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by Rabbi E. Tauger
Cheshvan
The Month
When We Pray For Rain
In Eretz Yisrael, on the seventh of Cheshvan,
(Nov.2) we begin praying for rain. (In the Diaspora, this request
is made about a month later.) In ancient times, when the economy
of Eretz Yisrael was based primarily on agriculture, rain was fundamentally
necessary for the nation's prosperity. Even today, when technological
advances have given us many other ways to earn our livelihood, rain
is a vital necessity. For without water, there is no potential for
life.
To emphasize that rain is not a natural occurrence or a quirk of
fortune, but rather a gift from G-d, we direct our prayers to Him.
We emphasize that we see Him as the source not only for our spiritual
wellbeing, but for our actual lives. Everything, even our material
prosperity, is from Him.
Going Back to Noah
There is a source for the connection between
Cheshvan and rain. The flood which covered the entire world in Noah's
time began in Cheshvan. Now the Hebrew word for rain, geshem is
associated with the Hebrew term gashmiyus, which means material
existence.
In this context, gashmiyus, material existence, is termed mayim
rabbim, "the profusion of waters," referred in the verse:
"The profusion of waters cannot quench the love, nor can rivers
drive it out." Our Rabbis interpret this verse to mean that
despite a person's involvement in material activities, "the
profusion of waters," his fundamental love for G-d will be
intact. He may be swept about in a deluge of activity, with continuous
pressure and powerful currents drawing him in many directions. Nevertheless,
despite all this strain, in his inner heart, his desire for G-d
will remain vibrant.
Confronting the Challenge
There is no question: involvement in material
activities challenges a person's spiritual mettle. It is easy to
be holy when one is withdrawn from the world and does not have to
worry about earning a livelihood and making ends meet. But for most
of us, that's not a real possibility. Bluntly speaking, someone
has to pick up the check and to pick up the check, you have to have
earned the wherewithal to cover it.
That's where "the profusion of waters" comes in. Once
a person decides - or is compelled - to begin involvement in worldly
activities, it's like putting your foot in a whirlpool. You put
in just a small portion of your body and suddenly, you're sucked
in entirely. Ask anybody who has his own business. Now matter how
much you resolved to stay in control, the business pulls you in
after it. There is the worry and the strain, the pleasures and the
pain, and suddenly it's your whole life.
And when this happens, one's spiritual sensitivity suffers. Slowly
but surely, involvement with material affairs deadens one's feelings
for the spiritual. It becomes hard to feel excitement in prayer;
indeed, all one prays for is material success.
Learning From Noah
Before the flood began, G-d tells Noah: "Come
into the ark." Teivah, the Hebrew word for "ark,"
also means "word." The Baal Shem Tov explains that G-d's
advice is that a person who is challenged by the deluge of the "profusion
of waters" mentioned above should plunge himself into the words
of prayer and study; not only to recite them, but to live in them.
And then "the teivah - the ark or the words of prayer - rises
upon the waters." As one concentrates in prayer, he gains control
and is able to view his life with the proper perspective. Priorities
become organized as they should. Instead of raggedly responding
to pressure from all directions, he becomes master of his life and
determines how his energies should be spent. But a "Living"
prayer is more inclusive. It enables the person to feel renewed
spiritual consciousness. He begins to see a world outside his own
needs. In his relationship with G-d, he focuses not on what he expects
G-d to do for him, but on how he can serve Him and he feels satisfaction
in this service. And in his relationship with others, he can think
of another person and empathize with the struggles they are undergoing.
Resolving the Dichotomy
IAccording to the above motif, involvement
in material things involves a challenge to one's spiritual integrity.
Nevertheless, if one undertakes the necessary spiritual initiative,
he can rise to the challenge. Indeed, the spiritual awareness he
achieves after involving himself in material things surpasses that
which he had enjoyed beforehand. For this is an awareness that has
been tested by challenge.
