English translation — לך לך א

Talk 1<pg>36</pg>

A.

In our parshah it is told about the three altars that our father Avraham built:

(a)

And he built there an altar to the Lord Who appeared to him<sup>1</sup>,

(b)

And he built there an altar to the Lord and called in the name of the Lord<sup>2</sup>,

(c)

And he built there an altar to the Lord<sup>3</sup>.

And Chazal explained<sup>4</sup>

: Three altars he built: one for the tidings of Eretz Yisrael, and one for its acquisition, and one so that his children would not fall.

That is to say,

that each of these three altars Avraham built for the sake of a matter in itself<sup>5</sup>

: The first,

which was built after the speech of the Lord to Avram "To your seed I will give this land"<sup>1</sup>,

was "for the tidings of Eretz Yisrael"; the altar that he built near Ai was for the sake of prayer<sup>6</sup>

"so that his children would not fall at Ai"<sup>7</sup>

; and the third altar,

which he built after the fulfillment of the command of the Lord "Arise, walk through the land, to its length and to its breadth, for to you I will give it"<sup>8</sup>,

by which "he merited it"<sup>9</sup>,

was "for its acquisition"

(of Eretz Yisrael)<sup>10</sup>.

Rashi in his commentary on the Torah brings the content of the words of the Midrash regarding the first two altars — on the verse "And he built there an altar"

(which is said the first time)

explains "on the tidings of the seed and on the tidings of the Land of Israel",

and on the second "And he built there an altar" he writes "he prophesied that his children would in the future stumble there over the sin of Achan and he prayed there for them" — but regarding the third altar

(after G‑d's command "Arise, walk through the land, etc.")

Rashi was silent and did not explain anything.

The reason that Rashi did not explain according to the Midrash<sup>11</sup>

that the third altar was "for acquiring it" — one can say: the words of the Midrash are according to the approach<sup>12</sup>

that through Abraham's walking its length and its breadth "he acquired it"

(that through walking he acquired)<sup>13</sup>,

therefore it is fitting to say that this altar was "for acquiring it"<sup>14</sup>

; however,

according to Rashi's commentary on the Torah,

in the plain sense of Scripture — there was not in Abraham's walking<pg>37</pg>

In its length and its breadth because of the acquisition of the land,

And as the conclusion of the verse itself "Arise, walk through the land etc. for to you I will give it" — future tense,

Meaning that the walking is only to mark the length and breadth of the land that the Holy One, blessed be He, will give to him in the future<sup>15</sup>.

And if so, one cannot explain that this altar he built "to acquire it."

But a reason is needed: Since Rashi descended to explain the reason of each of the first two altars that Avraham built — why did he not explain a reason for the building of the third altar?

2.

According to its simple meaning, one must say:

After Rashi explained that Avraham built an altar for the good tidings — "the tidings of the seed" "the tidings of Eretz Yisrael" — there is no longer any need to seek another reason for the building of the third altar,

because as is explicit in the verse, Avraham built it after he was informed of the good tidings¹⁶

"For all the land which you see, to you I will give it and to your seed forever,

and I will make your seed as the dust of the earth, etc." — that is, several blessings and good matters,

both in the tidings of Eretz Yisrael and in the tidings of the seed¹⁷,

which Avraham heard specifically in this tidings,

that were not said in the first tidings^*17

— and it is understood of itself that because of these additional tidings Avraham built a special altar to Hashem.

However, this explanation is forced because of the language of the verses: "And he built there an altar" implies,

that the building of the altar was connected to the place where it was built.

