“And Isaac sowed in that land, and he found on that year one hundred gates, and the Lord blessed him.”
We should ask why specifically “one hundred gates.” Why not one hundred and fifty, which is more important than one hundred? Also, if the verse wants to make a gross exaggeration, why does he find only one hundred gates? We should also ask about “And the Lord blessed him.” It should have said it before “and he found one hundred,” but from here it is implied that after he was awarded one hundred gates there is also room for the blessing of the Creator. But what was he missing? To have something for which to bless.
We should also ask about the verse, “he became very great.” RASHI interpreted that it was said, “The manure and mules of Isaac, and not the silver and gold of Abimelech.” Although there are many interpretations about this, in the literal, this remains perplexing.
It is presented in the “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” that besides repentance from love there is also repentance from fear, at which time he is called “intermediate.” He gives there an allegory about this, of two people who made a covenant of love between them because of the delight and pleasure that they bestowed upon each other.
There are two manners about this: 1) There was always love between them. 2) At first, they had grievances against each other, but after some time, love formed between them and they made a covenant.
By this he interprets that repentance from fear, when sins become for him as mistakes, means that only once they have repented is there love between them. But before this, he had sins. Hence, repentance from fear is called “intermediate,” since there are two times here: before he repented, they did not have love. After he repented, they do have love.
But when he is rewarded with repentance from love, when sins become for him as merits, it follows that the part of the time before the repentance was also corrected, when they all became merits, see there. At that time, he is called “complete righteous,” since he no longer has any sins.
This is the meaning of “And sowed … and he found one hundred gates,” meaning one hundred percent, since there aren’t more than one hundred percent. This means that he corrected even the time before he repented, meaning the time when he had sins, which is called “manure and waste.”
Baal HaSulam interpreted that Predot [mules] means Perud [separation], that during the concealment of the face, a person feels that he is separated from the Creator and must connect and adhere to the Creator, and this, too, was corrected in Isaac.
But when he makes repentance from fear, although after the repentance he has “silver and gold,” from the words Kisufim [ Kesef means longing] and Ze-Hav [Zahav means gold], that the Creator will give him love and fear because he already longs for the Creator, at that time the Creator is called Avi Melech [Abimelech, meaning “my father the king”]. However, this is a quality that is applied only after he has been rewarded with repentance.
Before he repents, there are still sins, called “manure and mules.” This is the meaning of their saying, “The manure and mules of Isaac are more important than the silver and gold of Abimelech,” since the manure and mules of Isaac, who is from repentance from love, are more important than repentance from fear, called the “silver and gold of Abimelech.”
According to what is explained in the Sulam [Ladder commentary on The Zohar], before we are rewarded with the light of Hochma, we are still not rewarded with absolution of iniquities. Isaac, who is the quality of Gevura, the quality of Hochma, called “one hundred gates,” all one hundred percent of his years were corrected. However, we still need a middle line, called “blessing,” which is regarded as Hassadim that clothe the Hochma, as explained in the Sulam.
For this reason, the Torah begins with the Bet of Beresheet [“In the beginning”], since Bet means Beracha [blessing], which is Hesed. Hence, after all this, “And the Lord blessed him,” meaning he was rewarded with inclusion in the middle line.