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by Rabbi E. Tauger
Cheshvan
The Month
When We Pray For Rain
Tishrei, the first month of the Jewish year,
is filled with holidays. Cheshvan, the following month, has none.
On the contrary, its spiritual thrust is one of coming to terms
with material existence within its own context. We descend from
the heights of inspiration and exultation felt during Tishrei to
the day-to-day realities of our homes and workplaces.
This motif is reflected in the custom practiced in Eretz Yisrael
of asking for rain on the seventh of Cheshvan.
(In the Diaspora, this request is made almost two months later.)
Rain Geshem, in Hebrew) is used as a symbol for all material blessings
(Gashmius). Thus Cheshvan is associated with our requests and hopes
for material blessings and success. Just as a farmer looks heavenward
for rain, hopeful that it will bring manifold blessings to his crops,
so, too, we all look expectantly heavenward for assistance in our
material endeavors, asking for Divine blessings for success and
wellbeing.
Spiritual Geography
Our Sages note that Eretz Yisrael has no
significant rivers that flow through it and explain that this is
Divinely intended. G-d wanted the inhabitants of our Holy Land to
know that their prosperity is dependent on rain so that they would
always be looking upward in hope and prayer. Other lands, particularly
Egypt and Mesopotamia whose history is so intertwined with that
of Eretz Yisrael, depend primarily on rivers for their water.
Now when a farmer knows that he has a river to rely on for his source
of irrigation, he is confident. He knows that he has a dependable
natural source for water on which to rely. In some years, water
supply will be more plentiful. In other years, less, but there will
always be something to depend on. Not so a farmer in Eretz Yisrael.
He is constantly praying for rain, for he has no other source of
water. The very physical makeup of the Eretz Yisroel forces him
to look up to G-d as the source of blessing.
An Interactive Dynamic
According to Jewish thought, the idea of
looking upward to G-d for blessing is the key to material success.
The Midrash teaches: "When mankind breaks its stiff-necked
self-reliance, rain (material blessing) will descend." The
Torah explicitly warns us not to think that "it is my strength
and the power of my hand that brought me this success." Instead,
one must know that "it is G-d Your Lord who is giving you the
strength to prosper."
There is the natural tendency to question this principle as typical
religious dogma. After all, what else is religion supposed to say
but "Rely on G-d and you will prosper"? And skeptics will
point to a host of prosperous men who do not appear religious in
the ordinary interpretation of the term and conversely, many who
outwardly appear religious who suffer financial difficulty.
Upon deeper examination, however, our Sages are pointing to an approach
which goes beyond traditional religious thinking and can be adapted
by all people even those who find it hard to identify with the trappings
of organized religion.
The foundation of this approach is the premise that man must work
for his success and wellbeing. As the Torah teaches us: "And
G-d will bless you in all that you do." Our success will not
be delivered to us from above on a silver platter. Instead, we must
"do," work on our own and in that way create a receptacle
for G-d's blessing.
But our work is no more than a receptacle. There is no way that
we can insure that it will bring prosperity. On the contrary, anyone
with even a minimal amount of business experience is able to relate
countless anecdotes of how the most foolproof plans for success
have gone haywire and the most illogical projects have brought prosperity.
Why? Because success is in G-d's hands. No matter how well thought
out our plans are, there is no way a mortal can guarantee success.
Finding G-d in the Marketplace
This is not being said as a religious maxim,
but as practical business advice. A good businessman is always "looking
upward for rain." He has made a plan and he is working hard
to put it into practice, but he is not smugly confident. He is relying
on G-d, knowing that success is an intangible and cannot be guaranteed.
Instead of standing pat and fighting the tide at all costs, he knows
when to bend and when to duck so that the strong currents will not
break him.
A person who does this is able to field the curveballs life throws
him. He will not stubbornly follow what he thinks is correct. Instead,
he will be willing to admit failure if necessary and follow new
approaches to success as they present themselves.
