"These are the generations of Isaac, the son of Abraham" (Genesis 25:19). Rashi comments simply: "these are Jacob and Esau, who are discussed in the portion." But Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk transforms this genealogical note into a theology of suffering and redemption.
Isaac represents Din—Divine Judgment. Abraham represents Chesed (Lovingkindness)—Lovingkindness. "These are the generations of Isaac the son of Abraham" means: after Judgment comes Lovingkindness. The righteous begin with suffering and end with peace. "Abraham begot Isaac" reverses it: after Lovingkindness comes Judgment—the pattern of the wicked, whose comfort is temporary.
Rebbe Elimelech then unveils a disturbing insight about how good and evil operate. The evil inclination does not begin by saying "go sin." It begins by saying "this is a mitzvah." It disguises transgression as righteousness. Meanwhile, the truly righteous sometimes commit what appears to be a transgression for a holy purpose—as the Talmud permits: "It is permissible to lie for the sake of peace" (Bava Metzia 24a).
The deepest layer of the teaching concerns the spiritual practice of "raising the Shechinah." The tzaddik (a righteous person)'s work is to elevate the final letter heh of God's name. Isaac "sowed in the land and found a hundred-fold" (Genesis 26:12)—which Rashi says was "for the purpose of tithing." Terumah (the tithe) can be read as terom heh—"raise the letter heh." The service of love and awe, expressed through one hundred daily blessings, is itself the raising of the Divine Presence.
And these are the generations of Yitzchak, the son of Avraham etc (Gen. 25:19) We need to explain the explanation of Rashi z"l "Yaakov and Esav that are spoken about in the portion" through the way of hint [remez]. Yitzchak is a hint to Judgment [Din], and Avraham is a hint to Lovingkindness [Chesed] as known. And there are tzadikim whose beginning is suffering and whose end is serenity, and there are evil people who are the opposite, and this is "these are the generations of Yitzchak the son of Avraham", meaning, after Judgment, Lovingkindness is born. And "Avraham gave birth to Yitzchak" means that after Lovingkindness, Judgment is born. And the explanation of Rashi z"l (Rashi on Genesis 25:19:1) that these are Yaakov and Esav who are talked about in the portion is to explain this hint that runs throughout the portion, regarding Yaakov and Esav, that is, Yaakov's beginning is Judgement and his end is serenity, as explained, and regarding Esav it is the opposite. Or say , also, through the way [of interpreting] of remez (hint): behold, we see the deeds of people - evil people doing evil, the incitement of the evil impulse in them begins with saying to them that it is a mitzvah to do this, when in truth it is a transgression. And the tzadikim who safeguard themselves from transgressions sometimes will do a transgression for its own sake [lishmah], as we find 'it is permissible to lie [lit. change] for the sake of peace' (Bava Metzia 24a, Tosafot on Bava Metzia 24a:1:1, see also Yevamot 65b) - and this is "these are the generations of Yitzchak"(Gen. 25:19), meaning, the judgment that comes through transgressions. The reason of the transgression is because "son of Avraham" is a hint to a mitzvah, that is, that the yetzer hara says to him that this is a mitzvah, and there are tzadikim who do a transgression for its own sake, as explained. And this is hinted in "Avraham begot Yitzchak", meaning, a great tzadik sometimes begets "Yitzchak", that is, Judgment, by sometimes doing a transgression for its own sake because of the tzadik's great righteousness. And this is easy to understand. Or say "these are the generations of Yitzchak etc" (Gen. 25:19) and let's begin by explaining the verse "and Yitzchak sowed in the land etc and found a thousand measures/gates" (Gen. 26:12). One needs to say the hint, that behold the service of the tzadik is always to raise the Holy Shechinah, which is the last letter hey [of the name Havayah], and this is the hint in the commentary of Rashi z"l: "this estimation is for tithing" (Rashi on Genesis 26:12:4) - meaning, Yitzchak estimated himself as tithing - which is terumah, since the Text calls Terumah as Tithing in many places. Terumah is explained as Terom Hey [lit. Raise the letter Hey], and the essence of the service to the Holy Blessed Name through love and fear is the hint [of] Terumah - two from one hundred [trei mimeah] meaning, a person is obligated to