by Rabbi E. Tauger

Adar

A Month of Happiness

Our Sages teach: "When Adar enters, we increase our happiness." This concept shares a connection to Shabbos, for our Sages describe the Shabbos as "a day of rejoicing." For this reason, on the Shabbos on which the month of Adar is being blessed, Jews around the entire world are coordinating their efforts to heighten Shabbos observance and in recognition of those efforts, we are focusing our attention on that theme.
The happiness, peace, and harmony inspired by the Shabbos is a natural fact. As the above story implies, when the Shabbos begins, the heavens change. That said, man must develop sensitivity to it. Otherwise, it's like two people standing back to back. They can be very close. But from an operational perspective, they are worlds away. They will never see each other.
How do we turn faces one to each other? How do we develop sensitivity to the message of the Shabbos? Through prayer. For particularly on Shabbos, the purpose of prayer is to internalize our spiritual reality, to develop a connection with the G-dliness within ourselves and the world at large.
The four prayer services recited on Shabbos possess historical significance. There is a different intermediate blessing for each of the services. Each of these blessings highlights one of the epochs in the spiritual history of our nation when the Shabbos was uniquely featured.
Let us focus on these prayer services one by one: The intermediate blessing of the Maariv (evening) service focuses on the Shabbos of creation. Thus it includes the passage Vayichulu that relates the Biblical narrative of the first Sabbath the world and mankind experienced. Now, Shabbos did not come after creation. It represents the consummation and the culmination of the creation. As our Sages said: "The world was lacking Shabbos…. What was created after He rested? Tranquility, satisfaction, serenity, and calm."
What are these qualities "tranquility, satisfaction, serenity, and calm?" Not just another thing. For G-d did not bring any other "things" into being on Shabbos. These qualities aren't material entities. Instead, they represent the ability to sense the spiritual behind the material. You're able to see an entity for more than it is, to appreciate its spiritual content.
This is the key to "tranquility, satisfaction, serenity, and calm". To step above the immediacies of your situation and appreciate the inner truth. To look at a person or at an event and sense the G-dly message which he, she, or it communicates. This is what G-d endowed the world with on Shabbos, the ability to appreciate the spiritual content of each entity, the truth that lies at its core. This is what distinguishes Shabbos and makes Shabbos a day of rest.
For rest is not merely relaxation, the tension release that comes from a good game of tennis or golf. Rest is something that happens within the soul, a shift of understanding that revitalizes and rejuvenates us. We begin to see the world as it really is. We gain understanding and that understanding lifts up the feelings within our hearts.
This approach leads to an all-encompassing appreciation of oneness. For from the standpoint of the G-dliness invested in the creation, the entire world is at one with Him. It's like one body. Although the body has different limbs and organs, the soul, the neshamah, establishes a connection between all of them, enabling the body to feel as a single, organic whole.
The physical dimensions of our existence create separation. But on Shabbos, as we focus on the neshamah, the spiritual vitality that pervades existence, the oneness between people - and indeed the oneness that exists throughout creation as a whole -rises to the surface.
This is Friday night, step one. But the Shabbos does not end on this level of awareness. On the contrary, there is a continued process of growth and development. Thus, the prayers of the Shabbos day introduce us to a deeper bond with G-d and a greater level of unity.
The Shabbos morning prayers commemorate the Shabbos of the Giving of the Torah, as our Sages declare: "All agree the Torah was given on Shabbos."
Although the Shabbos of creation reflects the G-dliness invested in nature, we are left with nature. It is G-d as He contracts Himself and creates a framework outside of Himself. True, He invests Himself in that framework, but it is not G-d as He is for Himself. It is G-d as He relates to man.
Where do we find G-d as He is for Himself? In the Torah. As our Sages said, Anochi, the first word of the Ten Commandments, is an acronym for the Aramaic phrase Ana nafshi kesavis yehavis, "I wrote down and gave over My soul." When you connect to the Torah you connect to G-d's soul.
