Elul: Love Songs: Stepping Toward
Aug 31st, 2010 by Rabbi Simcha Weinberg in Holidays, Spiritual Growth
Love Connections
Rabbi Eliezer of Worms, the Rokeach, explains this verse as describing the Teshuva process: With each step we take back toward our Beloved, God, He takes a step back toward us.
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To me the verse itself represented a step “back”, or rather, “forward” in one’s relationship to G-d. In an earlier verse in the Song of Songs, the idea is phrased as, “My Beloved is to me and I am His” – note who comes first! At first the love is “Me” oriented, but later in Chapter 6, it is oriented to HaShem, our Beloved, first and foremost.
There are numerous teachings that HaShem’s Presence was removed upward level after level, distanced from our plane of existence by our transgressions and poor behavior: G-d’s sanctified Presence literally removed itself from being around us as we went downhill.
We also are taught that if G-d were immediately present, we would be smitten by His Presence. There would be no free choice. We would be overwhelmed by the Presence of our Creator and all our disbelief, all our misbehaviors would be blotted out as darkness is in the face of an immense source of illumination/radiance.
We are therefore in a “Catch-22″ situation: we have pushed the Divine Presence away by our or our ancestors’ actions, so we can’t feel it as much. We lose a lot of drive because of that. *However!* if G-d comes closer, we *will* feel the effects! It will lead to increased Ruach HaKodesh and inspiration as well as effectiveness we’ll palpably experience in our practice of Mitzvot and when we learn.
Putting all this together, it is very useful to formulate the following prayer and to recite it either daily or at those special times when one is feeling attached to HaShem:
“Please G-d, bring your Presence closer to us by as many degrees as possible. Please HaShem, turn our hearts to You and let our actions reflect that love. Make the Torah and Mitzvot sweet to us and draw all of Klal Yisrael close to you by revealing your Presence to us more and more. Give us teachers who can reveal your Truth to us and please implant within us all a desire to learn and to draw closer to You and each other.”
The corollary of this verse is the verse “Shuvu Eilai v’Ashuva Aleichem” (Mal’achi 3;7)==> G-d, if you will, is beseeching Ahm Yisrael ‘Return to Me and I will return to you’.
I believe this is what The Rokeach is alluding to. Truly,”I am to my Beloved and my beloved is to Me” is a very High level and joyous.However, that joy pales in comparison to the joy experienced in reunification after a separation( also see ‘Two Straight Lines’ http://blog.thefoundationstone.org/2010/08/31/two-straight-lines/).
R’Shlomo says Two people who are really connected- when they part and walk away from each other- every 2 steps they turn around to look at each other and wave, 2more steps they turn around. They just can’t really bear to say goodbye.
So I say in explaining “Rabi Eliezer of Worms, the Rokeach,describing the Teshuva process: With each step we take back toward our Beloved, God, He takes a step back toward us.”===> IT’S AS IF WE NEVER LEFT.