The Stones
Our Parsha opens with Yaakov Avinu on his way to Uncle Lavan to find a wife. He lies down on what is today the Temple Mount and surrounds himself with a set of 12 stones. Chazal teach us that the stones began to quarrel. Each one claiming that Yaakov should rest his head on it. They quarreled until they united into a single stone. They lost their respective distinctness and blended into one single stone.
How do stones, which are the lowest level of creation and lack any intelligence, argue. The Maharal explains that their quarreling was not a function of intelligence, rather it was an existential struggle between the stones. Every creature does what it needs to do for its existence. This is the way creatures are programmed. Within the parameters of nature, animals act instinctively to protect themselves. In a similar fashion, when nature is suspended and the spiritual sphere is active, creatures will continue to do what they need to do to exist within the parameters of the spiritual realm.
Of the three fathers, Yaakov is the chosen one. The reason for this is because he brings all three together. Avraham corresponds to the right side and Yitzchok to the left. Yaakov is the center which joins the two sides together. In a similar parallel Yaakov corresponds to the third strand which together with the two earlier strands create a single powerful rope which will not easily break. Yaakov had the power of unifying,
The Maharal goes on to explain that Yaakov’s unifying power goes beyond being the third one. Yaakov was Kodesh, he was detached from the material world and was attached to HaShem. Being attached to HaShem dictates that everything associated with him had to lose its distinction and blend into one. Perhaps we can understand it as follows.
We know that HaShem created the world ex-nihilo, from nothing. Absolutely nothing; no space and no time. So from what did He create it? What is the base material of the world if there was nothing? Can we really contemplate that this world is based on nothing? The answer is that there was HaShem and His Will. The world was built from the Will of HaShem.
Chazal teach that HaShem is absolutely ONE, there are no components. A human being, by contrast, is a composite of many factors. Within a person there is a part of him that wants to be busy and another part of him that wants to sleep. HaShem, on the other hand, is only ONE – there are no parts. Therefore, His Will is singular. The Will of HaShem that created all of creation is only ONE. This means that although there are a multitude of creatures in this world and each one is different from the next, nevertheless, they are all based on the singular Will of HaShem.
The implication of this notion is that the very existence of everything that has been created is equal for all. We all share the same base – the singular Will of HaShem.
As Yaakov slept on the Temple Mount and had his prophecy, he entered a spiritual state of complete connection to HaShem, the Source of all existence. The 12 stones that surrounded him could no longer exist as distinct and separate stones, each one different than the next. Just as in the natural state each creature acts in self preservation, so too, in this spiritual state, every stone recognized that their existence can only occur if they are united, bound together by their common base – the Will of HaShem.
If Yaakov’s experience brought those 12 stones to a state of unity, how much more so can we, the descendants of Yaakov, create a bond of unity – connected by our common base.
Have a wonderful Shabbos.
Paysach Diskind