Weekly Dvar Torah: Dreams and Aspirations Before Rosh Hashanah!
I begin with blessings and good news: Mazal Tov to our daughter Chaya Mushka and her husband, Rabbi Yaacov Raskin, the Rebbe’s Shluchim in Ellenville, NY, on the birth of their daughter, who was named Bracha!
May she indeed bring Bracha—blessings—to all of us for a Happy and Sweet New Year, materially and spiritually. And may she be a source of endless Chassidishe Nachas to her parents and to us, her grandparents, for many happy and healthy years to come.
Dreams and Aspirations Before Rosh Hashanah!
On the final Shabbos before Rosh Hashanah, we read:
“Atem Nitzavim Hayom Kulchem Lifnei Hashem Elokeichem”—“You are standing today, the day of Rosh Hashana, all of you, before Hashem your G-d.”
The Torah lists ten categories of Jews, from the heads and leaders down to “your woodchopper and your water-carrier.” From the highest to the simplest, Hashem says: Kulchem. All of you are standing before Me.
A person might approach the Day of Judgment apprehensively. I know who I am. I am certainly not at the top of that list. Perhaps I don’t stand much of a chance.
Hashem answers: Before the judgment even begins, I gather all ten categories together and bring you into a covenant with Me.
Why a covenant?
When close friends want to establish that their friendship will survive through thick and thin, they make a covenant. Something is divided into two pieces and they pass between them, symbolically declaring: these may appear to be two separate pieces, but essentially they are one.
A covenant says that our relationship runs deeper than circumstances.
That is what Hashem tells us before Rosh Hashanah: From the heads of your tribes down to the water-carrier, you are Mine. We are bound together.
There is something fascinating about that final category.
The Hayom Yom records that the Alter Rebbe explained Choteiv Eitzecha—“your woodchopper”—on a deeper level. The word Eitz, wood, can also allude to Eitza, counsel. We must chop away at “the many thoughts and counsels in the heart of man”—all those (materialistic) competing thoughts and desires that fill our hearts.
And Sho’eiv Meimecha—“your water-carrier.” Water causes things to grow. We need to drain away the “water” that causes our worldly pleasures and desires to grow.
Suddenly, the woodchopper and water-carrier have given us an assignment for Rosh Hashanah.
Hashem tells us: All of you are standing before Me. Everyone belongs. Now ask yourself: What have I been watering? What do I want to grow in the coming year?
Which brings us to a simple New Year’s resolution:
Get spiritual!
We all have desires, passions and pleasures. The question is not whether we seek pleasure, but where we seek it and what we do with it.
We don’t have to eliminate our capacity for desire. We have to teach it what to desire.
Enjoy good food—but eat to be healthy and to honor Shabbos and Yom Tov with a beautiful meal.
Appreciate beauty—but use beauty to beautify a Mitzvah, a Torah, a Shul and a Jewish home.
Enjoy music—but discover the music of the Neshama. A Niggun allows the soul to say what words cannot express.
Enjoy helping others—but recognize that it is not only about feeling good. You are serving Hashem by bringing kindness into His world.
Love intellectual study? Fill your mind with Torah, Hashem’s wisdom.
Take our passions and point them upward. Love our families. Love another Jew. Love Hashem.
Getting spiritual does not mean abandoning the physical world. It means allowing the Neshama to lead the body, rather than allowing the body to drag the Neshama behind it.
And perhaps this is exactly what the past seven weeks have been preparing us for.
Since Tisha B’Av, an extraordinary dialogue has been taking place between Hashem and the Jewish people.
Hashem begins: “Nachamu, Nachamu Ami”—Comfort, comfort My people.
But the Jewish people respond: “Hashem has forsaken me; Hashem has forgotten me.”
Comfort from a messenger is not enough.
You are our Father. How can the prince be exiled from his father’s palace and be satisfied with a letter saying that his father loves him? We don’t want to hear from a messenger how much You love us. We want You.
The prophet returns to Hashem: the Jewish people have not been comforted.
And Hashem accepts the complaint:
“Anochi, Anochi Hu Menachemchem.”
I, yes I, am the One Who comforts you.
Then the tone changes. Hashem tells us: You felt barren and alone? Rejoice. Your children are coming home. Expand your borders.
Then comes: “Kumi Ori Ki Va Oreich”—Arise and shine, for your light has come, and the glory of Hashem shines upon you.
Until finally we arrive at the seventh Haftorah.
And now we answer:
“Sos Asis BaHashem, Tagel Nafshi B’Elokai.”
“I will rejoice intensely in Hashem; my soul will exult in my G-d.”
Seven weeks ago we were sitting on the floor mourning a destroyed Beis Hamikdash and crying over our distance from Hashem.
Now we are singing.
What changed?
We rediscovered the relationship that was there all along.
Despite exile, darkness and apparent abandonment, the Jewish Neshama remains one with Hashem. Nothing can sever that connection. Sometimes it becomes covered, but the oneness remains. We simply have to dust it off and uncover it.
And now listen again to the opening words of the Parsha:
“Atem Nitzavim Hayom Kulchem Lifnei Hashem Elokeichem.”
Here we are.
Standing before Hashem.
All ten categories. Every Jew. Nobody left behind.
What a way to enter Rosh Hashanah.
So our resolution for 5787 should not only be to do a little more, give a little more, or learn a little more—important as all of those certainly are.
We should resolve to become more spiritual.
The Rebbe strongly encouraged people to memorize the passage from Tanya:
“V’hinei Hashem Nitzav Alav, Umelo Kol Ha’aretz Kevodo…”
Hashem Himself stands over us. The entire world is filled with His glory. He looks upon us to see whether we are serving Him as we should.
There is that word again:
Nitzav.
We are Nitzavim (standing) before Hashem, and Hashem is Nitzav (stands) over us.
Imagine living with that awareness. Wherever I go, Hashem is there. Whatever I am doing, I am living in His presence.
The ordinary business of life will continue. We will eat, work, sleep, shop and pay the bills.
But it doesn’t have to be an ordinary life.
Chop away some of the noise. Stop watering what doesn’t deserve to grow. Start nurturing what does.
For seven weeks we have been asking Hashem to come close. This Shabbos He tells us: You are all standing before Me.
And on Rosh Hashanah we ask:
“Meloch Al Kol Ha’Olam Kulo Bichvodecha.”
Reign over the entire world in Your glory.
And reign over me.
After seven weeks of dialogue, the children are coming home.
Let us come home not merely to begin another year, but to begin a higher one.
Get spiritual!
Have an uplifting Shabbos and a Sweet, Happy and Spiritual New Year,
Gut Shabbos
Rabbi Yosef Katzman