Accessing the Blessings for the New Year
Unity and harmony in a relationship brings blessing. The path to unity is by making sure that our internal animal is tamed/kosher.
ACCESSING THE BLESSINGS FOR THE NEW
YEAR
Getting Marries in ELul
The Shabbat that precedes a new month is called Shabbos Mevarchim, the Sabbath that blesses the new month. This Shabbos we will be blessing the new month of Elul, the last month of the year and the month of preparation for the New Year. Since Elul will determine the nature of our lives for the forthcoming year, it is self-evident that the blessing generated during this Shabbat must be more pronounced than it is other times.
To understand the nature of the blessing of this Shabbat we should be guided both by the spiritual dimension of the month of Elul and the weekly Torah portion of R’ei.
Elul is known as an auspicious time for weddings. Perhaps the rationale for this is the fact that during Elul we evaluate our relationship with our Divine partner—G-d. Elul is the month when we reinforce our marital relationship with G-d and it is therefore an opportune time to get married, for indeed, each marriage is a reflection of the cosmic marriage between G-d and His people. Whenever that marriage is reinforced and strong it augurs well for all other marriages.
The Cosmic Power of a Wedding
One of the reasons for the incredible joy that accompanies a wedding is that a wedding is the ultimate expression of unity. According to the Zohar a marriage is a reunion of two half souls that were separated at birth.
In its very last paragraph, the Talmud states: “G-d could not find a vessel to contain blessing other than peace.” Thus, the greater the unity and state of peace that exists the more blessings can be accessed.
Accordingly, marriage, which is the ultimate form of peace and unity, can elicit the greatest amount of Divine blessings.
The magnitude of blessings that one elicits when one marries is reflected in the Sheva Berachot-Seven Blessings that are recited at the wedding ceremony and at festive meals for seven days after the wedding. Every time we reinforce the unity within marriage, we are capable of revealing those original blessings.
Elul’s Blessing Hinted in Parsha
To facilitate the bestowal of abundant blessing for the month of Elul—the month when our marriage with G-d is reinforced— we ought to consult this week’s Parsha, which begins: See, I place before you today a blessing and a curse.”
A Talmudic era Aramaic translation of the Torah known as Targum Yonatan does not translate the word “kelalah” here as he does in other places to mean curse, but rather “chilufa,” which means “the opposite,” or “the exchange.
The Rebbe explains that this conveys the message that G-d does not give us curses. Everything that comes from G-d is a blessing. We have freedom of choice and the potential to either do what it takes to be receptive to His blessings, or do nothing. When we do not create the “vessel” for His blessings, we are in effect, “exchanging” them for something else that is undesirable.
Resistance to G-d’s blessing—either in our personal marriage or in our cosmic marriage—occurs whenever we create artificial division and strife. When the spirit of unity and peace disappear, so do the blessings that accompany a marriage.
The Remedy for Strife and Discord
The question arises, how does one avoid strife and discord? After all we are in possession of an animal instinct that is selfish and seeks to undermine the unity and devotion that a marriage requires.
The answer to this question is also provided in this week’s parsha in the laws of Kashrus pertaining to the fitness of an animal for consumption.
Translating this law into the dynamics of a marriage, the Torah informs us that if we want our animal soul to be edible, i.e., an asset that will contribute to our spiritual health and therefore enhance our marriage, we must see to it that it “chew its cud.” We are never to jump to conclusions concerning the motives and actions of our spouse. We must always chew over the situation until we can make a fair judgment about the other.
This message echoed in the beginning of Ethics of the Fathers: “Be deliberate in judgment.” It is noteworthy that this message was the first ethical directive given by the Men of the Great Assembly to help Jews cope with life in the first years of the Second Temple immediately following the Babylonian exile, when our “marriage” with G-d was “on the rocks.”
But that is still not enough. To make an animal kosher it must have “split hooves.” This, the Rebbe explains, means, metaphorically, that we must not allow our contact with the material world to be complete and absolute. There must be a crack in that connection between our feet and the earthiness of the world.
Translated in practical terms, this means that in order for the marriage to succeed and carry within it all the natural blessings from G-d, we must never allow ourselves to become mired in the pursuit of purely materialistic goals. There must always be a crack in the connection we have with the earth i.e., the material world.
When we are not obsessed with materialism, we are less selfish and possessive, so that we do not rush to hasty conclusions about the other.
Moreover, the crack in the hoof allows a ray of light to shine through the “hooves.” This means that one permits the light of Torah and G-dliness to enter into their lives and marriage. This is the kind of marriage that is ideal and will endure.
The Wedding of the Future
In the text of the Sheva Berachos-Seven Blessings one finds a clear reference to the wedding celebration of the future Messianic Age. That future period will be the most joyous because it will be one in which G-d’s light will shine brightly and all of the divisions in our micro or macro marriages will be healed. We will then possess the means to access all of G-d’s blessings in their fullest measure.
By focusing on our relationship with G-d as a marriage and with the strengthening of our bond with G-d we will realize all of His infinite blessings in the fullest measure, the greatest of which is the coming of Moshiach, at which time young and all old will dance in the streets of Jerusalem.
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Rei by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