And in the manner that we find regarding the first two altars — that

(also)

regarding them it is said "And he built there an altar" — that they were "connected" and bound with the place of their building<sup>18</sup>

: the first altar,

which was "to the Lord who appeared to him,"

Abraham built it "there" specifically,

because in this place the Lord appeared to him<sup>19</sup>

; and the second altar<pg>38</pg>

was built "there,"

in proximity to the city,

because it was built

(as Rashi explains)

for the reason that "he prophesied that his children would stumble there etc. and

(therefore)

he prayed there for them"<sup>20</sup>

;

And it is explained that the building of this altar

(the third)

was because of the good tidings with which he was informed before his arrival in Hebron

[And that he built the altar specifically in Hebron,

is only because this is the place to which he came after fulfilling the command of the Holy One, blessed be He<sup>21</sup>

(regarding the tidings of the land)

"Arise, walk through the land, etc."<sup>*21</sup>]

— There is no connection,

apparently,

between the reason for building the altar and this specific place; and the verse indeed emphasizes "And he built there an altar"?

According to the simple explanation, one may explain the connection of this altar to its place,

because this was the first place in the Land of Israel where Abraham our father settled permanently.

For until then Abraham was in a state of "going and journeying"<sup>22</sup>,

"He went on his journeys"<sup>23</sup>,

and only upon his coming to Hebron did he settle in the land,

as it is written<sup>3</sup>

"And he dwelt in the terebinths of Mamre which are in Hebron"

(And as is related afterwards,

that Abraham dwelt there twenty-five years<sup>24</sup>).

And accordingly it is understood,

that this is the place fitting to thank the Holy One, blessed be He, for the tidings of

(his settlement — permanence in)

the Land of Israel".

However, still the matter is not entirely settled

(in the way of homiletic interpretation).

For if you say that this altar

(the third)

came

(only)

upon the tidings "for etc. to you I will give it etc. and I will place etc.",

it would have been necessary to emphasize

(at least — as a hint)

in the verses that its building was in proximity and in continuation to the hearing of the tidings; but in the language of the verse the opposite is emphasized,

the interruption and pause between these tidings and the building of the altar — "And Abram pitched his tent and came and dwelt etc.

(and only afterwards)

and he built there an altar to the Lord"<sup>25</sup>.

And therefore it is plausible,

that the building of the altar was

(also)

a matter in itself,

in connection with his settling in the city of Hebron<sup>26</sup>.

3.

And one must say the explanation in this:

Our Sages, of blessed memory, said²⁷

"A sign the Holy One, blessed be He, gave to Avraham that everything that happened to him happened to his children",

the deeds of the fathers are a sign for the children,

and as the Ramban wrote²⁸

that "all

(all the deeds of the fathers)

come to teach about the future, for when an incident occurs to a prophet from the three fathers, he will infer from it the thing decreed to come to his seed",

And perhaps one could say,

that the deed of the fathers is a sign,

caused²⁹

<pg>39</pg>

For the events of the sons.

And based on this, in our matter,

These altars that Avraham built, they are the preparation and giving of power for the service of the sacrifices&lt;sup&gt;30&lt;/sup&gt;

(of the children of Israel)

upon the altar in the Mishkan and Temple.

And this is the point of the reason that Avraham built three altars — because regarding the "altar" of the "sons" we find three actions and matters,

that

(the "sign" 6)

the giving of power to them is these three altars that Avraham built.

And the explanation:

Regarding the matter of the altar, Chazal said³¹

— "Altar,

removes and sustains and endears and atones",

that is: removes decrees³²

(evil from Israel³³)

; sustains,

by the merit of the offerings the world is sustained, for the offerings come from food and cause it blessing³³

; endears Israel to their Father³³

; and atones for sins³².

These four things are divided,

in general,

into three types: a)

"Who provides food" — the influence of food to the world,

b)

"Who removes and atones" — nullification of undesirable matters from Israel

(decrees and sins).

c)

"Who makes Israel beloved to their Father."

And behold,

such a division of "four that are three" we also find in the division of the offerings

(on the altar)

into their kinds — that the Rambam&lt;sup&gt;34&lt;/sup&gt;

divides the offerings into "four kinds,

burnt-offering and sin-offering and guilt-offering and peace-offering",

while in the Midrash&lt;sup&gt;35&lt;/sup&gt;

we find that he divides them into three — "burnt-offering, peace-offering and sin-offering".

