Shabbos Mevarchim Elul - preparing for Simchas Torah!

00:00 Shabbos Parshas Re’eh always falls either on Shabbos Mevarchim for the month of Elul or on Shabbos Rosh Chodesh Elul. So it is clear, even on a simple level, that there is a connection between the parsha and the time of year, as we enter the month of Elul. And we know what the holy Shelah writes: the weekly parsha is connected to the times, the Yomim Tovim and the festivals on which it falls. There are many explanations concerning Shabbos Parshas Re’eh, particularly in the Rebbe’s sichos. Over the years, the Rebbe spoke about several aspects of this. But I want to bring out one point, an interesting point we find here, which the Rebbe addressed at the last farbrengen we had around this time: the farbrengen of Shabbos Parshas Re’eh in 5751. The Rebbe spoke then about how, in Parshas Re’eh, we read the same passage that we read on Shemini Atzeres and Simchas Torah. The reading for Shemini Atzeres, “You shall surely tithe,” together with the passage about the festivals in Parshas Re’eh, is also read on several Yomim Tovim, particularly on Shemini Atzeres. The halachah there is that we read “You shall surely tithe” even when it falls during Chol Hamoed Sukkos, and we also read the entire passage about the festivals. That passage speaks about all the Yomim Tovim through Sukkos, and not only about Sukkos. As Rashi says about the verse “You shall rejoice on your festival,” and also “You shall be only joyful”—this includes the night of the final Yom Tov in the obligation to rejoice. In other words, even Shemini Atzeres and Simchas

01:36 Torah are included in the passage. We find something remarkable here: we are only at Shabbos Mevarchim Elul, Parshas Re’eh, and already the parsha brings us to a reading about Sukkos, Shemini Atzeres and Simchas Torah. This teaches us something wonderful about the order of our avodah, the avodah of this time of year. Because, broadly speaking, there are two ways to look at all these things. At first glance, looking at them in the usual way, there is a sequence of Yomim Tovim and special days beginning with the month of Elul. Then come the days of Selichos, Rosh Hashanah, the Ten Days of Teshuvah, Yom Kippur, the days between Yom Kippur and Sukkos, and after them Sukkos, Hoshana Rabbah, Shemini Atzeres and Simchas Torah. These are all great days, each with its own theme, its halachos, mitzvos, customs, way of conduct and associated forms of avodah. And each is a subject in its own right. But when we look at them in the light of what Chassidus has revealed to us, we see that they form one long continuum. There is a single point that a Jew sets before himself already on Shabbos Mevarchim Elul. For that is when this period begins, as we know from the Frierdiker Rebbe’s well-known sichos, in which he described at length how the atmosphere in Lubavitch changed when Shabbos Mevarchim Elul arrived. From then on, a change took place:

03:08 a spirit of teshuvah was in the air, and you could sense the scent of teshuvah—all the expressions he uses there. You could see a change in Lubavitch; the entire atmosphere had changed already on Shabbos Mevarchim Elul. The ultimate purpose and intention is to reach Shemini Atzeres and Simchas Torah, which are the culmination, the ultimate purpose and intention of the whole process. This does not mean that these are separate days and separate matters. Rather, already on Shabbos Mevarchim Elul, a Jew needs to know that his goal, his destination, is to reach Shemini Atzeres and Simchas Torah. At first glance, not only do we fail to see the connection between them; they seem like complete opposites. We are at Shabbos Mevarchim Elul, when the time for taking stock of oneself begins, the time for teshuvah and regret over the past, with all the avodah that teshuvah requires then: correcting the past and working primarily in a way of awe. There is the sounding of the shofar—“If a shofar is sounded in a city, will the people not tremble?”—and the awe that is needed in the avodah of Elul. On Simchas Torah, by contrast, there is the greatest joy of the entire year, an immense, extraordinary joy in which a Jew dances with the Torah. Where do we see the connection between these things? This is one of the things Chassidus has revealed: the depth and inner meaning of the matter. When we consider the depth and inner meaning of

04:35 these things, we see that everything actually leads to this point: already from Shabbos Mevarchim Elul, a Jew needs to know that his destination, his intention and his goal are to reach the great and extraordinary joy called “Yisroel and the King alone together.” A Jew and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are alone together in the greatest joy, on Simchas Torah. That is the intention. And when we grasp this at the very beginning of the avodah, it immediately brings vitality and delight into the avodah, and everything we do is done with an entirely different vitality and enthusiasm. To understand this, let me first tell a story I heard from the well-known chossid Reb Yoel Kahn, a”h. He said it happened in the early years of the Rebbe’s leadership—or rather, before the Rebbe’s leadership, before 5710, before the passing of the Frierdiker Rebbe. One day, when the Rebbe was in America, there was a farbrengen at which the Rebbe farbrenged with chassidim. The Rebbe farbrenged then because it was Sukkos, [unclear], and at that farbrengen the Rebbe sang a joyous niggun with the chassidim, a niggun that chassidim would sing at certain times. The niggun had three phrases, each rising higher and higher, stronger and

