Shavuot: "I'm Getting Married in the Morning..."

BS"D

This article is dedicated as a zechus for Refuah Sheleima for Esther Shaindel bas Shoshana.

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Based on/inspired by an article on Tikkun Leil Shavuos by Eli Landes, for Chabad.org.

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A moving festivity permeates the atmosphere, as we sway and pray through the evening's services.  At their conclusion, the men fold their talleisim, the women cluster in companionable conversation, and youth mill around, anticipating what's to come.  Siddurim are closed and laid aside with a kiss...  but no coats are donned, the lights remain bright and the room filled with people.  The heavy, familiar scent of coffee billows from numerous steaming cups, and a sweet selection of scrumptious cheesecake is mysteriously reduced to a few scant crumbs as the night wears on.  The crowd finally settles down, with the screech and creak of chairs scooting forward, and all lean in with rapt attention... except for the few stragglers nodding off in the face of the late hour.  Along with Seforim, wellsprings of Torah wisdom, hearts and minds are opened up.  Though the hours and rays of dawn inevitably edge nearer, the passage of time seems suspended in the midst of intense preparation for the renewal and revelation to soon take place.

This is Tikkun Leil Shavuos.

Though the meaning of this fascinating custom can't truly be conveyed adequately in a few English words, it is practically understood as the "Rectification of Shavuos Night."

Shavuos is the anniversary of Matan Torah (the Giving of the Torah).  Our wedding with Hashem.  The day we became His People.  The day the gaping chasm between Heaven and Earth was spanned.  It's a significant - momentous! - day, indeed.

How high and spiritually elevated do we feel after a sleepless night?  How energetic or attractive do we appear when we're weary, tousled and dazed?  For the revival of the most important day in the history of our Nation, why on earth do we aspire to run on empty, exchanging a revitalizing period of slumber for an all-night study session?!  Even seasoned students recognize the diminishment of productivity and success their day is met with, after crunching for assignments and tests throughout the night!

Why on earth, indeed?  Perhaps it isn't earthly at all, but rather beyond earth.  Way beyond; Divine.  What perspective and energy other than Heavenly could promote such an atypical demonstration?

Throughout the ages and amidst the globe, Kabbalistic masters and Halachic authorities alike preserved a precious custom - and "Minhag Yisroel Torah Hee (the custom of Israel is Torah)" - to keep burning the light of Torah on Shavuos night, in focused learning until daybreak.  The Magen Avraham, a renowned posek of the 17th-century, was the first to offer the following Midrashic account as the basis for this tradition:

The night before the giving of the Torah, the entire Jewish People - the 'Bride' - laid down to sleep.  A bit of rest before the arrival of the fantastical occasion could only be harmless, perhaps even beneficial!  Tragically though in the morning, at the wedding canopy that was Har Sinai, the Supernal Groom - G-d Himself - lamented in anxious wait: The 'Bride' was absent, still sleeping peacefully!  Of course the extraordinary ceremony couldn't carry on under such circumstances, so the Ro'eh Neeman, the Faithful Shepherd, Moshe Rabbeinu, set out to rouse Bnei Yisroel.

To correct the sin of our ancestors' copious shut-eye heading into the day that marked the birth of our Nation, we stay up the whole night (or at the very least, until Chatzos [Halachic midnight] - find your locale and respective Zmanim [Halachic times] here!) learning Torah in preparation for the big day.

Unless you're a deeply holy individual of very lofty caliber who can remain awake against all the odds - or perhaps just an insomniac - consumption of caffeine (heavier for some than others) is a requisite.  If coffee (caffeinated or not) wreaks havoc on your system, try chocolate, or something sugary.  It works.  I think.  But that aside...

For most people, when one anticipates a serious or exciting event to come soon, sleep - at least solid sleep - is elusive.  Based on this, we could suggest the converse is also true.  Bnei Yisroel fell asleep, slept, and overslept, nearly missing their wedding!  Doesn't this seem to imply that the enthusiasm of the Jewish People was lacking - even nisht (not) - to receive the Torah?!