And it is understood that there is no contradiction here,

for sin-offering and guilt-offering their content is one&lt;sup&gt;*35&lt;/sup&gt;,

both come for atonement.

And based on this, it can be said,

that the three actions mentioned above in the offerings correspond to these three types in the offerings³⁶

:

peace-offerings,

which have the eating of the owners,

they correspond to that the altar

(offerings)

"sustain" the world,

for just as the owners merit in this eating of theirs

(which is a physical eating,

nourishment of the body)

through the offering of a sacrifice to G-d,

so "in the merit of the offerings the world is nourished";

sin-offering

(and guilt-offering)

that come for atonement — that is "removes..

atones";

And the burnt-offering,

which is entirely for G‑d,

its concept is to "make Israel beloved to their Father"&lt;sup&gt;37&lt;/sup&gt;,

and in the language of the Midrash&lt;sup&gt;38&lt;/sup&gt;,

that "the burnt-offering is offered for the honor of the Holy One, blessed be He, alone, but the peace-offerings and the sin-offering are for

(corresponding to)

ourselves",

that is,

the peace-offerings and the sin-offering come

(mainly?,

also?)

for the benefit of the offerer

(or for the sake of receiving food,

or in order to nullify undesirable matters),

but not so the burnt-offering&lt;pg&gt;40&lt;/pg&gt;

Comes only "for the honor of the Holy One, blessed be He, alone",

And through it Israel become beloved to their Father in heaven³⁹.

D.

And one may say,

that the three actions mentioned above exist,

in general,

in every sacrifice,

for in all of them there are three matters: a)

sprinkling of the blood upon the altar; b)

eating of the priests and owners

(and also in the burnt-offering — its hide to the priests⁴⁰)

; c)

revelation of the Shechinah — the fire that descended from heaven and "consumed" the sacrifices⁴¹

(and in a more general sense — that the place of the altar is in the Beis HaMikdash,

in the language of the Rambam⁴²

"a house for Hashem prepared to be a place for offering the sacrifices")

:

Part of the sacrifice that is eaten

(And belongs)

to the priests and to the owners — alludes to the action of "sustaining the world",

as above;

The throwing of the blood upon the altar is what effects atonement⁴³

of sins and appeasement

(That

This includes appeasement for all undesirable matters)

;

And the revelation of the Shechinah that is in the sacrifices

(The fire that descends from heaven,

And in general,

This that the altar is in the Holy Temple,

"A house for the Lord")

Indicates the endearment of Israel⁴⁴,

And to the extent "In the manner that he comes to see, so he comes to be seen"⁴⁵,

That all this revelation is for Israel, His near people.

5.

It is known that the service of the offerings is called by the name "service" simply⁴⁶,

because in it is expressed the entirety of the matter of service of G-d.

And from this it is understood,

that just as in offerings there are the three matters mentioned above — so too is it regarding the entirety of the matter of service of G-d,

that there are three divisions in it:

Its beginning is the service of Torah and commandments,

food of the soul

("nourish"),

for the Torah is "our life",

and it is said

(regarding commandments)

"which a person shall do and live by them"⁴⁷,

and it is known that the 248 positive commandments correspond to the 248 limbs⁴⁸,

and through the fulfillment of Torah and commandments they draw vitality

(the soul)

into the limbs of a person⁴⁹.

Above this is the service of repentance,

for even when one sinned and blemished and transgressed the path, may G‑d forbid,

he rectifies this through repentance

("atones" and "removes").

However, the perfection of the matter of attachment to Him, blessed be He, is the service of self-sacrifice,

this that a person gives himself over entirely to the Holy One, blessed be He,

(like an olah-offering which is entirely for God).

