Based on the Kavanot for Rosh Chodesh Shevat:  Teshuva: We begin our Returning in Love by: “Give thanks to God Who is good, for His kindness is forever!

Let Israel declare that His Kindness is forever!

Let the House of Aaron declare that His kindness is forever!

Let those who are in awe of God declare that His kindness is forever!”

The Impact of Our Choices: We begin our celebration of the power of our choices by honoring the power of prayer:

“I called to the Creator of Heaven and Earth from a tight spot, and He answered me broadly. God is with me, I have no fear; what can people do to me? God is with me to help me, so I can confront my enemies. It is better to depend in God than to trust people. It is better to depend on God than to trust people in power. All the nations surrounded me but I survived them in God’s Name. They surrounded and encircled me but I survived them in God’s Name. Though they surrounded me like a swarm of bees, they were snuffed out like burnt thorns. I survived them in God’s Name. I was pushed to fall but God helped me. The Creator of Heaven and Earth is my Help and my Hammer, and became my Savior.”

Transformation: (Based on Hallel in History, Part Two.”)

This is the song of Samuel the Prophet, King David, his father, Yishai, and his brothers, celebrating David’s Transformation from a hated and resented shepherd boy into the greatest king of Israel:



“Song and victory sound in the tents of the just. God’s Hand makes victory. God’s Hand is supreme. God’s Hand makes victory! I will not die but live, and tell of the doings of the Creator of Heaven and Earth. The Creator afflicted me to direct me but did not destroy me. Open the gates of justice for me, I will enter and thank the Creator. This is the gate to God, the just may enter here. I thank You for answering me, You became my salvation. The stone rejected by the builders became the cornerstone. This happened because of God; it is wondrous in our eyes. This is the day God made; let us sing and be happy with it. Please God; Save us! Please God; Make us successful! Bless those who come in God’s Name; we bless you from God’s House. God  is The Power and gave us Light. Wave your holiday branches up to the corners of the altar. You are my Power and I thank You, My Lord and I will exalt You. Give thanks to God Who is good, for His kindness is forever!”

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“All you nations; Praise God!

Sing compliments, all you peoples!

For His kindness overpowers us, and God’s Truth is forever.

Hallelukah!”



Based on Kavanot for Rosh Chodesh Shevat

The Impact of Our Choices: Our expression of gratitude in the Amida in the 18^th blessing – Modim – is immediately followed by a universal expression of thanks: “v’chol ha’chaim.” The second paragraph of Benching – Grace After Meals – begins with Israel’s gratitude – Nodeh – and is followed by a common expression of appreciation: “Befi kol Chai”. The measure of a proper Thank You is its effect on those who hear it: Are they inspired to thank God?

Kavana: “We will act this month in such ways that our actions will inspire others to connect with You.

Transformation: Kavana: We pray for a world transformed, a world in which all nations will join us in praising God.

Teshuva: Kavana: We aspire to a love of God that reflects, “For His kindness overpowers us,” and leads to Teshuva from love. (See, “Reflections on Free Choice, Part One, and Two.”)

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“What can I respond to God for all the good He has given to make me independent?

I will lift up the cup of salvation and I will call out in God’s Name.

I will fulfill my promises to God in front of all His nation.

Death to His pious ones is precious in God’s eyes.

Please God, allow me to be Your servant.

I am Your worker, the son of Your maidservant,

You unlocked my chains.

I will bring an offering of thanks to You, and I will call out in the Name of God.

I will fulfill my promises to God in front of all His nation.

In the courtyards of God’s House, in the center of Jerusalem.

Hallelukah!”

Based on the Kavanot for Rosh Chodesh Shevat:

Teshuva: I am not only at a loss of words of praise; I do not even know how to thank God for all the good in my life: How can I thank God for all His kindness to me?”

Impact of Our Choices: I will publicly acknowledge my gratitude in a way that will inspire others to do the same: “I will raise the cup of salvations and I will invoke the Name of God. I will pay my vows to God in the presence of His entire people.”

Transformation: I thrill to be Your servant because it grants me a life of infinite possibilities: “Please, God – for I am Your servant – You have released my bonds.”

All Three Kavanot: The more I experience the freedom I gain through serving You, the more I want to thank you, so, I say again: “To You I will sacrifice thanksgiving offerings and I will invoke the Name of God. I will pay my vows to God in the presence, now, of His entire people.”