Our Sages related the concept as follows: David said: "The Holy One, blessed be He, decreed, 'The heavens are the heavens of G-d, and the earth He gave to men....' Nevertheless, when He desired to give the Torah, He nullified that original decree and said, 'The lower realms shall ascend to the higher realms and the higher realms shall descend to the lower.'" In other words: According to the original pattern of crea
tion, the material and the spiritual were confined to separate realms of existence, two discrete planes that never converge. The ultimate Divine intent, however, was to fuse the two, so that the underlying G-dliness would surface within our material world. This is the essence of the Giving of the Torah at Sinai. And as mentioned, this took place on Shabbos, because Shabbos is a day of oneness, the day when the spiritual and the physical are fused.
The Musaf service - also recited Shabbos morning - reflects a deeper level of connection to G-d and a more encompassing degree of oneness.
What is the focus of the Musaf prayers? The sacrificial service carried out in the Temple on Shabbos.
To explain: We spoke of Shabbos as fusing together the physical and spiritual. Although this is true, this is not outwardly seen. Instead, our activities remain physical. Indeed, sometimes, the physical dimension of these activities can become dominant.
For example, we explained that on Shabbat we are also taking pleasure in physical food. And then, partaking of that physical food becomes a mitzvah, united with G-d. Nevertheless, we don't feel that spirituality. On the contrary, we sense the physical and indeed, we can get carried away with the physical.
In the Temple, by contrast, such a split did not exist. The sacrificial service was entirely spiritual. Although there were physical entities offered on the altar, every aspect of the sacrificial worship was spiritual in nature.
Despite the peaks of the Musaf service, the Minchah, afternoon service, reflects an even higher level. It is a foretaste of the era of Redemption, and more specifically, the era of the Resurrection, "the day which is all Shabbos and rest for eternity."
The era of Mashiach and the resurrection represents an even higher rung than the Temple. In the Temple, man truly stepped out of the mortal realm. But that is precisely the point. The Temple service was restricted only to the specific activities involved in bringing the sacrifices prescribed. Man couldn't make up new ones on his own. When he stepped into G-d's realm and offered the sacrifices, he was at one with Him, but in his own mortal realm, he was apart from G-d.
For in present gestalt, the world as it exists in its own framework is indeed separate from G-d. Therefore there is no way that there can be complete unity. All the levels of oneness we described are just phases leading to "the era that is all Shabbos and rest," the era of Mashiach and the resurrection. For it is only then that the unity between the spiritual and the material will be realized in a complete sense.
The Ramban writes that each millennia of the world's existence parallels the corresponding day of creation. Shabbos thus represents the seventh millennia, "the era that is all Shabbos and rest." It is thus a microcosm of the world to come, a taste within our present day reality of what the world will be like then.
What will the world be like in the era of the Redemption? Maimonides concludes his description of that era by quoting Isaiah's prophecy: "The world will be filled with knowledge of G-d as the water fills up the ocean bed." The intent of the analogy is that the ocean contains a vast host of living beings. However, the waters cover them to the point that their individual existence is no longer perceived. All you see is water. Similarly, in the Messianic age, the world will continue to exist. However, every element of its existence will be permeated by the knowledge of G-d. The physical and spiritual will not be seen as discrete planes, but integral parts of one totality. In the era of Mashiach, the dichotomy between the material and the spiritual will be resolved completely.
Now, we're in the year 5762. According to the conception of a day as a thousand years, at the present time, it's Friday afternoon, past midday. Now at such a time, in Jewish homes, the house begins to look a little Shabbosdik. You can feel Shabbos in the air. Similarly, in our time, G-d's home, the world, is beginning to anticipate the era of the Redemption. Indeed, we can see certain dynamics of the redemption already at work in our lives at present.

