Dear Elisheva,
2 Chronicles 7:10-14 On the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people away to their tents, joyful and glad of heart for the good that the L*RD had done for David, and to Solomon, and for His people Israel. And Solomon finished the house of the L*RD and the King's palace, and Solomon successfully completed all that came into his heart to make in the house of the L*RD and in his own palace, he has caused to prosper. And the L*RD appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him, "I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. If I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, if My people, which are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
Roughly 3000 years ago during this month, King Solomon dedicated the Temple he had built for the L*rd. So it was in the Hebrew month of Tishrei, the month of the fall feasts of Israel, that the presence of the L*rd fell and the glory of G*d was displayed in the Temple.
Tuesday night marked the closing of this final feast, but its occurrence 3000 years ago is also significantly highlighted -- by a visitation from G*d -- to King Solomon.
You see, it was on this night, after the feast of Sukkot was over, that G*d appeared to Solomon by night, and said, “If my people, who are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”G*d gave us in these verses as an eternal promise with a set of conditions; one which is quoted by everyone who seeks revival for his nation.
Let's take G*d at His Word beloved and turn this "IF" into an "I WILL"...humble myself, and pray, and seek Your face, and repent of my wicked ways...and thank you for answering from heaven, and forgiving my sin, and Praise You for healing our land!
Enjoy the teaching below on this week's parsha by our dear Rabbi whose birthday we celebrate tomorrow.
Good Shabbos~Elisheva
adapted from a teaching by Rabbi Baruch Binyamim Hakohen Melman
The ultimate challenge in life is in giving back, in repaying the Source of Life for the gifts which we have freely received. Paid forward, we have yet to earn them. Through giving back, whether by tzedaka, tefilah, teshuva, deeds of loving kindness or learning Torah, we restore equilibrium both to ourselves and to the world.
Our parsha this week, B'reisheet, deals with the subject of taking. While our emphasis in life should properly belong to giving, it is important to understand some of the deeper meanings of taking. The very first act of "taking" (kicha) in the Torah, is when "G*d TOOK the man and placed him in the Garden of Eden to work it and to guard it." (Gen 2:15). But then we were flawed and proved unworthy of remaining in our pristine surroundings until we could earn our way back to return with a greater maturity. Man was told to guard the Garden, but in just the next chapter (Gen 3:22):"And G*d said, man has now become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now he must be prevented from putting forth his hand and also TAKING from the Tree of Life. He can eat it and live forever."
Ironically, man who was to guard the Garden is now himself guarded FROM the Garden by the cheruvim, the holy cherubs, at the east of Eden, along with the LAHAT HA-CHEREV HA-MIT'HAPECHET to guard the path of the Tree of Life. This LAHAT HA-CHEREV HA-MIT'HAPECHET is usually translated as "revolving sword blade." I would rather translate it as a "flaming sword which makes everything seem the opposite."
In otherwords, were we to pass through and gain entrance to the Garden, we would finally glimpse the world of truth (olam ha-emet), where everything is how it should be. In our world, the world of falsehood (olam ha-sheqer), the wicked often prosper and the good often suffer. The Sabbath (Shabbat) is that opportunity to transport ourselves back to the Garden, to catch but a fleeting glimpse of the olam ha-emeth. Indeed, the Sabbath is called me'eyn olam haba, "a taste (aspect) of the world to come." On the Sabbath, even the flaming swords of Eden have a day of rest, paralleling the fires of gehennom ("hades") which are said to also abate on this day.
Finally, though not chronologically, we have the TAKING of the man's bone, in the building of woman (Gen 2:21). The word bone in English comes from the Hebrew, because the woman was built from man's bone. VayiVeN means he built. The bones are the building blocks, the support scaffolding of the human body. Without bones we would be slithering on the ground like the snake. The snake lacked true binah, understanding. Man and woman have it by nature, though it is only truly learned through experience, trial and error.
Now if man is considered to be the crown of creation, then woman, appearing as she does on the proverbial scene after man, is therefore the CROWN of the CROWN of creation. That is, if every creature formed later than any other creature is said to be on a higher level, then how much more so, our tradition teaches, is woman on a higher spiritual level than man. That is why chazal, the sages of blessed memory, taught that the time-designated mitzvoth are especially helpful for men in order for them to attain that spiritual level already held by women. Women by their very nature are sensitive to time, and thus are more sensitive and more aware of the Master of Time- He who was, who is, and who always will be(YKVK).
Men, it is said, therefore need the time-bound mitzvoth to fill a lacking, to develop a higher awareness of the Creator of Time. If man is considered to have been created Beyn ha-Shemashot, on the proverbial twilight of the sixth day, moments before the first Sabbath, then woman, created last, is truly Beyn ha-Shemashot BEYN ha-Shemashot. She truly understands (Binah) time.
When a woman kindles the two (or more) Sabbath lights, she is on the deepest level recreating the two flaming swords of the cherubs. The woman is the guardian of the holiness of the Sabbath in the Jewish home, like the cherubs assigned to be the Guardians of Eden. The woman takes over for the cherubs on their day of rest.
When a man and a woman marry, there is also an act of "taking", it is an allusion to the original taking with regard to woman that was first mentioned in the Torah. His taking now completes the circle, in that he is now taking that woman who had been first taken from him, from his bone.The union of a man and a woman harkens back to the first union of Adam and Eve. They are symbolically (re) joined as one flesh, combining the male and female energies to continue humanity and to make a new beginning. The Sheva Brachos, the seven blessings of the wedding ceremony, richly alludes to this promise of new beginnings.
As the Holy Temple burned in the flames and came crashing down, cinder by cinder, fiery ember by fiery ember, the cherubs above the holy ark were locked in a loving embrace. Their swords of fire were now transformed into loving embraces, the true meaning of Lahat ha-Cherev ha-Mit'hapechet- the transforming sword of fire, where a CHeReV(sword/combatant) would be transformed into a CHaVeR (com-panion, i.e., sharing both pain and bread -see French "pain").
In our lives today, we see so much pain and so much fire in our relationships. Our challenge is to transform our feelings of deep pain into feelings of empathy for others and into good deeds and acts of kindness. Only when we take responsibility for our pain and for the pain of others and become holy embracers, we shall then find ourselves back in the Garden.
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