In this week’s Sedra, Parshas Vayishlach. we see that Yaakov met his brother Esav, and bowed down 7 times before getting up and kissing him. A lot of the meforshim ask the obvious question, why did Yaakov bow down 7 times, wouldn’t once have been enough??
A number of answers are given, but I heard one this week from the Zohar HaKodesh:-
We see earlier in sefer bereishis that Yitschok was a miracle baby, born to Avraham and Sara. The Gematria of his name is 208 (yud = 10, Tsadde = 90, Ches = 8, Koof = 100). The significance of this number is that it is 8 times the Gematria ofHashem’s name which is 26 (Yud = 10, Hey = 5, Vov = 6, Hey = 5)
We know that as well as there being 7 levels of tumah, there are also 7 levels of Kedushah. Yitschok because he was a Tsaddik, had all 7 levels of Kedushah plus one more because it was a miracle that he was born i.e. 7 x 26 = 182 + 26 = 208, the same amount as his name.
Yitschak had two sons,Yaakov and Esav. The Gematria of Yaakov is 182 (Yud = 10, Ayin = 70, Koof = 100, Beis = 2) which is 7 times Hashem’s name. So the question is where did the last remaining level of Kedusha from Yitschok go??
Now, if you take the Gematria of Tameh, which is 50 (Tes = 9, Mem = 40, Aleph = 1) and multiply it by 7 (the seven levels of Tumah) plus an extra 26, which is a level of Kedusha, we get the Gematria of Esav which is 376 (ayin = 70, Shin = 300, Vov = 6). This is where the last remaining level of Kedusha. This is one of the reasons say ChaZaL, why Esav’s head was buried in the The Cave of Machpela!!!
We see from here that Esav was bad in every possible and imaginable way, but he still had an element of Kedusha inside him because he was born to Yitschok.
Now we can see the reason why Yaakov bowed down 7 times, every bow stripped away a level of Tumah from his brother and in the end it just left Esav there with one level of Kedusha inside him!!!
In order to illustrate our point, a further example of this is shown in the Gemara in Kiddushin 29(b), where a story is brought down of the Beis Hamidrash of Abaye where there was a demon that had the appearance of a snake with 7 heads!!! It says that even if two people went inside together it would terrorise them, which for a demon is not typical as they only usually attack an unaccompanied person. Rav Acha Bar Yaakov went inside the Beis Hamidrash and bowed down seven times, and every time he did a head of the demon fell off, until it disappeared completely!!!
Now, we can take the levels of Kedushah a stage further as well. Yaakov had 7 levels in his name, but where did they go to??
If you take the Gematria of Yosef, it adds up to 156 (yud = 10, Vov = 6, Samech = 60, Peh = 80)which is 6 times the name of Hashem. And the other 26, went to Yehuda as it is actually in his name (YUD, HEY, VOV, daled, HEY). The Zohar says that there will be two different Moshiach’s, one from Yosef, and one from the house of Dovid. Yehuda who comes from moshich Ben Yosef will be killed after defeating six parts of amalek who is considered to be total i.e. Seven parts tumah. Then Moshiach Ben Dovid will come along and defeat the last remaining part of Amalek.
So we see there is no anticlimax… in reality the last 3000 thousand years or so have been an ongoing war between the desendants of Yaakov and the Descendants of Esav. As the Zohar says above, The coming of Moshiach (both Ben Yosef and Ben Dovid) will be the climax of this meeting and we will be brought out of Golus once and For all!! In the merit of all our mitzvos and the Torah Study on this Website, May this happen in our lifetime Bimhera V’Yomeinu.
AMEN
