31 Jan Parshas Nitzavim – Vayeilech – Rosh Hashanah- Shema
Parshas Nitzavim – Vayeilech – Rosh Hashanah
‘…with all your heart and all your soul.’
The Parshas that are read leading up to the week of Rosh Hashanah are Parshas Nitzavim-Vayaelich. In Nitzavim we see that Chapter 30 refers to the tshuva of the Final Redemption (30:1-6)…‘you will return unto to Hashem, your G-d , according to everything I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and all your soul.’ This idea of ‘ with all your heart and all your soul’ is repeated where the Torah shares the words of the Shema, however in the Shema we say something extra … ‘all my might’, as in ‘with all my heart and all my soul and all my might.’ So what happened to the phrase ‘all my might’ found in the Shema but not in this posuk (verse) ?
When we look at the brothers Jacob and Esau, we see that Esau was the sefirot of ‘might’ [left], and Jacob was from side of ‘loving kindness’ [right](although Jacob is best known for his ability to represent the sefirot of tiferet, beauty and harmony, on the middle axis of Truth, aka The Pillar of Torah).
It is important here to know that Jacob acquired and integrated the intellectual faculties of Esau during their wrestling match (…they embraced) and continues to do so (in his role as the rectification of Esau) . He did not however acquire the emotive heart experiences of Esau. It was only later after Esau did tshuva and rectified his emotive or heart experiences that Jacob would then integrate those midos of his brother Esau.
These rectified experiences of midos ( character traits) and the eventual rectified character traits of Esau are powerful lights that are to become integrated into Jacob a.k.a ‘Yisroel’ at the time of the final stages of the coming of the Messianic era. A ttime when opposites become rectified and interincluded as one. The power is great.
This is the understanding known as the ‘transformation of Esau’, the final stages of the coming of Mashiach when the energy of a rectified Esau integrated into Jacob-Yisroel. The ‘might’ of Esau is elevated and is integrated into Yisroel (Jacob and his children, Klol Yisroel, the Nation of Israeal; Her people, Her Land).
In the understanding of bringing about Oneness, when we make Kiddush, we elevate the wine (one of the 7 liquids of the Torah) which represents the sefirot of might, and with the brucha which is chesed-loving kindness, we bring them together elevating them both higher to become rectified as one.
The verse in Parshas Nitzavim 30; ‘…with all your heart and all your soul’ refers to a rectified state where the might of ‘…and all your might’ (as these concepts appear in the Shema) is integrated within the heart and soul, indicating an experience of a higher level of tshuvah come Mashiach.
We strive to acquire the trait of humility, and to stand before G-d divested of gevurah , a trait also know as might and the source of the egocentric traits of arrogance, pride and anger. Might-Gevurah is counterintuitive to the experience of humility. When a person stands before G-d with humility, one is then able to receive his abundant light, and be filled with His Love.
Shona Tova
Leib Getzel (Lawrence) Lax