Summary of the Maamar
Q1 Yitzchok knew that Eisav was not really serving Hashem, so why did he want to bless him?
A1 Even though on the level of “Penimi,” on the revealed conscious level, Eisav was not serving Hashem, but on the level of “Makif,” the encompassing and hidden (and subconscious) level, Eisav possessed a tremendously powerful connection to holiness. Yitzchok wanted to tap into that tremendous hidden power deriving from holiness through his blessings. The word “ברכה-blessing” can also mean to draw down and reveal, and Yitzchok wanted to reveal that great potential for holiness through his blessings.
Q2 What was wrong with this calculation, that the blessings had to actually go to Yaakov instead of Eisav?
A2 The mistake was that the “Makif-encompassing” power from holiness connected to Eisav cannot be accessed properly except through Yaakov. Since Yaakov was the level of “Penimi,” where the light of Hashem becomes fully integrated into the recipient in a revealed manner, he had the power to take even a tremendous “Makif” light and reveal in a proper manner. If Yitzchok would have just given Eisav the blessings without Yaakov’s involvement, then one of two things would have happened: Either the “Makif” power of Eisav would become tremendously greater than before, without changing Eisav in his personal behavior at all. This would mean that he would have much more power to do evil. The other possibility would be that the revelation of Hashem’s light contained in the “Makif” would shine in him so strongly that it would overload his system and he would die from shock. That’s why the revelation of Hashem contained in the blessings had to be moderated through the system of Yaakov, so that Yaakov can carefully extract Eisav’s potential for holiness without giving him extra power or destroying him completely.
Q3 Why did Yaakov need to “trick” his father in order to receive the blessings? If ultimately the blessings were meant to go to Yaakov why couldn’t he just receive them in an open manner?
A3 The level that Yaakov was on by himself was a tremendously high spiritual level, but it didn’t yet have the power to come down into the physical world until he received the blessings from Yitzchok. In order for something to descend to a lower level, it must come from a higher source. In order for the spiritual level of Yaakov to descend into physicality, (which is needed preparation for the Giving of the Torah), he needed to receive a revelation from a level of Hashem’s Light that is higher than “Hishtalshelus-the Spiritual Hierarchy of Worlds,” from a level that is beyond spiritual and physical. This level beyond physical and spiritual is also beyond understanding and logic. It cannot be accessed in the ordinary and revealed manner. It can only be accessed through “tricking” the system through his self-sacrifice in the fact that he literally endangered his life to take these blessings. Through his self-sacrifice on a level beyond logic, he was able to receive the blessings from a level beyond all worlds, beyond physical and spiritual. From that level he received the power to bring his spiritual level to affect the physical world (to a certain extent, as a preparation for the Giving of the Torah in the physical world).