06:04 stronger. That is, the niggun starts in a gentle tone, grows stronger and rises through three phrases, each higher than the one before it. And then there is the highest phrase, where the niggun reaches its peak. So the niggun has three parts. The Rebbe wanted them to understand that the niggun expresses how, in serving Hashem, there is a whole progression from the easier stages to the more demanding ones. There is a first level, followed by a second and a third; there is an entire order of avodah. But sometimes, when several aspects of avodah are involved, each is a matter in its own right. One comes, then the second, and then the third. But there is also a situation in which a Jew, even while standing at the very beginning of his avodah, can immediately see where he needs to arrive. He is still at the beginning; he is only just starting to work. Yet already at the start, he sees his destination, his goal, where he needs to arrive. The purpose of the avodah shines for him. So when the Rebbe sang then, he began straight away with the third phrase—so that we would grasp the destination and where we need to arrive. Standing at that point, one naturally knows that there is still an entire path to travel, a whole progression in the order of avodah. But in a person’s soul, the very fact that he is already standing at that destination gives him a different vitality,

07:39 a different inner dimension and a different depth, even at the beginning of the avodah. This is especially relevant at times when the desire is there. When we grasp the goal, where we need to arrive and what the whole point is, we know that the ultimate intention is to reach the joy of Simchas Torah. The explanation of this is based on a teaching of the Baal Shem Tov that the Alter Rebbe brought into Chassidus, concerning the verse “Then the maiden will rejoice in the dance.” This verse alludes to the avodah of this period, the months of Elul and Tishrei. “Then the maiden will rejoice in the dance”: the Hebrew word for “then,” az, has a numerical value of eight, referring to Shemini Atzeres, the eighth day counting from the start of Sukkos—that is the az. And “then she will rejoice”—then the joy, the great joy and deliverance of the “maiden,” will be revealed. The “maiden” alludes to Knesses Yisroel, the collective soul of the Jewish people. And as is known, the zodiac sign of Elul is Virgo, the maiden, which alludes to Knesses Yisroel. And the “dance,” the great dancing and joy of Simchas Torah and Shemini Atzeres—the Hebrew word machol, as the Baal Shem Tov explains, carries two meanings: machol in the sense of forgiveness and atonement, and machol in the sense of a dance. And this dance, as is known, was a custom among chassidim dating back to the days of the Baal Shem Tov: on [unclear], the chassidim would dance a dance called the machol. And the machol

09:13 is a dance with movement apart and together, drawing away and drawing near. There is a circle, and in that circle the dancers move away and come close again—distance and closeness. That is the secret; that is what awakens the joy. Within the soul there is a movement of distance, and after the distance comes closeness. And that closeness brings great joy and deliverance. The analogy is of a prince and his father the king, who had become distant from one another: the son went away and moved farther and farther from his father the king, creating distance between the king and his son, and between the son and the king. That distance prompted the son to begin searching. When longing and yearning awoke within him, so did the desire to search for his father. “A wise son will seek his father.” A wise son searches and searches and searches, going out to look for his father; he wants to return home and meet him in the king’s palace. And when the moment comes for them to meet, in the course of that encounter, as he enters and lets out a simple cry—as is known, there is the famous parable of the Baal Shem Tov, in which the cry of the son, who had lost the

10:30 the language. After all the time he spent far from his father the king, he no longer knows the language; all he can do is cry out, and that is the cry of the shofar. His father, in the royal palace, hears that cry, and it awakens a longing for his son. An inner closeness is then formed, and he forgives—all the undesirable things his son has done until now, throughout their time apart. Then they go out and dance together, and that is the rejoicing of “Then the maiden will rejoice in the dance.” The joy of Shemini Atzeres—that is the rejoicing; Shemini Atzeres is the time, the time of joy. Why is the joy found specifically there? Because we see that on Shemini Atzeres the joy is utterly boundless. Where does the joy of this moment come from? From “Yisroel and the King alone together,” as the Zohar puts it: the Jewish people and Hakadosh Boruch Hu meet with no one else present. “They shall be yours alone, and no strangers shall share with you.” On Shemini Atzeres we find this idea: “It shall be an assembly for you.” “For you”—there is no one else here, nothing else. As we see in the Midrashim, on Sukkos seventy bulls were offered corresponding to the seventy nations, because then vitality is bestowed on the entire world. The nations of the world receive their vitality through the Jews. “Praise Hashem, all nations; laud Him, all peoples, for His kindness has prevailed over us.” This

