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WHY HAGEFEN?


Hagafen, the fruit of the grape vine, can be a celebration of Mans Creative Process.

When a fruit ripens to maturity, as much as man may have involved himself in its cultivation, the end result is the fruit that Hashem set to be in the seeds genetic code.

This creative process is one that man can facilitate, but is owned by Hashem.

Yet, man can develop the process of that fruit beyond the fruit itself. For example, when man applies his creativity to fruit he can take apples and make an apple pie!

Wine making is a stunning application of mans creativity to the fruit that Hashem has given us.

Wine, valued and appreciated throughout the world, is a symbol of potential. The art of man is to apply creative process to bring that potential to life. Perhaps no coincidence that there are a surprising amount of grape varieties throughout the world.

It is perfect that at special occasions we mark the wonderfulness with a special blessing over wine. Every time we have a mitzvah to make a Hagafen it is an opportunity to focus on the explosive potential of mans involvement in creative process.

On Shabbat, we have the opportunity to plug in to the potential manifested by our creative process over the past week.

Did we apply our creativity? Did we join with anothers creative processs? What came of it?

These are the Lamed Tet Melachot. We are told to do Melacha, we are directed to Create.

HaGafen hooks us into all that we have created and helps us relate to it throughout Shabbat.

Sefer Beraishit, Perek Bet, starts with part of the Kiddush we say on Shabbat. Then we are told that Shamaim and Aretz have Toldot = outcomes from a process that takes place between them.

Do we have Toldot?

WE NEED PROCESS:

Adam was placed in a world that didn’t require that much from him. In return, Adam is not pushed to do very much. We need to live in a world where we are pushed to be creative. We need a world of process.

Chava articulates this need by eating from The Tree. The Lamed Tet Melachot of Shabbat can teach us how to utilize living in a world of process.

(The laws of Muktzeh teach us how to guard it?)

Shabbat is the crown of our week where we cease applying our creativity to contain all the ways we have been positively influenced by our creativity, and allow space for even more. There is no limit to our creative process once Shabbat is invited to join.

 

By: Raizel Devorah 

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