The feelings of gratitude, expectation and love are so powerful that I want to step into a different realm in order to feel that I can express all that I am feeling: “In the courtyards of the House of God, in your midst, O Jerusalem.”

“God remembered us and will bless – Bless the House of Israel – Bless the House of Aaron – Bless those who are in awe of God, the insignificant with the great.

God will enhance you – you and your children.

You are blessed to God Who made the heavens and the earth.

The heavens are God’s, while the earth has been given to people.

The dead do not praise the Creator of Worlds, nor do those who go down to their doom. But we – we praise the Creator of Worlds – From now and forever –

Hallelukah!”

Two of the Kavanot for Rosh Chodesh Shevat are Transformation, The Impact of Our Choices:

God blesses us with the ability to make the world our own through expanding His Presence in Creation: “The heavens are God’s, but the earth He has given to mankind.”



We acquire the earth through the same “Blessing” with which God showers us: “He will bless the House of Israel.” “But we will bless God from this time and forever.”

Our blessings matter because they are an expression of Free Choice – Our highest connection to God. We experience real life through our choices, which matter enough to make the earth ours: Neither the dead can praise God, nor any who descend into silence.”



Kavana: I can make the world mine by using my Free Choice to expand His Presence in Creation.

Another of the Kavanot for Shevat is Teshuva:

“The dead do not praise the Creator of Worlds, nor do those who go down to their doom. But we – we praise the Creator of Worlds.” The wicked are often described as spiritually “dead.” We use this Hallel, and the special Teshuva opportunity afforded by Shevat, to celebrate that by connecting to God by singing His praises, gives us new life, as we pray God will do on the Rosh Hashanah of Tu Bishvat.

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We derive the appellation for God’s Name, used in the Rosh Chodesh Mussaf – Additional Prayer – from the combination of letters and vowels of the following verse: “He shall not distinguish between good and bad and he should not substitute for it; and if he does substitute for it, then it and its substitute shall be holy.” – Vihay Hu Utemurato Yiheye.” (Leviticus 27:33)

Rashi, based on the Talmud (Bechorot 14a) explains: Even if the tenth animal is bad, in that it has a blemish that disqualifies it from use as an offering, it is Ma’aser nonetheless. It may be used only for food but not for work or shearing.

I. Transformation

The Imrei Tzaddikim quotes the Maggid of Mezeritch as explaining that, “Vahaya,” is a term that is used to express joy. When a person succeeds in making both the holy and its substitute – the mundane – holy, even that which goes against holiness, the person himself will become holy and will rejoice in his holiness.

Shevat is the month in which we begin to look forward to the spring and its rejuvenation of life. The physical world begins to awaken from its summer sleep. The physical world is neutral. It challenges us to choose how to use the mundane, whether to sanctify it, or whether we will limit ourselves by living a purely physical existence.

We focus on the Name of God that is hidden within this verse with a prayer that, this spring, we will merit to transform every aspect of our physical lives into eternal spiritual existence, and that we will merit to experience the eternal joy that is so potent in spiritual existence.

II. Teshuva

Rabbi Chaim Meir of Fishnets explains that a person has the capacity to transform even sins into Mitzvot through Teshuva, and thus, all becomes holy.

The world awakening from its winter sleep is a representation of the ability of people who have fallen asleep; people who perform Mitzvot, pray, and study Torah, without awareness, and out of habit, as if they were sleep walking through their spiritual lives, to wake up and inject new spirit into their spiritual lives. This awakening from sleep is Teshuva, “Awaken sleepers from your slumber!”

A new year begins in Shevat; Tu Bishvat. It is an opportunity for Teshuva, for waking up. We focus on this Appellation as a prayer that God will empower our Teshuva and help us return to Him, and begin the New Year with blessing and joy.

III. The Impact of Our Choices

The Shiva Einayim reflects on how much of our world depends on the idea of exchange, “Chalipin”. We exchange money for goods, one favor for another, and we exchange greetings. The world is filled with give and take.

There is a higher level of exchange, Temurah, with which we shed an outer garment in order to clothe ourselves in something holier. For example, the 600,000 letters of the Torah represent the 600,000 Root Souls of Israel, and 600,000 Ministering Angels. We begin with a basic letter and then we can shed its physical garment – form – and use each letter of the Torah to connect with the Roots of our Souls and the Highest Angels.