For this is the true matter of self-sacrifice,

that he gives his soul not for the sake of reward or for the sake of any benefit

(physical,

or)

spiritual

(that would come to his soul)⁵⁰,

but only for His honor, blessed be He,

without any calculation at all⁵¹.

And in this that a person offers up

(and nullifies)

himself entirely to the Holy One, blessed be He,

and does not<pg>41</pg>

seek anything for himself,

he is "one who endears Israel to their Father."

6.

Based on this, the content of the three altars that Avraham built will be understood — in the aspect of "the deeds of the fathers are a sign for the children" — in which Avraham laid the foundations

("sign")

for three general matters in the service of the Jewish people throughout all the generations:

The first altar was "upon the tidings of the seed and upon the tidings of the Land of Israel",

which is a matter of the needs of man,

both the physical and the spiritual

(in the manner of "Mazin"^*51)

;

the second altar — that he prayed there about them

(to atone for the deed of Achan)⁵²

— that is the matter of "Miziach^*51..

atones";

whereas the third altar Rashi does not explain what its matter is — because the purpose of this altar is not for some side benefit,

but only to build an altar to Hashem

(like the burnt-offering which is entirely for Hashem,

and comes only for His honor, blessed be He, as above).

and the "sign for the children" in this "deed of the fathers"⁵³

is regarding the matter of "cherishing" in the offerings⁵⁴,

because offering in such a manner causes the cherishing of Israel before the Holy One, blessed be He,

as above.

And it is found,

that the three altars that Avraham built are in order from the light to the heavy: the first — "upon the tidings of the seed and upon the tidings of the Land of Israel"

(similar to "Mazin")

; the second — his prayer concerning the deed of Achan

("Mazi'ach..

mechaper")

; and the third — "and he built there an altar to the Lord"

(without specification),

without any additional intention,

only for His honor, blessed be He.

[And with this will be sweetened that which in the first altar Rashi did not copy the words "to the Lord Who appeared to him" — for ostensibly,

the simple meaning of the verse is,

that after the Lord appeared to him — "And the Lord appeared to Avram" — he built an altar "to the Lord Who appeared to him",

and if so, it would have been fitting for Rashi to copy the above and explain that the building of the altar was to give thanks for this revelation&lt;sup&gt;*54&lt;/sup&gt;

(or that this revelation aroused in him the desire to serve the Lord through an altar),

and Rashi explains that the altar came

(only)

"upon the tidings of the seed and upon the tidings of the Land of Israel"?

And according to the above it is understood,

that the order of the service is gradual

(from below upward),

from the light to the heavy,

and this content that is in the altar

(to build an altar "to the Lord Who appeared to him")

belongs to the third altar⁵⁵

; and therefore Rashi [explains] that what is written "to the Lord Who appeared to him"

(regarding the first altar)

did not come to describe its content and purpose of the altar,

but only as a sign

(the time)

alone — that

(its building which is because of the tidings —)

the tidings were made known to him when "the Lord appeared to him"⁵⁶].

7.

And based on this we can also explain that which the verse emphasizes also regarding the third altar "and he built there an altar to the Lord",

that he built the altar specifically in Hebron,

for the content of the matter of this altar belongs specifically to the city of Hebron.

<pg>42</pg>

And as is known⁵⁷

that "Chevron" is a term of connection⁵⁸

[And as explained elsewhere⁵⁹

that this relates

(also)

to the city of Chevron in its simple sense,

where the Patriarchs and Matriarchs of all Israel are buried, and one does not call "Patriarchs"

(and Matriarchs)

except to these⁶⁰,

and all prayers ascend through Chevron⁶¹],

and the true connection and bond of Bnei Yisrael with the Holy One, blessed be He, is when our service is not "for ourselves",

for some benefit that comes to the person

(even not the most sublime benefit of atonement for the person),

but rather when the "altar"

(the offering)

of his is only for His honor, may He be blessed,

entirely consumed for God.

8.