We're missing something.  The puzzle pieces don't merge.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe of righteous memory steps in with groundbreaking insight to clear the difficulty.

The nation slogged through the forty-ninth level of spiritual impurity; and, upon their redemption from their oppressors, committed to a forty-nine day journey of growth and transformation.  They strove and toiled to reverse and refine a negative trait each day to be positive and sanctified, so that they could receive the Divine gift of Torah wholeheartedly as Hashem's servants.  For a nation of such indomitable spirit, who invested everything they had to clear away the pollution and grime to reveal the single pristine soul inside, though a lengthy, rigorous period indeed... it simply defies all sense that they couldn't have been eager and enthralled to receive  the Torah.

Kabbalah teaches us that during our time awake, the soul is bound to the body, simply vitalizing us and inspiring our expression, in thought and speech, emotion and deed.  On the other hand (and there's always another hand), when we surrender to sleep, our souls depart and ascend on High, learning Torah with the angels, and basking in their Creator's Light.  Just before we awaken each day, it returns to us.  (For this miracle, we ring out in grateful song through the morning blessing of Modeh Ani: "Modeh Ani Lefancha... Shehechezarta Bi Nishmati... - I give thanks before You... for You have returned within me my soul.")

The Jewish People had worked on and elevated themselves to the zenith of Kedusha (holiness).  Still, they undeniably remained flesh-and-blood beings.  Their best, they felt, was unsatisfactory.  How could they isolate themselves from the sensuality of this corporeal world in a final effort to make themselves "truly spiritual," before being bound to the Torah, G-d's innermost will and wisdom?  Their solution?  Sleep: The experience of the soul severing from the body to ascend higher and higher in a peak of spiritual immersion and renewal and epiphany.

This is mind-boggling.  How could this altruism be erroneous?  How deep was the wound gouged, that we are still aspiring to make amends over three millennium later along our timeline?

Their offense was not exactly a "sin" and iniquity - an "avon" in Hebrew.  Rather, their blunder was a "cheit" - a misjudgment.  Their intentions were good, but 'off-target.' (Inspired by R' Manis Friedman in a class he gave, on understanding the nature of Adam and Eve's 'sin' - the Cheit Eitz Hada'as.)  We can ask, "Where exactly did the Jewish People go wrong?"  It's serious indeed.

They missed the entire point of Torah and its bestowal.

By rejecting rather than embracing the world's materiality, they negated the purpose of Torah, a Heavenly 'blueprint' to sanctify the physical world!  It's not just coincidence that the majority of the 613 Mitzvot are implemented in the realm of physical action and deed.  If the soul and spirituality were involved exclusively, then what why did G-d bother entrusting the Torah to earthly mortals?  I am fond of  quoting a dialogue between a wise elder Rav in the language of the Talmud with R' Aaron Moss as a young man: "G-d's commandments weren't given to angels."  Of the Torah it is said:

"It is not in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will climb to heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and let us hear it so that we may obey it?” No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it. (Devarim 12:14)

The Torah is a very practical guide for us: it orchestrates our conquest of our animalistic lusts; our erection of gedarim (fences) to preserve order and integrity; our role as "ohr l'umim - a light to the nations," ambassadors of morality and truth in the midst of a chaotic world, where G-dliness is more concealed than ever; and our mission to reveal the holiness within our mundane existence, melding the two worlds.  However, the Torah's down-to-earth approach doesn't contradict its Divine Origin in the least.

On Shavuot, the "laws of nature" were broken: Through Torah, heaven and earth, ruchniyus and gashmiyus, G-d and people (so to speak), could be wed.  When the two polar opposites are joined in a cosmic marriage, the Ultimate Truth is revealed:  The world runs on Torah.  The world is Torah.  Torah is Hashem's wisdom and will - Him "thinking!"  And Hashem and His thoughts are One.