This what our Sages meant when they spoke of breaking stiff-necked
stubbornness and relying on G-d. They wanted man not to think that
he could bring success through his own efforts, but to invite G-d
to be his partner and open himself up to the idea that success is
not only dependent on his own efforts. By doing so, he gains awareness
that the world does not exist independently, but instead is G-d's.
Reaching such an understanding in business dealings can sometimes
be more powerful than the religious feelings one will experience
in the synagogue. For every person, even the most spiritually oriented,
will admit that he is more powerfully attached to his financial
welfare than his spiritual experience. And so when the consciousness
of G-d affects him at the financial level, it will be far more internalized.
A Dwelling in the Lower
Realms
It is this type of experience that fulfills
G-d's intent for the creation, for He created the world to have
a dwelling among mortals. This means that even the material dimensions
of our lives will be filled with spiritual awareness. Had He wanted
us to know Him only through prayer and study, He would have made
us like the angels. Instead, He gave us physical bodies and material
tendencies so that we would use them to know Him and in that way,
bring G-dliness into the material dimensions of our experience.
The culmination of this type of understanding will be in the era
of Mashiach when "the glory of G-d will be revealed and all
flesh will see." Chassidic thought explains that the verse's
intent is that our perception of G-dliness will be "fleshy".
Not only will we know Him in a spiritual way, we will see the revelation
of Him in all elements of our life, even the most material.
All the revelations of the future are dependent on our conduct at
present. Thus taking G-d into the marketplace and making Him a partner
in our business experience will be more than a successful business
technique. It will serve as a catalyst for G-d to be revealed on
the physical plane. Every invitation to invite Him into this realm
of experience will hasten the time when all experience will be permeated
by the awareness of Him.
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Telling
Tales
In connection with the concept
explained above - that our financial success is part of an interactive
relationship with G-d, we would like to share the following story
concerning Reb Avraham Parshan, obm, a successful real-estate developer
and a devoted chassid of the Rebbe.
Once Reb Avraham was considering investing a large sum in real estate
in Eretz Yisrael. He established contact with a well-known contractor
for whom many people in the religious community would wait in line
to invest. Happy to work with Reb Avraham, he offered him an attractive
proposition. Reb Avraham agreed with one contigency: that the Rebbe
consent to the deal.
After hearing the offer made to Reb Avraham, the Rebbe told him
to demur and instead to speak to Reb Ephraim Wolf, the director
of the Lubavitch Yeshivah in Eretz Yisrael. Reb Ephraim had just
received a parcel of land from the Israeli government and was contemplating
the construction of a housing project for the Lubavitch community.
Although it seemed that he was being told to forgo what appeared
like a sound business deal for the sake of a project that had the
trappings of a charity, Reb Avraham happily accepted the Rebbe's
directive. Within a relatively short time after construction, all
the apartments in the housing development were sold. Thus in addition
to the merit of building a Lubavitch community, Reb Avraham was
able to pocket a tidy profit. Nor did he have anything to be upset
about for forgoing the other investment. Difficulty after difficulty
arose and ultimately, the other contractor went bankrupt.
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Torah
readings of the month
Parshas Noach
The story of Noach presents
an enigma to our Sages. Rabbi Yitzchak judges Noach pejoratively,
stating that the flood is called "the waters of Noach,"
because he is to blame for it. When informed about the coming of
the flood, Noach should not have accepted G-d's decree in peaceful
acquiescence. Instead, he should have approached G-d in supplication.
Indeed, Noach has become the classic example of a tzaddik in peltz,
a righteous man who wraps himself in the warmth of his virtue disregarding
the cold winds of retribution that might harm others.
There are, however, Sages who do not criticize Noach, explaining
that he is not to blame for not praying for the people of his generation.
Why didn't he pray for them? Because it would have been an exercise
in futility. Noach had no positive factors to rely on for his prayers.
There were no righteous men at that time and the people did not
have ancestral merit. Rather than offer prayers that would go unanswered,
Noach remained silent. He did what G-d asked of him, patiently building
the ark for 120 years. When curiosity prompted the people to ask
him why he was building it, he told them about the impending flood
and urged them to repent. But when his calls for teshuvah went unheeded,
he went back to building the ark. There was nothing else for him
to do.