When we pay attention to each letter of the Torah and stop and reflect on it as having a higher message from God, the letter reaches beyond its physical form. When we are able to come up with a new insight because of that letter, we connect with the Root of our Soul. When we act on that insight, we touch the world of the Ministering Angels. We have performed Temurah on that letter. We “switched” or “exchanged” on level of existence for another.

We also have the capacity to take the ethereal and limit it to a basic physical form. When we recite a blessing without thought or awareness, we have “switched” the holy into a simple physical act. Even when we perform a “Temurah” from the higher level to the lower, we are accessing the holiest power we have been granted: Our ability to step from one world to another. We use the gift of making choices and acting in a manner that can change worlds.

We focus on this Divine Appellation in order to remind ourselves of this great Divine gift, the ability to shed one level of existence for another. We pray that God empower us to use this gift for good so that we can blossom anew with fresh perspectives and new strengths.

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“Illuminate our eyes in Your Torah.” The theme we are using this Shabbat is how Shabbat is an experience of the World-to-Come (See: “Kabbalat Shabbat-A Single Utterance”). The Talmud offers two powerful examples of the Special Light of the World-to-Come:

“And it shall come to pass in that day that there shall not be light, but heavy clouds [yekaroth] and thick [we-kippa'on] (Zechariah 14:6),” what does yekaroth we-kippa’on mean? Rav Yochanan said: This refers to Nega’im and Ohaloth (The laws of biblical ‘leprosy’ and the defilement of tents through a dead body), which are difficult in this world, yet shall be easily understood in the future world.

While Rabbi Joshua ben Levi said: This refers to the people who are honored in this world, but will be lightly esteemed in the next world. As was the case of Rabbi  Joseph the son of R. Joshua b. Levi, who became ill and fell into a trance. When he recovered, his father asked him, ‘What did you see?’ ‘I saw a topsy-turvy world’, he replied, ‘the upper [class] underneath and the lower on top’’ he replied:

‘My son’, he observed, ‘you saw a clear world (In which people occupy the positions they merit).’ (Pesachim 50a)

Application: Requesting the Light of the World to Come to Shine on this Shabbat

Kavanah: “We ask that God shine the Light of the Future World on our Torah study; the Light through which even the most difficult subjects will be understood.” Spend extra time studying Torah topics and books that are usually difficult to learn with after using this Kavanah.

Shabbat Before the Tenth of Tevet Kavanah: “Illuminate our world so that people occupy the positions they truly merit,” so that we can choose those from whom to study, as we Battle the Siege.

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Many of the verses in the concluding Psalm of the Hallel resonate powerfully on Rosh Chodesh Tevet, the month in which Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian hordes lay siege to Jerusalem:

“I called to the Creator of Heaven and Earth from a tight spot (inside besieged Jerusalem), and He answered me broadly.”

Sefat Emet: The Baal Shem Tov explained that we should read this verse as, “Not only will God take us out of this tight spot, but it will be from within the tight spot itself that the salvation will come (Netzavim 5640).” Kavanah: Rather than look for the salvation to come from outside besieged Jerusalem; we can look inside the city, at ourselves, and find the key to salvation.

Kedushat Levi: Just as the Creator, Blessed is He, is Infinite; so are His Attributes without measure. At the time of creation, He constricted His Attributes. However, from within the constricted Attributes, as they are drawn to Israel, they expand broadly (Ki Tisa). Kavanah: The siege of Jerusalem was possible only because of the constricted Attributes. We need only access their Essence, and they will broaden and wipe away all who fight them. “May we merit to access all of the Divine Attributes and broaden their expression in this world through our service of God, so that all boundaries imposed on us will be smashed.”

Ohr HaChochmah: When the Evil Inclination pushes me into a limited state, so that I feel besieged, I consider whether Above I am being constricted, and I call out,  as in, “I called to the Creator of Heaven and Earth from a tight spot, and He answered me broadly,” to the One Who promised that He will always be with us when we are suffering, so that I will be empowered to break all boundaries and limitations (Beshalach). Kavanah: The Spiritual Influence of the siege of Jerusalem is experienced when we feel constricted in our spiritual growth. We turn to God and request His ‘Broadness,” expansiveness, so that we can achieve explosive growth.

