Sicha, 12 Tammuz 5711
A. The Three Keys
This week’s Torah reading begins with a discussion of Pinchas and his reward for standing up for G-d’s honor (Source 1). The midrash says that Pinchas is Elijah. (Source 2)
Joshua issued an injunction against rebuilding Jericho and cursed would-be violators that their children would die (Source 3). Years later, Chiel rebuilt the city and indeed lost all his children (Source 4). During the mourning period, Ahab turned to Elijah and asked: How is it possible that Joshua’s warning came to pass, but the warnings of his teacher, Moses, about serving idols leading to G-d stopping the rain did not? (At the time, all of the Kingdom of Israel worshiped idols, yet it rained as usual.) In response, Elijah requested the key of rain from G-d and stopped the rain. A harsh famine descended upon the land.
After years of famine, G-d caused the circumstances to be that Elijah needed to ask for the key to revive the dead, and G-d agreed if Elijah would return the key to rain, thus ending the famine. (Source 5)
This idea that one person can’t hold all three keys also appears in the Talmud in tractate Taanit. (Source 6)
The Rebbe relates that he previously remarked that tzadikim can possess all three keys simultaneously. Many asked that this seemingly contradicts the Talmud’s statement that even Elijah wasn’t granted more than one!
B. The Best Connection
The Rebbe explains that the Talmud’s words that one cannot hold more than one key are said about someone acting as an agent, because even the most loyal agent is ultimately a different person. For example, an agent cannot put on tefillin on someone’s behalf. (Source 7)
Sometimes, G-d chooses to do a miracle, but through a tzadik, as His extended hand. In such a fashion, a tzadik can possess all three keys, because they are acting as G-d’s “extended hand.” This applies to tzadikim who are completely nullified before G-d and their entire being is G-d’s existence.
Accordingly, we can understand how some tzadikim may possess all three keys simultaneously. They act as an intermediary who passes on the Divine message, which sometimes comes in the form of a miracle.
In a remarkable letter, the Rebbe explains the phenomenon of supernatural miracles that raise a person to a higher spiritual plane. (Source 8)
C. Why was Elijah not Granted a Second Key?
Was Elijah not such a tzadik, asks the Rebbe?
The Rebbe explains that if Elijah was using the key for good, he would have been able to possess more than one key. But since Elijah was using it for a negative—stopping the rain—that could not be considered an extension of G-d’s hand, because “No evil descends from on High.” Acting as an agent, he could only have one key.