bless one hundred blessings every day and one needs to bless [those blessings] in love and awe. And this is called "sowing" regarding the tzadik, that through love and awe a great light is sown within the tzadik, and this is "a light is sown for the righteous" (Ps. 97:11). And through this immediately one hundred measures are found, meaning, through every blessing that the tzadik blesses they open one gate of those Upper Hundred Gates which are called one hundred blessings, meaning, the Upper Pools, and this is "Yitzchak sowed:, as explained, and "found a hundred gates", as explained. And behold it is known that there is awe that comes before love, since love comes from within awe; and there is Higher Awe that comes from love. And this is the hint in "and these are the generations of Yitzchak"(Gen. 25:19), meaning, awe that through it "son of Avraham", which is love, is born. And there is awe that comes from within love, and this is the hint in "Avraham", which is love, "begot Yitzchak", which is awe. And this is what Rashi z"l explained "Yaakov and Esav, the ones talked about in the portion". What is the practical application that comes out from this? The explanation of Rashi is that the practical application is that through awe and love Compassion is awakened and Judgments are shattered, meaning, "Yaakov" is a hint to Compassion, and "Esav a hint to Judgments. And this is the hint in "after that his brother came out, and his hand was holding onto the heel of Esav", meaning, even though some times the nations are victorious, God forbid, and they want to do evil to Israel, God forbid, and it looks like the thing is just about ready to come, God forbid, and it does not happen, and it does not happen, that after the end of the thing arrives, God forbid, and it is finished, then the power of the tzadik goes out and holds onto the end of the thing that it should not happen at all - and this is "his hand", that is, the tzadik's force "holds onto the heel", that is, the end of, "Esav", that wants to finish the thing, then the tzadik holds onto, and does not permit it to happen, and awakens great compassion for Israel. Amen. And Yitzchak sowed in that land and attained 100 measures (Gen. 26:12) - behold, King David PBUH said: "a light is sown for the righteous" (Ps. 97:11). One can explain that the light is sown in the tzadik's sphere, that is, the light and the holiness that are in the tzadik are like a seedling that makes fruit, since the tzadik causes the awakening of awe in all the world because of the tzadik's holiness, and the light of holiness is sown in people. "And joy for the upright in heart" - meaning, and for those, who are merely upright in heart, they have the level of joy, meaning, that all humans are joyful when they see them, yet they can't sow holy lights on others. And this is "Yitzchak sowed in that land", as we explained, he sowed awe and holiness inside people. "And he attained one hundred measures/gates" since a person is obligated to say a hundred blessings every day. And they correspond to the hundred people that died every day, and King David PBUH established one hundred blessings corresponding to them. This tzadik, sowing awe in people, is as if he was giving them life. Through this he caused a fixing to the known 100 gates, since every person has their own gate, and one who sustains a person fixes that person's specific gate. "And all the wells that the servants of Avraham had dug" (Gen. 26:15) - at a first glance, how does this verse connected to this part? And also - what does this come to teach us? And we also have to understand why Avimelech said to him "go from us" (Gen. 26:16). And the verse says "And Itzchak went from there, and encamped in the river Gerar and settled there" (Gen. 26:17). And we need to understand how the verse understands that he settled and dug the wells, etc, wasn't he gone from there? And Rashi felt something here, see his commentary. And according to our way, the holy Torah is teaching us the ways of the people who are awakened to awe through the tzadik. And after that, if awe leaves them due to the fact that they were not persistent with it, with the clear goal of conquering the ways of Hashem, then it looks to them that they are full of awe, and even more complete than the tzadikim that serve God in truth, and this is the explanation for here. They saw that Yitzchak was conquering his awe and his holiness, and it appeared to them that his deeds were not proper, and were not like their