To quote R' Manis Friedman, we "work with the facts" - we were placed in this corporeal world to refine and elevate it - "but aim for the Truth" - to reveal the G-dliness it cloaks, and return all our world to its original Oneness, in a  revealed and palpable way.  In this world, we bind our willpower to His (and will is even loftier than wisdom, motivating us to do things that don't even seem logical to our limited minds) in the effort to "spiritualize" the physical world and make it a Dirah Betachtonim, a Dwelling Place in the Lower Realms.

Therefore, we forsake the pure spiritual retreat slumber brings , just one this one night - as our forbears mistakenly opted for - and get our hands into the gritty work with the Gashmiyus, toiling with heart, mind, hands and soul to make it shine an reveal its essence.

So staying up at all hours on this occasion, celebrating and studying the Torah?  Not so bizarre after all... In fact, it's one of the greatest recognitions and revelations of what Torah purely is.

Pass me a slice of cheesecake; we've got a long stretch ahead of us.  Let's learn!

Parshat Sheilach: "Don't Make Me Do It!"

BH

Hello everyone, and Good Erev Shabbos!
These divrei Torah are dedicated as a zechus for a Refuah Shelemah for Chana bas Mushka.

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Last week, I had the good fortune of attending a Sheva Brachos celebration for the first time.  Joy and a strong feeling of community abounded, as we celebrated the marriage of one of the daughters of our shluchim, to her chosson.  The Rabbi, Rebbitzen, and their new son-in-law all spoke beautifully, imparting powerful divrei Torah, inspirational stories, and blessings.  I attribute the profound Chiddush (novel Torah insight) that will be the topic of our discussion today, to Rabbi Yoel Eidelman-- the chosson himself!  Although I am unable to repeat his message word-for-word, I will do my best to transmit his incredible teaching.

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We can only reflect in shock, when recounting the Bnei Yisroel's upheaval of hysteria, at receiving the spies' report on Eretz Cannan, upon their return to their people in the desert.  Ten of the twelve men (with the exception of Yehoshua and Caleiv) brought back negative and fearful depictions of a militant city, inhabited by aggressive and intimidating giants.  Although Yehoshua and Caleiv countered their colleagues' miserable reports with truth, positive reflections, and encouragement to the people, the ten other men succeeded in creating an uprising, that ultimately led to another forty years of traversing the Midbar (Wilderness).

But what really triggered the Bnei Yisroel's anxious reaction, preventing them from entering the Holy Land?   The Torah echoes G-d's descriptions of Eretz Canaan, which would not too far in the future become Eretz Yisrael, one of my favorites being "a land zavach chalav ud'vash - flowing with milk and honey".  This was the land Hashem vowed to Avraham Avinu, to give to his offspring.  G-d promised to guide the Bnei Yisroel to success in driving out the wicked natives and their avodah-zara, and establishing their home in safety and security, light and holiness.  With G-d on their side, to achieve this eternal goal, what was there to worry about?

It's not that they didn't believe in G-d...  But to what extent did they spurn their bitachon, their trust, that G-d would endow them with the power to face the challenge they feared the most?

First, let us try to understand what the nightmarish challenge was that they were unready to face, and what they were pained at parting from...

In the Midbar, despite the complaints and rebellious episodes listed in the Torah, we are taught that the Bnei Yisroel had a lot to be grateful for on their journey:  They were constantly led by a Divine pillar of fire or cloud, every chapter of the journey professionally guided-- they would never become lost, and knew when was the appropriate time to set up or break camp, and journey on.  The nation was constantly enrobed by the An'nai Kavod, the Clouds of Glory, which shielded them from scorpion and snake, sandstorm and highwayman.  They were always accompanied by the miraculous Well, their constant source of water.  The Manna, sometimes referred to as "bread of the melachim (angels)" fell daily, could taste like anything one desired it to (according to the Midrash), and provided both physical and spiritual nourishment.  They could constantly sit and learn Torah, uninterruptedly absorbing the Divine.  Nothing was "just physical", for even the manna, their staple food, sustained their souls, and served as nourishment on a much greater plane.