11:53 nevertheless goes to the nations of the world. When we come to Shemini Atzeres, it is “for you,” “one bull, one ram”—one corresponding to the Jewish people alone, because then the union of Hakadosh Boruch Hu and His Shechinah with the Jewish people is a union of the highest order. So the great joy and deliverance are understandable. Even though we are at Shabbos Mevorchim Elul and are already beginning the avodah of taking stock of ourselves. In Chassidus we see the avodah of taking stock during Elul, through which we correct things from the past, from the entire year. All of that is true and certain. It all goes together with the avodah of Elul, and that avodah is teshuvah—the son searching for his father. That is the essence of Elul. “For the master of the house” [unclear] “a month of days.” The month of teshuvah, the month of Elul, when the Jewish child can now feel his longing for his father and how he is searching for him. But even if he is still [unclear], and has not yet gone through the whole course of avodah and teshuvah, when he knows that all of it is preparation for meeting his father the king, and he knows that in the end they will meet, he is already happy. He dances, he dances, he dances a dance. [unclear] And that complete confidence is itself part of the course of avodah. That is the avodah. [unclear] completely; it is a great joy and deliverance. But within this there is also the avodah of teshuvah. On the contrary. Once, at a farbrengen, [unclear] a"h, there was a farbrengen where the Rebbe spoke about this. The discussion was based on Rashi, when the Rebbe once spoke about the dispute between Rabbi

13:44 Yehudah and Rabbi Nechemiah. The whole pattern of their respective approaches. That was the difference between their ways of learning: one approach was to consider each detail on its own and try to understand the verse through that detail. The other looks at the whole picture. That too is [unclear]; it goes together. But in general, that is the whole idea. That is [unclear]. It is the pattern underlying a number of their disputes. It was once explained that their dispute stems from the roots of their souls, from their ways of life. We will not go into the whole lengthy discussion now; there was once an explanation in a sicha, a sicha from the second day of Shavuos, Parshas Re’eh, between two Shavuos. There the Rebbe brought out the respective approaches of Rabbi Yehudah and Rabbi Nechemiah. But one point discussed was that these two ways of learning are connected to the difference between a poor person and a wealthy person. And all this also [unclear] Rabbi Yehudah and Rabbi Nechemiah, who were not particularly wealthy. On the contrary, they were poor. But from that itself we see how Rabbi Nechemiah [unclear] poverty, as [unclear] in matters of food. And Rabbi Yehudah, [unclear] food and drink were lacking [unclear]. That was the situation of [unclear]. But in general, the difference between a poor person’s way of life and a wealthy person’s in serving Hashem: for the poor person—if only this; for the wealthy person—if only this. These are two ways of looking at things. It is about the details. [unclear] The poor person considers each detail on its own. In general, that is what we find with poor people: every penny matters, and every detail they have at the moment stands on its own.

15:33 It is a thing in its own right. Every level is like a level [unclear]. I can give you a broader picture. I look at this detail, but not only at it—at all the details together. That is a level. That is [unclear]. We can see that when someone looks at wealth with a broad perspective, he takes in things expansively—indeed, everything. And so we understand what we were just discussing: when serving Hashem is an avodah [unclear], every detail, every individual matter, stands on its own. The approach to avodah through Chassidus, by contrast, reveals the richness that Chassidus brings to light, the idea of [unclear] that the Alter Rebbe and the Rebbeim revealed to us. The richness of Torah, the richness of the inner dimension of Torah, means that one’s view keeps widening and opening up. Then one approaches the entire avodah with joy and gladness of heart, embracing that joy. This is one of the things we always heard from the Rebbe. Even while we are still in Elul, a time for taking stock and for teshuvah, a chossid is already filled with great joy from the very first day of Elul. Because he knows where the path he is now walking leads: we are going to the King; we are going to meet the King. That is the approach, that is the way. So we look at it broadly; we look at what the Torah [unclear] for us. And that is what we were discussing earlier: when we know this, we see that the whole avodah is done entirely differently. The point we have just discussed is also a foundation of the avodah of teshuvah.