own deeds, which were better than his. This mistake came to them because they stuck with the awe from the days of Avraham, and after that, they were exhausted due to it, and this is what the Text says "all the wells", meaning, the springs of awe and holiness that were awakened and dug and opened through Avraham Avinu, "the Philistines had stopped up" meaning, after that the springs of awe were stopped up "filled them with dust" meaning, with physicality, that is, people had lost the awe when doing mitzvot, as they did them just as a matter of course. Therefore "and Avimelech said 'go from us because you have grown too much' etc" (Gen. 26:16) - meaning, that the awe of Yitzchak was seen by them as a new thing. And is this surprising? Yitzchak's deeds were not conforming to their deeds from the outset. What did Yitzchak do? "he went from there and encamped in the Nahal" - since the tzadik, who has a great light to the point that the tzadik can sow it in others, then it is on the tzadik to strengthen him/her/themselves in any way possible, with all their ability, so as to introduce awe in the hearts of people. And regarding this one should point out that there is a hint in the Text "if a person uncovers a well" (Ex. 21:33) - 'if' implies the expression 'when' that is, the obligation is with the tzadik, who is called 'person', that uncovers a "well" which is a hint to the springs of awe and holiness, to open the hearts of people in greater awe and holiness. "Or when a person digs a well" - "dig" is an expression of excavation, that one begins excavating and carving into the hearts of people awe and holiness. "And a bull or a donkey falls into it" - meaning that then obviously the externalities (kelipot) will fall in it. "The owner of the well will pay", meaning, this is the reward of the tzadik, that the Holy One of Blessing, the owner and master of all holiness and awe, will reward the tzadik in the world to come. And not only that but also "the worth in silver will pay to the owner" meaning that this is also the reward, that this awe and this holiness that cause people to return to God, and add more awe and love and desire to serve God, and this is "silver" [kesef] from the expression "truly longing for" [nikhsof nikhsafta, see Gen. 31:30] that is, the desire and the love go back to the Owner. And it is through this that I explained "words that come from the heart enter in the heart": they enter back into they heart from which they came in truth, those words come back and enter the heart, and add to the heart more holiness. And in the Gemara (Bava Kamma 50a) they asked a difficult question: "if regarding the uncovering of a well there is obligation, all the more so there should be obligation for digging one!" this can be understood as we explained above, if the obligation of the tzadik is to open the hearts of the people with/in the springs of awe, all the more so it is to dig. "To bring a digger after a digger" (Bava Kamma 50a) meaning, if at the first time the tzadik is unable to awaken the heart, the tzadik should go back and try, through the way "you will surely admonish" (Lev. 19:17). And this is "and he encamped in Nahal Gerar" (Gen. 26:17)- meaning, when Yitzchak saw that they did not turn to his awe to learn from him, he strengthened himself and continued in his holiness until the Upper River, which is the River of the Living Presence, and continued from there to show awe and to awaken them, as it is the way of the tzadik to continue the awakening of awe, the [awareness of] the exaltedness of the Higher Worlds to all human beings. And this is "and Yitzchak encamped, and he dug the wells of water that were dug in the days of Avraham and the Philistines stopped up": he went back and awakened their spirits in complete awe, and awakened the previous awe that Avraham Avinu PBUH inserted in them. Or, one could say: "Yitzchak sowed in that land etc one hundred gates" (Genesis 26:12) - this is a hint to the Upper Worlds, as explained above, meaning that he was influencing the Upper Worlds, "and Ad-nai blessed him" through this he was able to cause himself to be blessed through the Holy Name, since the essence of the Flows come through the Holy Name, and this is "a psalm of David, I will exalt You etc" (Ps. 145), meaning, through my exalting You and causing the Flow [to flow] on the worlds, through this "I will bless Your Name forever" - I cause Your Name to be blessed so as to influence through the Holy Name. And this is easy to understand.
