In Insights you talk about the meaning of the words "Lifnei Hash-m."
When Rivka talked to Yaacov about getting the brochos she quotes
Yitchak's request to Eisav but adds the words "Lifnei Hash-m."
Ramban picks up on this inserted term, which Yitzchak did not use.Does your thoughts in Lifnei Hash-m fit as well into Rivka's words when there was no Beis Hamikdash yet?
Moshe Reinetz
The question here is that Tosfos (Nazir 45a, DH She'ar) writes that "Lifnei Hash-m" means the Nikanor Gate in the Beis ha'Mikdash. How then could Rivka say in Bereshis 27:7 that Yitzchak said to Esav that he would bless him "Lifnei Hash-m"? At that time the Beis ha'Mikdash had not yet been built, so there was not yet any place that could be considered "Lifnei Hash-m"!
We may answer based on what Rashi writes in Shabbos 55b (DH Chilalta), that before the Ohel Moed was built the Shechinah was to be found in the tents of the Tzadikim. Therefore, the Shechinah dwelled in the house of Yitzchak. He was saying that when he would grant the Berachah in his tent, it would be "Lifnei Hash-m" because this was the place of the Shechinah. A Berachah has a more powerful effect if it is given together with the Shechinah.
Kol Tuv,
Dovid Bloom
Thank you for your answer Rabbi Bloom.
I just want to point out, that it wasn't Yitzchak saying that the Brocho was Lifnei Hash-m. In fact Yitzchak didn't use those words.
It was Rivka who repeated to Yaacov what Yitzchak said, who inserted the words Lifnei Hash-m. It seems that it reflects who she looked at, or how she related to Yitzchak her husband.
Here is a note I sent Rabbi Kornfeld on that point last week.
Yes. You have to say that Yesod. What's remarkable that it wasn't the narrative in the Torah, but Rivka Imeinu's description of the presence of Yitzchak. She saw her husband's presence as Lifnei Hash-m, she comprehended that (and she was awed by it as well - Netziv talks about that the first time she saw Yitzchak from far), In our venacular, Rebbitzen Bas Sheva o'h might have described her husband, yb;ch Reb Chaim Kanievsky Shlita, with such a term.
Yasher Koach
Reb Moshe,
Yes, even though Rashi says that the Shechinah was in the tents of the Tzadikim, it must be that Yitzchak did not hold of himself as a Tzadik. This is because the Gemara in Nidah 30b says that even if the entire world says that you are a Tzadik, you should not believe them.
(I once went with someone to the house of Rav Elyashiv zt'l, and my friend commented that he had the impression that Rav Elyashiv just could not understand why everyone was making such a fuss about him....)
Kol Tuv,
Dovid Bloom
Reb Moshe, I sent your original question to a Godol and he replied that before the Beis ha'Mikdash was built, the whole world was called "Lifnei Hash-m."
Possibly we can understand this a little more with the help of what Rabeinu Bachye writes in Parshas Terumah (Shemos 25:18, at the end of the very long piece). He writes that Moshe Rabeinu heard the voice of Hash-m from between the two Keruvim, in the range of one Tefach, because that is where Hash-m limited his Shechinah to, even though Yirmeyahu 23:24 says, "Do I not fill the Heavens and the Earth, says Hash-m?"
Before the Beis ha'Mikdash was built, everywhere in the world was in front of Hash-m. Once the Beis ha'Mikdash was built, even though certainly Hash-m is still present everywhere, nevertheless there is a "Tzimtzum" of the Shechinah in one very special place in the world.
Kol Tuv,
Dovid Bloom