SEFER BAAL SHEM TOV

The Baal Shem Tov's Teachings on the Torah

"I revealed Myself to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as G-d Almighty, but by My name Y-H-V-H, I did not make Myself known to them. (Vaeira 6:3)

I heard from the holy Rabbi Yacov Yoseph HaKohen (who certainly heard it directly from the Baal Shem Tov), that the letters of the word "to" - e- l1 - refer to the Alupho shel Olam (the Master of the World), with the lamed, which is composed of three lines. This is as much as he said.

This can be compared to a flowing fountain. If the pipes that carry the water are clean, then the water will also be pure. But if the pipes are not clean, then the water will be dirty. So too, each person, depending upon his level, upon the Torah he studies and the spiritual work he does, draws a holy outflow from the Supernal Fountain through the channel of his soul. If these conduits are clean and free of damage, so that he draws through them the Alupho shel Olam, then the water and [spiritual] outflow they carry will be clean and pure. But if, G-d forbid, he damages the channels of his soul, so that the Master of the World is not revealed through them, then the outflow that descends through them will not be clean.

This is the meaning of the verse: "I revealed Myself to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." The word 'el' is mentioned before each one, for each one drew the aleph - the Alupho shel Olam - through the lamed, which is the three clean conduits of his soul.2 Thus, G-d appeared to each of them in that very same aspect of "el" - as "E-l Shakai" (G-d Almighty). This is the holy emanation that flowed out to them from the Supernal Fountain. This principle applies to the entire Torah, to laws of the permitted and forbidden, or Torah legislation, as my grandfather said, that the three forefathers are represented by the three judges (that sit on a rabbinical court).³
Degel Machane Ephraim, Vaeira

¹Spelled aleph lamed.

²Referring to the three columns on the chart of the Sefiros: the right hand column embodying the Sefiros of expansiveness - Chochmah, Chesed and Netzach; the left hand column embodying the Sefiros of Limitation - Binah, Gevurah and Hod; and the middle column with the Sefiros of balance: Kesser, (Da'at), Tiferes, Yesod and Malchus.

³Every rabbinical court - a beis din - must be comprised of a minimum of three judges. The Baal Shem Tov explained that they correspond to the three columns of the Sefiros, embodied by the three forefathers, Abraham (Chesed), Isaac (Gevurah) and Jacob (Tiferes).

Translation and Commentary by Rabbi Dr. Eliezer Shore

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