Despite the advantage in the above approach, it involves struggle
and difficulty. It is not easy to gain such an awareness and even
after one attains it, the challenge which it was necessary to overcome
leaves its mark, for one's understanding of G-dliness is rooted
in material awareness.
There is a different way of looking at things. G-d created the material
framework of existence and it also is an expression of Him. He is
the Ultimate Good and it is the nature of the good to be generous.
Thus we can assume that He will grant man abundant good in material
things as well.
Why must we see a conflict between the physical and the spiritual?
Both are manifestations of G-dliness. Why can't we see the physical
as an extension of the spiritual?
(This conception certainly fits the place of Cheshvan in the calendar.
Cheshvan follows the month of Tishrei, a month where our fundamental
spiritual energies are expressed. Some explain that we need the
spiritual strength endowed by Tishrei to confront the challenges
of Cheshvan. It can, however, be explained that Cheshvan is an outgrowth
of Tishrei. After redefining our spiritual identities through the
Divine service of Tishrei, we are prepared to extend that new identity
further in Cheshvan, enabling it to encompass involvement in the
material realm as well.)
Looking to the
Horizon
The ultimate appreciation of the interrelation
between the material and the spiritual will come in the era of Mashiach.
That will be an age of great material prosperity. As Maimonides
writes: "Good things will flow in abundance and all the delights
will be freely available as dust." With the concluding simile,
Maimonides communicates an important concept: Though we will enjoy
the delights of the world, we will not lust for them. Instead, we
will consider them "as dust."
Why? Because our attention will be focused elsewhere. As Maimonides
continues: "The world will be filled with the knowledge of
G-d as the waters cover the ocean bed." The knowledge of Him
will be the focal point of our existence, the vortex around which
all experience will revolve. Since we will live in the material
world, that knowledge will encompass material things and we will
appreciate how every element of being is an expression of Him.
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Telling
Tales
One of the chassidim of the
Maggid of Mezritch approached him with a problem. He had invested
a large amount of money in merchandise and had dispatched it with
an agent for sale in a distant city. Several months had passed without
word from him. He had inquired at the city to which he had originally
directed the man, but there was no sign of either him or the merchandise.
What should he do? If the merchandise was lost, he would face financial
ruin.
The Maggid put on his reading glasses, looked into a volume of the
Zohar lying on his table for a few moments, and then instructed
his chassid to travel to Leipzig. There he would find his agent
and his merchandise intact.
The chassid journeyed to Leipzig, met the wayward agent, retrieved
his merchandise, and sold it for a profit.
Chassidim ask: Why was it necessary for the Maggid to look into
the Zohar? lf he had an answer for the chassid, why didn't he give
it to him immediately?
They explain: The light which G-d created on the first day of creation
enables a person to see from one end of the world to the other.
Nevertheless, G-d saw that it was not appropriate for this light
to shine in an unperfected world, and He therefore concealed it.
Where did He conceal it? In the Torah.
By studying the Torah, and particularly the Torah's mystic dimensions,
where its spiritual light is revealed, the Maggid was able to gain
access to this transcendent light. Having done so, he was able to
advise the chassid with regard to his merchandise.
Why, however, did the Maggid employ such a lofty spiritual tool
merely to locate merchandise?
Because a Jew's financial resources are connected with his spiritual
mission in this world. There is no dichotomy between the spiritual
and the material and a person's material concerns contain sparks
of G-dliness necessary for him to carry out his spiritual service.
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Torah
readings of the month
Parshas Noach
The conclusion of this week's
Torah reading speaks of the Tower of Babel. Mankind gathered together
and began building a city and a tower, "lest we be dispersed
throughout the earth." G-d was displeased with their conduct
and thwarted their efforts.
Obviously, building the city and the tower were against G-d's will,
but why? From a simple reading of the Biblical narrative, it is
difficult to understand what was so terrible about their actions.