Ohr Yisrael: When we are suffering and besieged by troubles and enemies, we do not respond as others, described by the prophet, “Through the land will pass the troubled and hungry. When he will be hungry he will be angry and curse his kings and gods, and direct his face on high (Isaiah 8:21),” rather, we, “Call out to God from a tight spot,” and this committed expression of love and loyalty, elicits, “He answers me expansively.” (Tikkunei Zohar #12) Kavanah: We sing this Hallel in loyal love even though we hear the Babylonians, and our other enemies approaching, confident that You will respond to our love for You with Infinite blessings and kindness.

Shufrah d’Yaakov: When we are in exile, we call out because Your Name is not whole. We pray that Your Name be fully expressed in this world (Chanukah) Kavanah: Had the inhabitants of Jerusalem prayed, not for themselves, but for God’s Name to be expanded in the world; the Babylonian siege would have been smashed, just as was the Assyrian attack. We commit ourselves to focus on Your Glory; not our suffering.

Yismach Yisrael: “I called out to Y-H,” as in, “For with Y-H, He created worlds (Isaiah 26:4),” ‘worlds,” meaning, this world and the World to Come. When I am besieged by enemies, limited by my sins, I fear that I have lost both worlds. They respond from Heaven, “and He was for me, Li, a salvation,” your salvation is in returning Li, to Me, and then you will experience the broadness of God (Likkutim; Tehillim). Kavanah: “We call out to You to return to You. Please respond broadly.”

I suggest that we focus on the following verses in the same context of escaping the “siege.”

“All the nations surrounded me but I survived them in God’s Name. They surrounded and encircled me but I survived them in God’s Name. Though they surrounded me like a swarm of bees, they were snuffed out like burnt thorns. I survived them in God’s Name. I was pushed to fall but God helped me.”

“Open the gates of justice for me, I will enter and thank the Creator. This is the gate to God, the just may enter here.”

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We derive the appellation for God’s Name, used in the Rosh Chodesh Mussaf – Additional Prayer – from the combination of letters and vowels of the following verse: “Declare the greatness of God with me, and let us exalt His Name together.” (Psalms 43:4)

I. Individual Divine Providence

There are those who believe that God is so exalted and that it is not respectful of Him to even believe that He is directly involved with the physical beings of this earth. Therefore, Moshe declared, “Declare the greatness of God,” – “Who is with me,” meaning, who is directly involved with me. (Ketav Sofer)

We are entering winter the darkest time of the year. The Kabbalists teach that Tevet is one of the months that because of their darkness are in the hands of the angel of Eisav. However, the beginning of Tevet always falls during Chanukah, and the light of the Menorah can weaken and even defeat the darkness of Eisav right from the beginning of the month.

II. Partners

The Talmud teaches that we should never rely on a miracle. (Ta’anit 20b) A person must accept responsibility to act with an absolute trust that God, Who will be, “With me,” and will bless and empower our efforts, will join his efforts. (Ketav Sofer)

This flows directly from the strength of Chanukah, when the Chashmonaim chose to act without relying on miracles. Their choice stirred the heavens and God empowered their victories and success. We pray on Rosh Chodesh that we should have the clarity to define how much effort is necessary, the courage to act, and that God will join with us and empower our actions.

III. Humility

Usually when someone says, “Do this with me,” he is asking the other to join him, but he is primary. Moses begins by inviting us to praise God with him, but he concludes, “We will exalt His Name together.” We will all be equal. (Rabbi Akiva Eiger)

We can attach to the strength of those greater than we, and join them in serving God. The name of God hidden in this verse, allows us to draw on that strength and actually rise to the level of those greater individuals who inspire us.

We pray that during this coming month we will be able to draw on the strength of all those who teach us Torah and Service of God, even if only through their sefarim – books – written long ago. We pray that we can then make that strength part of our own service and growth.

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Ashrei: Singing to Heal: Singing so We Can Sing More:

“Now the spirit of God had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from God tormented him. Saul’s attendants said to him, “See, an evil spirit from the Lord is tormenting you. Let our lord command his servants here to search for someone who can play the harp. He will play when the evil spirit from the Lord comes upon you, and you will feel better.”

So Saul said to his attendants, “Find someone who plays well and bring him to me.”

One of the servants answered, “I have seen a son of Jesse of Bethlehem who knows how to play the harp. He is a brave man and a warrior. He speaks well and is a fine-looking man. And God is with him.”

Then Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, “Send me your son David, who is with the sheep.”

