SEPTEMBER 3, 1999 VOL 2, ISSUE 49 22 ELUL 5759
Chabad of Northern Beverly Hills, 409 Foothill Road . Beverly Hills, CA 90210
Rabbi Yosef Shusterman 310/271-9063
PARSHAT
This week we read two Torah portion, Nitzavim and VaYeilech. The Torah portion of Nitzavim is always read on the Shabbat before Rosh Hashana. Indeed, its very first verse reveals its appropriateness: "You are standing this day, all of you, before the L-rd your G-d." "This day" refers to the Day of Judgment, Rosh Hashana. On Rosh Hashana every soul, great and small alike, stands before G-d, as it states, "Your heads, your tribes, your elders and your officers...your little ones, your wives...from the hewer of wood to the drawer of water."
Why do we stand before G-d? "So that you may enter the covenant of the L-rd your G-d." When all Jews stand before Him as a complete and unified entity, we become worthy of entering into His covenant on Rosh Hashana. A covenant is designed to preserve the feeling of love that exists between two people. They establish a covenant at a time when their love is strongest, so that it will never weaken. This bond connects them to each other and ensures that their love will last forever. So too is it with G-d's love for the Jewish people. His love for us is strongest on Rosh Hashana, as the previous month was devoted to removing our sins.
But how do we arouse G-d's desire to establish a covenant with us? By being united with one another. How are we to accomplish this, given the differences between individuals? This can be understood by the following analogy: The human body is composed of many different limbs and organs. Some are more important, like the head; others are simpler, like the foot. But the head, no matter how important, needs the feet in order to move. The body achieves perfection only when all its limbs act in harmony. In the same way, even the most important Jews ("your heads") require the simplest ones ("the drawer of water") in order to comprise a complete entity. And it is this unity that arouses G-d's desire to make a covenant with His people.
Our job is to achieve this unity between "head" and "foot." Every Jew must work on himself until he can recognize his fellow's unique qualities. It is beyond our capacity to judge a person's true worth. Even if one considers himself a "head" and the other fellow a "foot" (as it is human nature to inflate our own self-worth), the "head" still needs the "foot" in order to comprise a complete being. Let us concern ourselves with correcting our own flaws and not heed the perceived flaws of others. Doing so will ensure that there is no time to look at others' imperfections! In this manner we will achieve both self-perfection and perfection as a nation, and G-d will grant the entire Jewish people a good and sweet year.
(From: L'Chaim issue 434, Adapted from Likutei Sichot of the Rebbe, vol. 2)TESHUVAH
"You can't even tell where the damage was," the French weaver says, handing you the bill of $65 together with your jacket that had only a pea-sized hole but in a very noticeable spot. This highly skilled expert has magically rewoven the fabric and the garment literally looks "good as new." In these last days before Rosh Hashana, when we are considering the past and looking toward the future, we are presented with the concept of teshuva -- a return to our G-dly source and a return of our soul to its original, pristine state. Teshuva is about how a sullied soul can come clean. It's the directions as to how the tears and snags of the "garments" of the soul (as thoughts, speech and actions are termed by Chasidic thought) can be mended or even rewoven. Teshuva's effect is so great that something which has been "damaged" can be transformed into "good as new."
How can teshuva have any real effect? In his book, Teshuva, Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz answers this question: Concerning a sin committed in error (and one is held responsible for even such a sin as though he had committed it deliberately), the Baal Shem Tov explains that when a
person repents he places himself on another level of consciousness: "What I know now I was previously unconscious of." One rises to a higher level, in
which sins are seen as mistakes. That which was previously considered an action performed in full awareness is now viewed as having been performed in ignorance.
The very highest level of teshuva, though, is the one in which deliberate sins are transmuted into virtues, when every transgression one has committed is reckoned as though it were a mitzva. To reach this very high level of teshuva, the individual must reach a point in his life equivalent to the edge of time and world. He must change the very essence of himself so drastically that all the facts of his existence, all thoughts or actions, assume an entirely different meaning. He shifts into another field of being. One of the expressions used to depict this sort of teshuva is "to turn inside out like a seal," the seal consisting of an embossed emblem whose negative face is inscribed when pressed. This extreme transformation requires the most drastic action that the individual can undertake: teshuva which is done out of love of G-d and not out of fear.
All forms of teshuva, however diverse and complex, have a common core: the belief that human beings have it in their power to effect inward change. Many factors conspire to distance one from the Creator, education and habit among them; habit, in turn, has many causes. One cannot extricate oneself all at once from both the inward and outward consequences of one's actions. For this reason, one transgression creates a situation in which a second seems logical, natural, virtually inevitable. A way of life remote from religious observance not only makes such observance difficult, but also by its own inner logic makes it progressively more difficult. Yet, despite these behavioral laws, there remains teshuva: the ever-present possibility of changing one's life and the very direction of one's life. According to the Talmudic Sages, this possibility of altering reality after the fact, which is one of the mysteries of all being, was created before the world itself. Before the laws of nature came into existence, principle even more fundamental and more exalted was proclaimed: that change -- teshuva -- is possible. ( From: L'Chaim, issue #487, Elul 5757)
INSIGHTS ON THE REDEMPTION
The Beis HaMikdash encapsulates G-d's bond with the world; as it is written, "And they shall build Me a Sanctuary and I will dwell in their midst."This bond can be established in any of three ways. In the First Beis HaMikdash the bond was established by virtue of the first party, viz., G-d, by means of a downward flow of Divine beneficence initiated from above. In the time of the First Beis HaMikdash the people were required (for the most part) to be tzaddikim - and the task of a tzaddik is to draw Divinity down to this world. Yet since this downward flow of Divine beneficence was initiated from above, and barely dependent on mortal initiative, it was prone to be interrupted. In the Second Beis HaMikdash the bond was established by virtue of the second party, viz., by the refinement and uplifting [of the world. In the time of the Second Beis HaMikdash, since it followed after the destruction of the First Beis HaMikdash and after the rectification of this destruction, the people were at the level of penitents - and the function of teshuvah is refinement and uplifting. This enabled the Second Beis HaMikdash to last longer in this world than the First. Yet since the world is by definition finite, this Beis HaMikdash too was subject to the bounds of finitude. In the Third Beis HaMikdash the bond will be established from a third direction - by virtue of the combination of the infinite "above" and the finite "below", and the consequent formation of a third state of existence which embraces them both. And since this fusion of "above" and "below" is the function of the Third Beis HaMikdash, it will endure forever, for the finitude of the world will thereby become infinite. ( From: Exile to Redemption by Rabbi Alter Eliyahu Friedman, Likkutei Sichos, Vol. IX, p. 26)
The Alter Rebbe related: When I was in Mezritch I heard from my Rebbe, the Maggid, in the name of the Baal Shem Tov: The seventh month (Tishrei), first of the months of the year, is blessed by G-d Himself, on Shabbat Mevarchim - last shabbat in the month of Elul. With this power Israel blesses the other months eleven times a year.
(From Rebbe's Hayom Elul 25).
When a Jew has a good thought and undertakes a good resolution, G-d provides him with the opportunity to translate it into deed. - The Rebbe