Conversly, however, the very fact that Noach did only what he had
to do is significant. After all, he was concerned primarily with
his own responsibility. A true leader is committed to his people
beyond all thoughts of self.
Parshas Lech Lecha
The Torah begins telling us
of the Divine service of our Patriarch Avraham with G-d's command:
"Go out of your land, your native country, and your father's
house to the land that I will show you."
From the Oral Law, we are familiar with many stories concerning
Avraham that predate this command. He "recognized his Creator"
at age three and from then onward continued to grow in faith. As
a youth, he broke his father's idols, was thrown into the furnace
by Nimrod, and was miraculously saved by G-d. The Written Torah,
however, makes no mention of these different stories, because they
do not reflect the dimension of Avraham's Divine service that it
wishes to emphasize.
These stories point to the greatness of Avraham's individual qualities:
that he was intellectually capable of comprehending G-dliness and
that he had the courage and conviction to maintain his beliefs in
the face of challenge. All of these, however, represent Avraham's
own achievements, what he accomplished through his own efforts.
While significant, they represent only advances of relative importance,
for every human being is restricted by the very nature of his humanity.
His intellect and emotions are limited and cannot relate to G-d
as He exists in His infinity. For by definition, a created being
does not share the same framework of reference as his Creator. Instead,
the most complete commitment a mortal can make is to step beyond
his humanity and obey G-d's command. For that reason, this is the
context in which we learn of Avraham's Divine service,he thus begins
the story of Abraham with G-d's command.
Parshas VaYeira
Chassidic thought compares the
devotion shown by Avraham to that demonstrated by Rabbi Akiva. Our
Sages relate that the Romans executed Rabbi Akiva by combing his
flesh with iron combs. He was reciting the Shema at that time. When
his students expressed amazement at the extent of his ardor, he
told them: "I interpret the commandment to 'love G-d with…
all your soul,' as meaning 'Even if they take your soul.' I would
say: "When will I have the opportunity of fulfilling this?"
On one hand, this represents a very high level of dedication to
G-d. Instead of seeking either material or spiritual satisfaction
and achievement, Rabbi Akiva saw the epitome of his life as self-sacrifice.
On the other hand, the very fact that he was looking for self-sacrifice
implies that he still had a consciousness of self.
Avraham, by contrast, showed no sense of self at all. The goal of
his Divine service was expressed by the verse from our Torah reading:
"There he called forth in the name of G-d, the eternal L-rd."
This purpose: the revelation of G-dliness, was Avraham's goal in
life. If self-sacrifice was required to further that objective,
then he was prepared for self-sacrifice. Unlike Rabbi Akiva, however,
he did not conceive of self-sacrifice as a goal in Divine service.
He had one objective: to make G-dliness known to the world at large.
Nothing else was important to him.
Parshas Chayei Sarah
As this Torah reading relates,
with the purchase of the Cave of Machpela as a burial place for
Sarah, for the first time, a portion of Eretz Yisrael was acquired
by the Jewish people as an eternal possession. Although G-d had
promised the land to Avraham previously, it was not until Sarah's
death that a portion of the land actually came into his possession.
More particularly, until Sarah's burial, her gravesite, the Cave
of Machpelah, had been the heritage of all mankind, for it was the
burial place of Adam and Chavah, the ancestors of all humanity.
Sarah's burial caused it to become designated as sacred to the Jewish
people alone. Prior to the contribution of Sarah, holiness was present
in a general, universal manner and Sarah caused that holiness to
be focused and directed to the Jews.
Indeed, this concept is implied by her very name Sarah.
which relates to the term Sar that has the meanings "mastery"
and "control." Sarah's Divine service involved controlling
G-dly influence and internalizing it, directing its downward flow
through the channels of holiness.
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Dates of the Month
7 Marcheshvan - The
day when the inhabitants of Eretz Yisrael begin praying for rain
11 Marcheshvan - The yahrzeit of our Matriarch Rachel
20 Marcheshvan - The birthday of the Rebbe Rashab
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