Life in the Midbar was made of miracles, and they could spend all their time immersed in learning Torah and Deveikus (connecting to Hashem,) if they so wished.  This was Paradise.  Eretz Canaan, in sharp contrast, hosted a culture replete with physicality.  It was a spiritual abyss, and the Bnei Yisroel had a deep-seated concern, that upon stepping out from their Divine shelter in the Wilderness and breaking into the Promised Land, they would be adversely influenced by the intense materialism of their new home and neighbors.  They would lose all last vestiges of a higher purpose, soulfulness, and the Divinity of their everyday life that had been so easy to grasp.  The spies declared "The country that we traversed and scouted is one that ochelet yoshevet, devours it settlers..."  They were terrified of being consumed by, and forever lost, to their lowly environment!

This fear reflects that of the neshama's, the soul's, before it is born into this world, and breathed into a new life.  The neshama is content dwelling in its higher, eternal realm, when it is close to its Source, Hashem, surrounded only by kedusha, purity, and Oneness.  But the time for it to be sent down to our world is inevitable.  An angel assigned to guide it beckons it, but it hesitates.  This world, our world, is so material, not to mention hostile at times...  It is a dark and strange pit, that the G-dly soul is foreign to, and seeks to have nothing to do with.  But G-d urges the Neshama (who's heard of Reb Abie Rotenberg's song titled Neshome'le, depicting this awe-inspiring scenario?), to follow its path down to this dark place.  "This is where your mission lies," explains Hashem to the distressed soul, which wants to connect only to Him.  "Although you wish to remain only in the most divine places, down there in the world is where you are meant to shine.  You are not complete until you achieve your goals during your existence in that dark realm, and you are meant to light it up.  You cannot do that while staying here, you must now go..."

This was the plight of the Dor haMidbar (Generation of the Wilderness) when they were practically upon the gates of their Promised Land.  It anguished them to leave their sublime and elevated 'mobile home'.  To take the risk of losing it all, to knock on the doors of, and build a life in, a land that contrasted so greatly with what they were privileged to experience now?  Impossible!

But this pained G-d too.  His Children didn't believe they could find holiness, in the Aretz haKadosh itself?  They didn't trust in His vows?  But most significant of all, they argued and protested, similar to the unborn neshama, but, convinced that they would lose all their spirituality, they refused their mission!  The mission to bring light and holiness into the presently dark land, by means of their Torah and mitzvos, to actualize the promise to Avraham of so many years before, to enter the country in which they could fulfill Hashem's will in the most ideal way.  They could've made it happen right then and there...  But they spurned the opportunity and challenge that the undertaking posed.

Because they demonstrated to G-d that they were unprepared to make it over the last hump of the journey, and perhaps didn't truly understand the focal point of their duty in Eretz Cannan/Yisroel, Hashem turned them away, to continue traveling through the desert, and mull over their task.  We have been taught, that our generation is a gilgul (reincarnation) of the souls of the Dor haMidbar.  Why is this so profound?  Contemplating this, we realize that we have the potential to make tikkun for (rectify) the misdeed (and misunderstanding) of our ancestors!  We can heal the pain it caused, by repeating history, but making the right choices ourselves instead.  In this light, we can change history.  With this, we'll hasten the arrival of Moshiach, bimhayra beyamainu mamesh!  We can shatter the mentality that they couldn't get past, that we must abstain from throwing ourselves into our missions because we'll be ruined for it.  We were placed in this world to make it a better place;  our soul was born into us, to steer us to actualize this potential.