17:23 We find the same idea in the avodah of teshuvah. And it is very interesting: if you look closely at the Alter Rebbe’s Igeres Hateshuvah, you see his approach in the way he writes it. The Alter Rebbe discusses this at length in the explanations in Igeres Hateshuvah. What does the Alter Rebbe say in Tanya? First, he asks: What is the mitzvah of teshuvah according to the Torah? The mitzvah of teshuvah according to the Torah is simply abandoning sin. Not fasts, not self-affliction, not even confession. The mitzvah of teshuvah according to the Torah is abandoning sin. And what does abandoning sin mean? The Alter Rebbe explains: a person resolves wholeheartedly, submitting himself to his Creator with kabbolas ol of the kingdom of Heaven, that he will no longer [unclear]. The Alter Rebbe explains this in the first chapter of Igeres Hateshuvah. Then, in chapter four, the Alter Rebbe returns to it and says: Indeed, the entire mitzvah of teshuvah according to the Torah is simply abandoning sin. He returns to the point he made in chapter one: the entire mitzvah of teshuvah is to abandon sin, to resolve wholeheartedly no longer to rebel against the kingdom. The Alter Rebbe says: To understand this, we must explain thoroughly and at length what is written in the Zohar, that teshuvah means “the hei returns”: the lower hei—lower teshuvah; the upper hei—higher teshuvah. From there, the Alter Rebbe goes on for seven chapters to explain what lower teshuvah and higher teshuvah are, discussing the entire subject and all its details at length. But the foundation is to understand: this is the essence of all teshuvah according to the Torah. The first step in teshuvah is kabbolas ol of the kingdom of Heaven, abandoning sin. That is the plain meaning of teshuvah as a whole. What does that mean?

19:15 To understand what teshuvah is as a whole, we need to explain thoroughly what the Zohar says: “Tashuv hei”—the lower hei, lower teshuvah; the higher hei, higher teshuvah. We need to understand all the levels of teshuvah, from lower teshuvah to higher teshuvah, from the first level through the end of the seven chapters. Why explain all this so thoroughly? The point the Rebbe explains lies in the Alter Rebbe’s own words. When we say that, according to the Torah, teshuvah is essentially abandoning sin, the first step is to stop rebelling against Hashem’s kingship and accept the yoke of Heaven. But that acceptance could be dry and bitter. The poor fellow committed transgressions, did bad things, G-d forbid, and now he accepts the yoke of Heaven because he must, with a dry sense of obligation. The Alter Rebbe comes and says: No. For the whole of teshuvah to be as it should, for the acceptance of the yoke of Heaven to be genuine, you have to realize that the true essence of teshuvah is not found only in sins and transgressions. Don’t be absorbed in your sins and transgressions; don’t look only at the pages. The main thing in teshuvah, you must know, is higher teshuvah. And the first stage of higher teshuvah is the soul’s attachment to Hashem, as the Alter Rebbe explains later, in chapters 8, 9, and 10. Higher teshuvah is the soul’s attachment, and this includes

20:58 even Torah study, through which a Jew becomes one with Hakadosh Boruch Hu: a joining of spirit with spirit. It is like before the descent, when the soul was united with its source, as though no descent had taken place at all. That is where we need to arrive. This is the point of teshuvah: the soul’s return to its root and source, so that even here, in a body, the soul becomes united with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. It is specifically a soul in a body that becomes one with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. This is the essence of teshuvah. Once that is clear, all of teshuvah becomes alive and full, teshuvah with depth, G-dly teshuvah. It is not just teshuvah in which we are absorbed in our sins and transgressions and trying to escape the mud. The very first movement of teshuvah already contains the goal of “our yechidah, to be one with You”: attachment to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The same is true of the progression through the year: it is not just about beginning the work in Elul. The inner intent is to reach Shemini Atzeres and Simchas Torah, when “Yisroel and the King are alone together”—to cleave to Hakadosh Boruch Hu and become one with Him. This also gives us a deeper understanding of the Alter Rebbe’s well-known analogy in the well-known maamar “Ani Ledodi Vedodi Li.” The analogy describes the king’s arrival at length: before he enters the city, the people of the city go out to meet him and greet him in the field, and he receives everyone graciously

22:21 and shows everyone a smiling face. In other words, it is not merely that in Elul we know the king is in the field and that the Rebbe receives everyone graciously and with a smiling face. The Jews who are in the field—or, worse, in the desert, as the Alter Rebbe explains in the maamar “Ani Ledodi”—need to go and meet the king. Here we see that the Alter Rebbe calls them “the people of the city,” not people of the field or people of the desert. A Jew knows that his place, his essential point and his purpose, is to be one of the people of the city. That is what he aspires to, that is his goal, and that is where he wants to arrive. So this is not just the beginning of the work; it is the work of teshuvah—teshuvah with joy and with love. As expressed in the familiar wording learned from the verse “Ani ledodi vedodi li”—“I am my Beloved’s, and my Beloved is mine”: Hakadosh Boruch Hu calls to him, and he calls to Hakadosh Boruch Hu out of love. This is teshuvah out of love, living teshuvah, warm teshuvah. Teshuvah motivated by love, with joy and gladness of heart, during days of Divine favor. And may Hakadosh Boruch Hu help us be inscribed and sealed for good, for a good and sweet year, a healthy year, a joyful year, and may we indeed, this year—and especially in this Hakhel year—

23:43 be filled with joy and gladness of heart, and merit salvation with the coming of Moshiach ben David.