. He had the מעלה of having being able to be משפיע in a very strong way, מלמעלה למטה, the light to bring a strong Godly light into the ones that he was supposed to be משפיע, and at the same time, it was that it was able to transform them, like ממטה למעלה. Which every Yid is going to have that מדרגה when Mashiach will come. It says when Mashiach will come, just another moment, Mashiach will come it says, Hashem says, ושמתי כדכד שמשותיך. Hashem says, I will make your שמש, your sun, make like כדכד. What's כדכד? So the Gemara says there was a מחלוקת, an argument between two מלאכים. One says that כדכד means שוהם, a certain special stone, huh? That's the name of it? Well, called שוהם. And the other מלאך said, no, it means ישפה, a different type of stone. And each one has a different מעלה, and not to get into it now, but the two מעלות the way Chassidus explains, of שוהם and ישפה, one shoots light, one is different, one shows ממעלה למטה, one shows ממטה למעלה. So Hashem, when He heard that the two מלאכים are arguing what is going to be, so Hashem said, you know what? ליהוי כדין וכדין. כדין וכדין means let it be both. And that's where the word כדכד comes from, כדכד, כד כד, כדין וכדין. So Chassidus says what does that mean? Since each one of these stones represents another עבודה, one is ממעלה למטה, one ממטה למעלה, this one has the maalah of strong light, but not transforming, this one has the transformation, but not the strong light, you know what, let's have it both. In other places in Chasidus it says that's the difference between tzadikim and baalei teshuvah. When Mashiach will come, it says in the Zohar, Mashiach will make that tzadikim should do teshuvah, we'll have a combination of both. But anyway, this is what Yaakov was, and this is what we Yidden are going to get when Mashiach will come. But the main point is that the difference between Esav and Yishmael according to Chasidus is based on Avraham and Yitzchak, because they were the koach of Avraham and Yitzchak. Because a tzadik's child, he has part of him in it, but they turned away because they had free choice. They couldn't, no one could stop them. Hashem couldn't stop them, He gave them free choice. But השפעה of Avraham to the מטה, because they turned into מטה, into something far away, so the way Avraham worked, it turned out that Yishmael did teshuvah, but he wasn't, didn't transform into a Yid, while Esav did not do teshuvah, but Esav transformed into a, into a Yid. Maybe, I'm just thinking, I don't know, I can't say this, it doesn't say anywhere, but I'm just thinking that before time of Mashiach, maybe here we see more of Esav and Yishmael in this light, because before Mashiach it says everything is going to become more clear. Now Yishmael we understand represents the Muslim religion. Even though the truth is, the truth is that the Arabs nowadays are mostly not children from Yishmael. They're from other nations that came to live in these countries, and it's not Yishmael. But they never themselves, nevertheless call themselves Yishmael, Bnei Yishmael, the children of Yishmael. So, the Muslim religion, the Muslims, that represents the Yishmael part of this world. The Christians, they represent the Esav part. Christians comes from Rome, Rome is Edom, Esav. And it's interesting that we see, now years before it wasn't like this, but we see that from Yishmael we have more tzaros than we have from Esav. What? The reason is because now what happened then, what the real truth of Esav and Yishmael is, now is showing up. Yishmael did teshuvah, but truth, Yishmael is not Jewish, like you said. Yishmael is far away from us, and therefore we have the problem with Yishmael. The Esav, Esav is closer. On one hand he didn't do teshuvah, but on the other hand, Esav is, even though these people are not Jewish, I'm not trying to say they're Jewish, I'm just saying that the ruchniyusdike part of it, maybe that's why they behave better to us. I wouldn't even say in all the countries, but as it gets closer, used to be only in the free world and in Russia not, and as it gets, time is passing, getting closer to Mashiach, they're becoming even nicer to the Yidden, and even in other countries. So, I'm just thinking maybe it has to do with this inyan that Yishmael is, on one hand, did teshuvah, but he's far away, and therefore, since he's far away, the gap is greater, so the שנאה, the hatred, is greater. And Esav, the hatred is not so great because essentially there was a transformation of Esav through Yitzchak. And since it's before Mashiach, everything has to come out into the open. But the bottom line is we have to get rid of Esav, and we have to get rid of Yishmael. It's about time Hashem gets rid of both. Both represent the goyim, both are our enemies, and Hashem will help that we will have only the way it was by Yaakov, מיטתו שלימה, which means all his children were tzaddikim, only Klal Yisrael. We have no foreigners, no problems, and Hashem will make, will bring Mashiach and make all the nations in the world, which are represented by Esav and Yishmael, it says in Tanach, will come to us and become our servants and do everything to serve us and to serve Hashem, as it says in תנ״ך במהרה בימינו ממש. Soon, okay?