With G-d's help, and our trust in Him, we will never shy away from the doors of opportunity He's opened so graciously to us.  We've all broken out of our own 'Egypt's', our bonds of restriction from doing all we can, bonds of worry and self-doubt...  We're all ready to enter our own 'Israels'.  Still, there may be an obstacle or evil or darkness ahead, but we will give it all we got, we'll achieve our purpose, and enter the joy of Geulah, may it be speedily in our days.

It's Up To US To Restore The Bait Hamikdash!

BH

Hello everyone!  Today, many of us fasted, and all of us experienced the mixed emotions of the day.  Today was Tzom Asarah b’Teves/The Fast of the Tenth of (the Hebrew month of) Teves.  It’s a day of sorrow, but also of spirituality, of teshuva, of dreams and potential.. A day to discover our true selves, and to work on bringing Moshiach.

On this day, many, many years ago, the Babylonian king Nevuchnetzar and his army, surrounded Yerushalayim, and began their siege.. which, terribly, tragically, led to one of the worst events in Jewish history:  The destruction of the first Bait Hamikdash, King Shlomo’s glorious House for Hashem, on the ninth of Av.  (On this same day, years later, the Second Bait Hamikdash was also destroyed.)   Hashem was patient with the Jews– as the Babylonian army surrounded the city, broke down its walls, and advanced towards its heart, Hashem detained them, and slowed down their march, in order to give His children time to do teshuvah, and mend their ways.  They had assimilated among the idol-worshipping natives and neighbors, and their level of kedusha was deteriorating.  They did not improve themselves, and Hashem realized that, in this state, they couldn’t care for and run their cherished Bait Hamikdash.  The fast today is a time, as a great Rav once explained, ‘not for sorrow, but to improve ourselves, and make ourselves meritorious of Geulah’.   I actually wrote this dvar Torah for the Fast of Tisha b’Av, but I decided to post it today, since it is relevant to today’s commemorated tragedy..:

“When we learn about the halachos of  bringing korbanos and bikkurim to the Bait Hamikdash, Hashem considers our humble study of the concept tantamount to us doing the actual mitzvah!

I made a comparison of a similar type on erev Tisha b’Av, as follows:

The catalyst for the first Churban (Destruction), was the Jews’ brazen displays of murder, avodah-zara, and immorality.
Here and today, we don’t kill each other.
We don’t bow before animals, celestial bodies, or figures of stone and wood.
And although mistakes are sometimes made between people, we aren’t guilty of immorality.Or are we as innocent and righteous as we think?

We are inevitably approaching the coming of Moshiach.  But, by these 3 sins, are we inadvertently slowing down his coming?

To answer this, we must first relate the 3, to occurrences in our daily lives:  Tradition teaches us, that embarrassing someone, especially in public, is equal to killing them.
According to Chazal (the Sages),  when you become angry, you are worshipping an idol– yourself!
Sometimes we forget the holiness of each gender, and do something that dims that holiness.

How can we counter these 3 sins, and free ourselves from their grip so we can usher in Redemption?

Be careful with your words, so as not to embarrass someone.  Each person is precious, as is their dignity.
Even though it is difficult, try to control your anger.  You’ll feel much better, when you aren’t burdened by the extra weight it brings you.
Try and commit yourself to another act of tzniyus, increasing the holiness bayn adam l’chavero, between person and their fellow.

 The second Bait Hamikdash’s destruction was caused by sinat chinam, baseless hatred, amongst the Jews.  How can we possibly rectify that major shortcoming?  Simple.  Love your fellow Jews, for who they are.  They are part of you, one with you, with the same unifying goal– Hashem.

Hashem gave us the power to change the future by our actions.  But how can we do that, if we allow history to repeat itself?  May Hashem witness our effort, hear our tefillos, and may He send us Moshiach, speedily in our day.”

Sometime, hopefully very soon, we will merit the Ultimate Light, we will discover the truths in and around us.. and the days of fasting and sorrow, will be transformed into feasting and joy!

Moshiach now!!!

(This article was posted on my original blog, on Jan. 8, 2017)