All Jews Included in the Soul of Avraham Avinu

Although Avraham Avinu did not succeed in rectifying the world through the kingdom of Shaddai, he did not despair. He decided to at least ensure that the souls born from him would be souls that contain within them the light of Havayah—the light of redemption.

Souls that would have the strength to stand firm against all the desires and vanities of this world.

This is alluded to in the verse: “For I have known him, because he will command his children and his household after him, and they will keep the way of the L-rd, to do righteousness and justice” (Bereishit 18:19).

The Ohev Yisrael of Apta explains (Parashat Vayeira):

Although Avraham Avinu served his Creator with pure and refined intellect, with self-sacrifice, and fulfilled all His mitzvot with joy and great love, his Divine service still seemed small in his own eyes, and was considered by him as nothing at all.

Avraham felt, with genuine feeling, the abundance of G-d’s compassion flowing upon him at every moment—an abundance of goodness and blessing, an abundance of life and kindness, and constantly felt a debt of gratitude that he could not possibly repay even slightly.

He therefore searched for a way to bring satisfaction to the Holy One, blessed be He, and he decided that everything he did would be done in the name of all the Jewish people:

In the same way that a child who is eventually to be born is sourced within the mind of the father, in the mind of Avraham Avinu, peace be upon him, the souls of the Jewish people until the end of all generations were rooted.

Therefore, whenever he performed a mitzvah, he performed it on behalf of all the Jewish people—that is, with all of his own powers and also with those of the branches that were destined to spread forth from him. It was therefore considered as though he performed the mitzvah together with all of them.

In addition to this giving great satisfaction to the Holy One, blessed be He, an immense and eternal benefit came from this to the descendants of Avraham Avinu.

Since, at the time he performed the mitzvot, Avraham included within himself all of the souls of the Jewish people—it follows that every single Jewish soul had already performed all of the mitzvot while included within the soul of Avraham. As such, every Jew can accept upon himself the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven readily and immediately.

Parenthetically, this also instructs us in our own lives: We must learn Torah and fulfill mitzvot with the intention to include in our good deeds all of our descendants and our descendants’ descendants who are destined to sprout forth from us until the end of time.