Yeah. A kaparah could be one thing, but teshuvah is another thing. He can't do teshuvah. After his head was chopped off he couldn't do teshuvah. A kaparah, but that's not. It says that his children or whoever, his people, took it back to Har Seir. Why wasn't he Jewish? That's the question. But I said that doesn't, in that time, because his mother was a שפחה doesn't make him not Jewish, just like the children of Yaakov. So there must be some other reasons. But according to this, what I'm saying now, the peshat, according to Chassidus, the reason why he wasn't Jewish, because he was a son of Avraham, and Avraham's השפעה, when you turn away, could not change him into Jewish, into becoming Jewish or being Jewish. Yeah. I mean he has a zechus, he did one mitzvah very good, and therefore maybe that helped, as a zechus helped. But there must be something deeper than that, just because you have a certain zechus. Yitzchak. No, Yaakov Yaakov didn't. Not Esav, his children who were who were sons of Bilhah and Zilpah were still Jewish. Yeah, but Because he had the מעלה of Yitzchak. And Avraham. And Avraham also, but in this case we need the מעלה of Yitzchak and we had both. That's why he married שפחה and still the children were Jewish. Right, Esav never denied that Hashem runs the world, he never went to serve He married wives who served other gods, committed murder, he did everything, huh. Besides from that, I mean as serious as it is, I don't remember, maybe I'm missing it, but I don't remember I don't, I tell off-hand I don't remember either, but I believe he did. Yishmael did that. Yishmael? He went and served other gods. I know him, it says his mother did. Right, I assumed with him. When she left with him. whatever happened with Esav, despite of how bad he was Yeah, but if he committed murder, committed adultery, nah, I don't believe he didn't commit idol worship. I'm sure he did. He let his wife do it, wives do it. Maybe that was the line in the sand, but I don't Eh, I don't think so. Always in Chassidus they say that chesed is really the main main thing. And as a מעלה, we don't say it's higher. No, they say, but it's higher No, but there's a גבו, yeah, doesn't say that it's there's a מעלה in chesed and there's a מעלה in gevurah and everything in its place. And when it comes in its place, it's a מעלה. If it's in the wrong place, it's not. It doesn't, it says there's a מעלה in yirah, that's the foundation, it says in Tanya. On the other hand, chesed is chesed, that's each one has its מעלה. And whenever we talk about each מדה, we always stress that מעלות. I know, but always chesed is like Yeah, but that's as far as, you know, being kind. That's the simple the simple sense of chesed. Simple sense of chesed, it's a מעלה always. But when we're talking about the deeper idea, מלמעלה למטה, מלמטה למעלה, then it's not always. Yes. If Yishmael did teshuvah, but he's still retained Yeah, exactly what it means. as far as a goy could go. As far as a goy could go, exactly. He became from a, as you said it, from a bad guy to a good guy. He was helping people, he didn't do any עבודה זרה, he kept the seven mitzvot and he was nice and fine. Yeah, yeah. So we take the term teshuvah, we apply it to goyim also. Oh sure! We find that Yom Kippur, מפטיר יונה, the whole story in Yonah is that the city of Nineveh did teshuvah. They were goyim. And that's what we try to inspire people on Yom Kippur by telling the story of the goyim who did teshuvah. Because we do find goyim do teshuvah. Yes. Since Yaakov, sons of Yaakov had this matter of why is the future gonna say Yitzchak Avinu? That's, for one, because of one reason, because of one thing, because there's a maalah it says in yirah. We'll feel the maalah of yirah, but באופן כללי it says that Yaakov is called בחיר שבאבות, he's the chosen one and he's the main one. And it says that because of a certain maalah we will say that pasuk refers to that maalah that we will see. So the quality of of yirah and the quality of ahavah is that in Yaakov they're not as Yeah, as far, if you look at yirah per se, yirah is stronger in Yitzchak, yeah. Yeah, because here it's a mixture, even though he has both. So when we look at that maalah, Yitzchak has it more than Yaakov. But when we look all around, it's Yaakov. Yirah. in the future why is it said that גילוי ד יראה? Yeah, when we have a great giluy the yirah, the yirah has a maalah, has a greater connection to etzem, whatever, than than ahavah. Yeah. So, if you're getting a lot of questions, yes. Since each son father. father, and we have now these two distinct nations, of course, that carry the Esav should be a bechor, a חתיכה, yeah. So, I know it's a little bit of the crystal ball, but which should be stronger in the I mean, we obviously live in a Chassidus tends to predict who would prevail in that strong Both won't prevail. Well, as far as one over the other. Forget, I mean we're out of the equation, but right now the forces of Islam and the forces of Christianity, is one more likely Yeah, but in this case, the Christian the force of Christianity at this point is more forces of good that over evil, because the forces that are fighting is not a religious fight. By them, it's a religious fight. By the Christians, let's say the the Western world, it's not a not a religious fight. It's a fight of goodness, farkert, a fight of trying to protect. So therefore, that should win. Yeah, because it's not really the a Christian fighting religion as it used to be the Crusaders, you know, the Christians against the Muslims. Okay. ברצות השם, we'll see you next week.