It is known that the essence of the Beis HaMikdash — "a house prepared for God to offer sacrifices in it"⁶²

— is the altar,

and based on the above, one can say,

that these three altars of Avraham,

correspond to the three Holy Temples⁶³

:

It is explained elsewhere at length&lt;sup&gt;64&lt;/sup&gt;,

that the difference between the First Temple and the Second Temple in spiritual service is in this,

that the essence of the First Temple is the service of the righteous,

and the service of the Second Temple,

which came

(after the destruction of the First Temple and)

for the rectification of the destruction — is the service of repentance.

And it follows,

that the first altar of Avraham — which corresponds to the service of Torah and commandments — is the "sign" for the First Temple,

the service of the righteous

(who are called so for their service in fulfilling Torah and commandments)

; and his second altar — corresponding to the service of repentance — is the "sign" for the service of the Second Temple&lt;sup&gt;65&lt;/sup&gt;.

However, the ultimate perfection is the Third Beis HaMikdash — the ultimate perfection in avodas Hashem,

for then the prophecy "eye to eye they will see, etc."⁶⁶ will be fulfilled,

i.e., the revelation of Elokus in ultimate perfection⁶⁷,

and consequently also the deveikus of Bnei Yisrael in Hashem will be in ultimate perfection and in absolute bittul to Him, may He be blessed.

And in "Maaseh Avos" it is the third mizbeiach that Avraham built in Chevron,

whose entire matter was only — "and he built there a mizbeiach to Hashem",

as explained above at length.

And one can find support for this in the words of the Midrash⁶⁸,

that Avraham built a mizbeiach in Chevron because it is "the place where they crowned David and there they made a covenant, as it is said⁶⁹

and all the elders of Yisrael came to the king in Chevron and King David made a covenant with them in Chevron before Hashem":

It is known that the kingship of King David

(and particularly when he became king in practice over all of Israel)

is an eternal kingship⁷⁰,

whose perfection is the kingship of the King Messiah.

<pg>43</pg>

And according to the ruling of the Rambam⁷¹

that "the King Messiah will in the future stand and restore the kingship of David to its former state, to its original rule"; and not only that, but we find in the Midrashim of our Sages⁷²,

that the King Messiah is he, King David himself — "David is his name",

and in the well-known expression⁷³

"a man, Tzemach is his name, he is David himself"⁷⁴.

And it is found,

that this altar which Avraham built belongs to the kingship of David,

which is the kingship of King Moshiach,

that then there will be the ultimate perfection mentioned above in the service of G‑d.

9.

The lesson from all this in our deeds and our service now:

Since the deeds of the fathers are a sign for the children,

it is understood,

that the significance of all three altars that Avraham built must be in the service of each and every one of Israel,

and also now.

And according to what was said, that the third altar is corresponding to the perfection that will be attained in the true and complete redemption through Mashiach our righteousness,

we find to learn,

that all matters of the service

(the entirety of the matter of the altar and the sacrifices in the service of G-d),

even during the time of exile,

must be connected to the content of the matter of the kingdom of David,

David, King Mashiach.

That is, also the service of Torah and commandments and repentance must be permeated with the clear awareness,

that the perfection of the matter of service of God will be only in the future to come⁷⁵

(that then the fulfillment of the commandments will be "as the commandments of Your will"⁷⁶),

and as the well-known words of the Ramban⁷⁷

that the commandments that we fulfill in this time

(outside the land)

are only "markers",

"for the essence of all the commandments is for those dwelling in the land of God" —

That this itself arouses even more the desire and the longing for the true and complete redemption,

and through this they bring closer and hasten the time in which they see tangibly,

in actuality and openly,

the fulfillment of the covenant of all the children of Israel with King David,

David the king, the Messiah — "And My servant David shall be king over them, and one shepherd shall be for all of them..

and David My servant shall be a prince for them forever"⁷⁸,

and speedily in our days, literally.

(From the talk of 7 MarCheshvan 5746)