It is explained that they were concerned only with the physical
dimensions of the city and did not think of its spiritual dimensions.
This was undesirable; for a material activity to endure, it must
serve a spiritual purpose. Since there was no spiritual purpose
intended for the Tower of Babel, G-d prevented it from being completed.
Parshas Lech Lecha
TThis Torah reading contains
the description of the circumcision, the only mitzvah that Abraham
performed in response to a direct Divine command. Our Rabbis relate
that Abraham fulfilled all the mitzvos before they were commanded
to him except the mitzvah of circumcision.
Why? Because had he fulfilled the mitzvah on his own initiative,
he would never have been able to fulfill it in response to G-d's
command and there is an implicit advantage in fulfilling a mitzvah
in this manner, as our Sages state: "A person who observes
a mitzvah because he is commanded to do so is greater than one who
observes it
without having been so commanded."
The word mitzvah and the word tzavsa, meaning "together,"
share the same root. When a person fulfills a Divine command because
he has been commanded to do so, the act connects him to G-d in all
His infinity.
By contrast, the person who performs the same deed without having
been commanded to do so, the act, however worthy, would remain merely
a good deed. For this reason, Avraham waited until his circumcision
would have this higher quality.
Parshas VaYeira
This week's Torah reading relates
that Abraham established an inn for guests, and there he "called
upon the name of the eternal G-d." Our Rabbis interpret this
phrase, explaining that the intent is not that only Abraham himself
called to G-d, but that he motivated others to proclaim G-dliness
as well.
What did he do? He established his tent at a crossroads in the desert
and generously provided food and drink to wayfarers. After they
completed their meal, he asked them to: "Bless the One who
provided you with food and drink."
When the guests began to bless him, Abraham told them: "Was
it I who provided you with food? Bless He who spoke and brought
the world into being." By providing people with their physical
needs, he made them conscious of the spiritual reality.
This is the heritage that Abraham gave to his descendants - to spread
the awareness that we are living in His world, that our lives are
not intended merely to provide ourselves with a little bit of enjoyment
and satisfaction, but are instead mediums to make His presence known
to others.
Parshas Chayei Sarah
This week's Torah reading describes
Abraham as being "old, advanced in years." The Midrash
notes the seeming repetition and explains that there are some men
who are old, but do not appear advanced in years, and others who
appear advanced in years, but are not old. Abraham's advancement
in years paralleled his age.
On a simple level, the Midrash is speaking about physical appearance:
There are some older people who look young and some younger people
who look old. But there is a deeper point to the teaching of the
Midrash: often people function on a level of maturity far below
their chronological age. What it says on the person's birth certificate
is one thing, but the degree of intellectual and emotional development
he shows may be something else entirely. Indeed, he might be a white-bearded
child. Abraham, the Midrash teaches, grew as he aged. His personal
and spiritual development went hand in hand with the passage of
time.
Chassidus develops this concept further. Abraham "advanced"
into "his years." He put himself into the days that he
lived; each of his days was filled with a deepening of his connection
to G-d.
To explain: Any one of us who has to take tests knows what it is
to cram. You try to cover an entire course in two weeks. Or in business,
you know the end of the month is coming and you try to push in a
few more sales to improve the bottom line.
There is something unnatural in such an approach. Try cramming the
growth cycle of a crop on a farm: not working for most of the season
and then plowing, sowing, watering, and harvesting in a month. Wouldn't
be very successful, would it?
Well neither - in the long term - is cramming for anything else.
What was remembered for the test is forgotten two weeks later. For
a business to be maintained, sales must be steady.
The same thing applies spiritually. Too often, we cram. On Rosh
Hashanah and Yom Kippur, suddenly we get very involved. We like
to focus on peak experiences. What Abraham teaches us is to take
each day one day at a time, and to live it to the ultimate. Not
to have occasional spiritual heights, but to relate to G-d earnestly
each day, to take that day seriously and use it in the fullest and
most complete way possible.
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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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