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Telling Tales

As it was explained, the month of Adar shares a connection with the observance of the Shabbos. In that context, we are sharing the following story:
Once when he was a little boy, the future sage, R. Yisrael of Ruzhin, questioned his teacher over and over again concerning a Talmudic passage. The teacher did not understand, the child was unusually bright; this passage was not that difficult. Why then could he not understand? And so the teacher explained again: "A man was traveling in the desert and he had lost his sense of time and did not know which day of the week it was. How should he observe the Shabbos?
"I don't understand," the child protested again. "What is the man's problem? Why can't he see when the Shabbos begins?"
The teacher explained again. The man had been traveling in the desert for a long time. He had lost track of the days of the week so he did not know whether it was Friday afternoon or not.
But the child couldn't understand. "How could he not know when the Shabbos begins? Why didn't he just turn his eyes upward? Then he would see heavens changing?"
Even as a child, R. Yisrael saw the Shabbos as it really is. It is not just a day which we observe by certain rituals and restrictions. It is a day when the spiritual climate of the world changes and accordingly, we modify our conduct to adapt to these different spiritual realities.

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Torah readings of the month

Parshas Terumah

TThis week's Torah reading communicates the command to build a Sanctuary. G-d told the Jewish people: "Make Me a Sanctuary and I will dwell within…." The Sanctuary, and later the Temple in Jerusalem, was "the place which G-d... chose... to place His name there." This was His home on earth, as it were. Just like a person can relax and express himself without inhibitions in his own home, so too, the Temple was-and will be-the place where G-dliness was revealed without restrictions.
In every person's individual world, his soul rests in his mind, and that makes his entire body human. Similarly, in the world at large, G-d's presence rested in the Temple, and that made it possible for us to appreciate G-dliness in every element of existence. The existence of the Temple makes the entire world His home.
Our Rabbis teach us that the Hebrew word for "within" BETOCH, literally means "within them," not "within it." Building a Sanctuary for G-d did not mean merely erecting a structure where His presence would be manifest. Instead, the intent was that every single person would become "a sanctuary in microcosm," for G-d would dwell "within them," within each and every individual.

Parshas Titzaveh

This is the only Torah reading between the birth of Moses and the Book of Deuteronomy where Moses' name is not mentioned. Our Rabbis note the fact and explain: After G-d told Moses that He would destroy the Jewish people and build a new nation from Moses' descendants, Moses replied: "If You do, wipe me out from Your book." And so, since every thing a Torah sage says has an effect, even though G-d did not wipe out the people, there is one Torah reading where Moses' name is wiped out and ignored.
Nevertheless, that very Torah reading begins: "And you will command the Jewish people." And the word used for command, Titzaveh, also has the implication "connect," as in the word, tzavta. In the Torah reading where Moses' name is ignored, his connection to the Jewish people is highlighted.

Parshas Ki Sissa

The conclusion of this week's Torah reading mentions a very unique occurrence. It relates that after Moshe descended from Mount Sinai with the second tablets, his face glowed with light. By describing this event, the Torah points to the ultimate elevation to be experienced by the Jewish people.
For G-d did not want spirituality and humanity to be two skew lines. Instead, they should be fused together to the point that flesh glows with spiritual light. On Mount Sinai, Moshe became totally identified and unified with the Torah. As a result, his physical skin shined with the Torah's radiance.

Parshas VaYakhel

This Torah reading begins with the command to observe the Shabbos and proceeds to describe how the Jews fulfilled the command to construct the Sanctuary.
The two concepts share a point of connection. Indeed, we find that the categories of labor forbidden on Shabbos are those that were used to construct the Sanctuary. To explain: the Hebrew term used most frequently to refer to work is Avodah. The term Melachah, by contrast, is used by the Torah primarily in three contexts: the creation, the construction of the Sanctuary, and the prohibition of work on Shabbos. Implied is that the three share a connection. Man's work during the week mirrors G-d's task of creation. We are building a Sanctuary, making the world G-d's dwelling. On Shabbos, we cease that activity. As our Sages say: "On Shabbos, it should be as if all your work - even your spiritual tasks - is completed." Instead, the emphasis is on stopping and rising to a higher level of awareness.

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