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The Extraordinary Beauty of Jacob

G-d appointed di erent angelic "ministers" to be in charge of the fates of the various
nations.
From the Ohr HaChaim commentary by Rabbi Chaim (ben Moshe) ibn Attar

"…When He
separated the
children of man."
(Deut. 32:8)

The meaning is that

G‑d did not deliver
all the nations into
the hands of a single "deputy," i.e. a minister appointed by He appointed different
"ministers" to be in
G‑d to deal with them. Rather He appointed different charge of the fates of the
"ministers" to be in charge of the fates of the various various nations.
nations. The manner in which G‑d went about doing this
when He established the borders of the various nations was that He took into consideration
the needs of the people of Israel. We must remember that when G‑d created the souls He
planted them originally in one of two trees. One of these trees is a "good" tree, the other is
an "evil" tree. The good tree is the one from which the soul of Adam emanates, whereas the
other "tree" is a simile for Sam-kel, the symbol of wicked man.

Once Adam sinned and the previous division between good and evil became eroded so
that good and evil began to appear intertwined, even the offspring of Adam began to
produce wicked souls. Finally one totally pure soul, that of Jacob, emerged. From that time
onwards, the good tree became clearly identifiable once again. This is why the Talmud tells
us that the beauty of Jacob’s soul was comparable to that of Adam before the sin. (Baba
Metzia 84) The "good" tree we are speaking of has 70 branches corresponding to the
number of people who descended to Egypt with Jacob. Accordingly, when G‑d separated
the various nations from one another, He divided them into 70 to correspond to the seventy
branches of sanctity.

The idea underlying this division was to enable each branch of sanctity in the world to be
able to rule over its spiritually negative counterpart. This is the mystical dimension of the
verse: "her feet descend to death," (Proverbs 5:5) the idea is that the feet of sanctity stomp
on the heads of the kelipah, the spiritually negative forces. In other words, Jacob’s
branches rule over the nations of the world.

Moses continues with: "for G‑d’s portion is His people," meaning that inasmuch as G‑d had
chosen the Jewish people to be governed by Himself directly and has thus elevated Israel
over the other nations, He thereby rules over mankind as a whole. The reference of "for
G‑d’s portion is His people" refers to Israel after they had received the Torah when they
became fit to be called the people of G‑d.

Moses adds: "Jacob is the measure of His inheritance." The word "measuring
string/chevel" refers to the most important part of that inheritance. This is an allusion to
the quotation about the beauty of Jacob matching that of original man, Adam. (Baba Metzia
84)

Moses also had in mind the fact that there are two
...there are two
categories of souls. One kind of soul had descended categories of souls.
directly from a very high region in heaven, and that is the
type of soul referred to here as "chelek Hashem/part (portion) of G‑d" so to speak. Other
souls originate in a pool called nachalat Sha-dai, the inheritance of G‑d as He is known as
Sha-dai. These souls Moses refers to as "chevel nachalato/tied by a rope to His
inheritance." The word "chevel" was chosen by Moses deliberately to allude to something
very important revealed by the Kabbalists. Every vital soul of man has a "string" connected
with its root. This "string" begins at his nostrils and it is by means of this "string" that the
soul derives its sustenance enabling it to live.

Concerning the soul of the wicked, the Torah said (in connection with deliberate sinners
(Numbers 15:31)) "that person('s soul) will surely be cut off, his sin is upon him." This means
that the lifeline connecting that person’s soul to its origin will be severed. Once the soul
cannot derive sustenance from its source it dies. Of the righteous, on the other hand, the
Torah stated, "As to you who have cleaved to the Lord your G‑d, you are all alive today."
(Deut. 4:11)

[Selected with permission from the five-volume English edition of "Ohr HaChaim: the Torah
Commentary of Rabbi Chaim Ben Attar" by Eliyahu Munk, Vol. V]

From the Ohr HaChaim commentary by Rabbi Chaim (ben Moshe) ibn Attar

Rabbi Chaim (ben Moshe) ibn Attar (Sale, Western Morocco, 1696–Jerusalem, 1743) is best known as the author of
one of the most important and popular commentaries on the Torah: the Ohr HaChaim, printed in Venice in 1741,
while the author was on his way to the Holy Land. He established a major yeshivah in Israel, after moving there from
Morocco. Chassidic tradition is that the main reason the Baal Shem Tov twice tried so hard (and failed) to get to the
Holy Land was that he said if he could join the Ohr HaChaim there, together they could bring Moshiach. Rabbi Chaim
acquired a reputation as a miracle worker, hence his title “the holy,” although some apply this title only to his Torah
commentary. He is buried outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem.

Eliyahu Munk, the translator, was born in Frankfurt, and emigrated to England as a young man, later moving to
Toronto. After retiring from education and moving to Israel in 1978, he began an extraordinary second career as a
translator, publishing English versions of the Torah commentaries of Rabbeinu Bechayei, Akeidat Yitzchak, Shelah,
Alshich and Ohr Hachaim.

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