From Seeking the Tzaddik, Torah Is Born

Why Does the Torah Expand So Much on the Story of Yitzchak and Rivkah’s Match?

“In sukkos you shall dwell for seven days” (Vayikra 23:42)

“And they believed in Hashem and in Moshe His servant” (Shemos 14:31)

From the holy words of the gaon and Tzaddik Rabbi Shlomo Almaliach shlit"a:

This is what Rabbi Berland shlit"a always said about Parshas Chayei Sarah: we see that the Torah says, “In sukkos you shall dwell for seven days” (Vayikra 23:42), yet it does not explain how one dwells in a sukkah—what the sukkah is made from, how many walls it needs, and so on.

In practice, all the laws of sukkah are learned from the Oral Torah. But when it comes to the story of the match between Yitzchak and Rivkah, a person could wonder: what happened that the Torah goes on at such length? They brought a match for Yitzchak—so what? Does the Torah make an entire section out of this match? A whole parshah? Come on!

Rabbi Almaliach asks: does the Torah write at length about the match of Avraham and Sarah? And what—will they now make Torah out of the match I made? Come on. So why does the Torah repeat and double over itself specifically with Yitzchak’s match? Today Eliezer, Avraham’s servant, came to the spring and said to Rivkah, “Please give me to drink”—fine, excellent, Rivkah gave you and the camels to drink. So she gave him to drink!

Rabbi Berland made an enormous move here, explaining that all the tests Eliezer, Avraham’s servant, went through on this entire mission—out of all of that, Torah was formed.

From the mesirus nefesh a person gives in order to find the true Tzaddik—out of that, Torah is formed.

Likutey Moharan, Likutey Halachos—who were they made from? Through whose power were they made? Not from Rebbe Nachman! Not from Rebbe Nachman! Rather, they were made through the power of Rabbi Nosson, who pursued Rebbe Nachman and found him!

Rabbi Nosson searched and searched—once he traveled to Berditchev, once he was here, once he was there, each time a different place. It was through the searching, through finding the Tzaddik, that Likutey Halachos and Likutey Moharan were born—about which Rebbe Nachman said that it is all Rabbi Nosson’s.

All of Rebbe Nachman’s continuity is through Rabbi Nosson—and this is called: seeking the Tzaddik.

Emunah in the Tzaddik is the root of the entire Torah: “And they believed in Hashem and in Moshe His servant” (Shemos 14:31).