Jacob sent an assortment of animals as a gift, ‘mincha’, to Esau. Male and female goats, sheep, camels, donkeys, oxen. Spiritually, what was taking place here, and how might it relate to us?
In Chassidic teachings we find the contrast between the Temple Offerings, and Prayer which is their equivalent, on the one hand, and Torah and Mitzvot on the other. The Torah comes from G-d, from above to below. It is the Divine word which we can repeat and to which we can respond, but it clearly comes from above.
Mitzvot too come from a Divine command. Although we carry out the Mitzvot in this physical world, we do not invent them ourselves. The Mitzvot are Divine instructions.
By contrast, in Prayer a person reaches upwards towards the Divine. The person has a particular lack, or need, or problem. And they reach upwards to G-d with the prayer that their need will be fulfilled. It is a movement from below to above. As such, it reaches higher than the level of the source of Torah and Miztvot.
The Afternoon Prayer is called ‘Mincha’, but the discourse tells us that in fact all Prayer is called ‘Mincha’, because of its power to reach upwards.
The name Mincha expresses first, Mem Nun, the initial letters of mayim nukvin, the ‘feminine waters’ which metaphorically denote the spiritual quality of the Jew reaching towards the Divine. Then Chet, the exalted 8th Attribute, in the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy (Notzar Chesed), which is where the prayer reaches. Then the Heh, signifying Malchut, Kingship, which gives life to the lower worlds. Thus the spiritual energy of the prayer ascends to the exalted level of the Chet and then descends through the attribute Kingship.
If all Prayers are called Mincha, why is this word used particularly for the Afternoon prayer? Because this prayer has special significance. It comes in the middle of the working day, and in order to recite the Mincha prayer a person has to pull himself away from his business or other workaday activities. The Sages also point out that Elijah, in his contest with the Priests of Baal on Mount Carmel, was answered at the time of the Mincha offering in the Temple (Berachot 6b).
The prayers correspond to the Temple offerings. But the Sages indicate that the Minchah prayer relates not to ordinary offerings, but also to the incense which was offered in the Temple. As it says in Psalms (141:2), ‘let my prayer be considered as incense before You, the gift of my hands, a pleasant mincha...’
Now the difference between the Temple offerings and the Incense is the fact that while the offerings had to be only pure, kosher animals, the incense included non-kosher ingredients. Because the ordinary Offerings could only relate to the pure, permitted aspects of the world. But the incense can elevate to G-d also the impure dimensions of experience, where they are transformed.
Now we come back to Jacob’s gift (mincha) to Esau. This included non-kosher animals, and is described as a form of ‘feminine waters’ Mincha which is like the incense. Esau represents the World of Chaos, beyond the World of Repair, Tikkun.
Although in external terms, the World of Chaos precedes the World of Tikkun, and therefore as a twin brother, Esau was born before Jacob, in inner terms the ultimate goal is the World of Tikkun. In this sense really Jacob precedes Esau. Jacob’s task is Tikkun, literally ‘Repair’ – to repair the problematic nature of the World of Chaos. Hence, through Jacob sending his gift to Esau, in effect, the Mincha of Incense, Esau was transformed. He ran towards Jacob and kissed him.
In the Torah Scroll the word ‘and he kissed him’ (one word in Hebrew) is dotted. The Sages discuss what these mean. Rashi quotes Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai who says: Although we have a tradition that Esau hates Jacob, at that moment he was sincere...
At that moment, on account of the Mincha, the gift, Esau was transformed and kissed Jacob with all his heart.
