Skip to main content

Life of Blessings

 “A life in which there is fear of heaven and fear of sin,” We acknowledge that we need Your help to protect us from sin even as You reach out to us with the intense expression of love that allows us to receive the Second Luchot, and forgiveness of all our sins. Help us protect the power of this month. Help us protect the love You are expressing to us. 

“A life in which there is no shame nor humiliation,” The Second Tablets we received at the conclusion of Moshe’s Elul trip, relieved us from the humiliation of having fallen so drastically just forty days after Revelation. Please grant us an Elul that parallels Moshe’s Elul; a month in which You make it clear that we have regained our greatness and no longer need to experience the shame and humiliation of the Golden Calf and other sins.

 “A life of wealth and honor,” We want an opportunity to use our wealth to honor You, rather than to build Golden Calves. We prayed during that first Elul for such an opportunity, which was granted with the Mitzvah to construct the Mishkan. We want such an opportunity to be granted during this coming Elul as well. 

“A life in which we will have love of Torah and fear of heaven,” We fell so soon after Revelation because of our fear overpowering our love of God and His Torah. We want to use Elul to emphasize our deep love for Your Torah, combined with, but not overpowered by, fear. 

“A life in which God fulfills our heartfelt requests for the good.” You gave us all we wanted and more at Revelation, but we turned it all into evil with the Golden Calf. We want an opportunity to live at such a heightened level of blessing so that we can use it only for good.

By: Rabbi Simcha Weinberg

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pesukei d’Zimrah Baruch Sh’Amar

  The Gra (Haggadah: Baruch HaMakom) explains that when we recite the words, “Blessed is He Who spoke, and the world came into being; blessed is He.” We are blessing both the revealed and the hidden. The specific praise of,   “Who spoke, and the world came into being,” refers to the world we see and can comprehend. The praise, “Blessed is He,” refers to all that is hidden in the creation, and cannot be described.    This idea of “Hidden and Revealed,” refers to the worlds of “Thought and Action.” We referred to what we see as Action, and to what we cannot see, as Thought. This teaches us that when singing this song of praise we must remember that there are two levels to each of the Ten (Explained by the Abudirham as corresponding to the Ten Statements with which the world was created) praises we recite; the Hidden–Thought, and the Revealed–Action. By: Rabbi Simcha Weinberg, n''y 
Post a Comment
Read more

Shekalim 1

Parent and Child: Rabbi Shlomo Kluger (Kehillat Yaakov; Shekalim 1) explains that when the Holy One, Blessed is He, created a person with a body and soul, He gave them as a gift to  the person. We belong to ourselves, and God relates to us as independent children. However, when we rebel against God, it is considered as if we have stolen the gift of our lives from the Creator. A thief who cannot repay what he has stolen is sold into slavery to pay his debt. It is impossible for us to repay the Creator for the gift of life, and we are sold, so to speak, into slavery. When we offer the Half Shekel we are paying half the debt, the second half is forgiven by God, Who never completely lets go of the relationship of parent to child.   The Half-Shekel is a statement that we are acting in partnership with God, our Father. One must have intention that he is giving his half of the shekel together with God. One should focus on God as a loving parent when giving the Half Shekel.  By: ...
1 comment
Read more

TAKING IT WITH YOU-MISHPATIM-ALEINU

Our sages teach us, “On the Red Sea, God appeared to them like a young boy, while at Sinai, He appeared like an old man.” At first thought, this is extremely difficult to understand, since it is written, “You have not seen   any image (To see Deuteronomy 4:15).” We can explain this with an example. When a parent loves his child, this great love causes the child’s image to be engraved on the parent’s mind. It is therefore as if the child were actually standing in the presence of the parent. When the child is young, he exists in his parent’s mind in the image of a small child. Later, when he grows, the image in the parent’s thoughts is that of an older person.   It is known that, “Israel rose first in thought.” This means that they are constantly engraved in the Supernal Thought, just as a child is in its parent’s mind. When a child acts properly and does what its parent wishes, this is the image that is engraved in its parent’s thoughts. The same is true when the child goes aga...
Post a Comment
Read more