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I appeared to
Avraham, to Yitzchok, and to Yaakov as Kel Shakkai, but
my name Hashem I did not make Myself known to them.[2]
Kel Shakkai means the G-d who said “enough” to His world. It
indicates limitation, contraction. In other words – tzimtzum. Hashem dealt
with the avos
through limiting His connection with them at times. Limiting that
connection might easily lessen the depth and sophistication of a person’s daas.[3] He did this in order to test
them. How would they function after their comprehension of what can be
humanly understood about Him was compromised? Would the imprint left by the
fuller complement of daas
that they possessed earlier, when they were more tightly connected, allow
them to weather the test? Particularly, because one of the ways Hashem is metzamtzem Himself is
through din,
the consequences of which are often uncomfortable or painful. Would
“packaging” his relationship with them within a vehicle of din set them back?
The avos passed their
tests. That is the upshot of our pasuk.
Hashem related to them at times with Kel
Shakkai, i.e. He limited His direct connection with them, shrinking
their daas.
The fullness of His name “YKVK” was thus withheld from them at those times.
Nonetheless, their Emunah was not blunted by the experience. They passed
all their tests. They accepted His Elokus
in any manner that it was displayed to them.
The gemara[4] speaks of a time that Hashem
presented overwhelming evidence of the sins of Klal Yisrael to the avos. Both Avraham and
Yaakov are so overwhelmed by the inventory of sins, that they agree that
their children must c”v
be destroyed. This, however, was not the response that HKBH was looking
for. He turns to Yitzchok, who offers an extremely liberal and creative way
to deal with the sins of his descendants. This plea for compassion is
exactly what Hashem wanted to hear!
The passage is
enigmatic. After all, Yitzchok’s characteristic of din makes him the
least likely to look at Klal
Yisrael charitably. How could he succeed where Avraham and
Yaakov, representing chesed
and rachamim,
failed?
The explanation is as
follows: A person who relates to Hashem through the midos of chesed or rachamim cannot have
complete daas.
He needs to be challenged by the rigors of din. By relating only with the two more
comfortable midos,
he invites a tzimtzum
of his relationship with Hashem in which he is challenged by din. In effect, he
turns rachamim
into din.
One who fully accepts
Hashem’s Elokus,
however, even when He relates to him with Yitzchok’s midah of din, merits an upgrade
in his connection. He thus turns the din
with which he is ordinarily treated to rachamim.
In so doing, he can
save Klal Yisrael.
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