So Jesse took a donkey loaded with bread, a skin of wine and a young goat and sent them with his son David to Saul.

David came to Saul and entered his service. Saul liked him very much, and David became one of his armor-bearers.

Then Saul sent word to Jesse, saying, “Allow David to remain in my service, for I am pleased with him.”

Whenever the spirit from the Lord came upon Saul, David would take his harp and play. Then relief would come to Saul; he would feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him (I Samuel 16:14-23).”

Psalm 146: Finding the Small Things to Discover God

Flower in the crannied wall,

I pluck you out of the crannies,

I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,

Little flower -but if I could understand

What you are, root and all, and all in all,

I should know what God and man is.

(Alfred, Lord Tennyson; Flower in the Crannied Wall)

“The Maker of heaven and earth,

The sea, and everything in them

Who remains faithful forever.

He upholds the cause of the oppressed

And gives food to the hungry.

God sets prisoners free,

God gives sight to the blind,

God lifts up those who are bowed down,

God loves the righteous.

God watches over the alien

And sustains the fatherless and the widow,

But He frustrates the ways of the wicked.”

The verses transition from, “Maker of heaven and earth,” to the hungry, blind, widows and orphans. We praise God to Whom the flower in the crannied wall matters as much as the heaven and earth. We commit ourselves to look for the small signs of His love and creation, so that we can better “Know” Him.

Psalm 147: Healer of the Brokenhearted so They Can Sing

For the truth itself,

That’s neither man’s nor woman’s, but just God’s;

None else has reason to be proud of truth:

Himself will see it sifted, disenthralled,

And kept upon the height and in the light,

As far as, and no farther, than ’tis truth;

For,-now He has left off calling firmaments

And strata, flowers and creatures, very good,-

He says it still of truth, which is His own.

Truth, so far, in my book;-the truth which draws

Through all things upwards; that a twofold world

Must go to a perfect cosmos. Natural things

And spiritual,-who separates those two

In art, in morals, or the social drift,

Tears up the bond of nature and brings death,

Paints futile pictures, writes unreal verse,

Leads vulgar days, deals ignorantly with men,

Is wrong, in short, at all points. We divide

This apple of life, and cut it through the pips,-

The perfect round which fitted Venus’ hand

Has perished utterly as if we ate

Both halves. Without the spiritual, observe,

The natural’s impossible;-no form,

No motion! Without sensuous, spiritual

Is inappreciable;-no beauty or power!

And in this twofold sphere the twofold man

(And still the artist is intensely a man)

Holds firmly by the natural, to reach

The spiritual beyond it,-fixes still

The type with mortal vision, to pierce through,

With eyes immortal, to the antetype

Some call the ideal,-better called the real,

And certain to be called so presently,

When things shall have their names

(Elizabeth Barrett Browning; Earth’s Crammed With Heaven)

Psalm 148: Each Creation Has Its Song

Let this day’s air praise the Lord—

Rinsed with gold, endless, walking the fields,

Blue and bearing the clouds like censers,

Holding the sun like a single note

Running through all things, a basso profundo

Rousing the birds to an endless chorus.

Let the river throw itself down before him,

The rapids laugh and flash with his praise,

Let the lake tremble about its edges

And gather itself in one clear thought

To mirror the heavens and the reckless gulls

That swoop and rise on its glittering shores

(Robert Siegel: Rinsed with Gold)

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“After the boy had gone, David got up from the south side [of the stone] and bowed down before Jonathan three times, with his face to the ground. Then they kissed each other and wept together–but David wept the most.

Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, for we have sworn friendship with each other in the name of God, saying, ‘God is witness between you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants forever.’” Then David left, and Jonathan went back to the town (I Samuel 20:41-42).”

“Wept together–but David wept the most,” Jonathan and David began by sharing their tears for the loss of each other now that David had to run. The crying together changed into crying for each other, and therefore, “David wept the most,” for Jonathan would never become king.

We begin Tisha B’Av by crying together in our shared suffering. Eventually, we must spend time thinking of the suffering of others, and cry for them; a perfect Tikkun of the sin of baseless hatred that led to the destruction of the Second Beit Hamikdash.

Tools:

On Tisha B’Av night, focus on the blessings that openly speak of Israel as a Nation; Redemption, The Ingathering of the Exiles, Jerusalem, and The Budding of Salvation. Cry together with all of Israel.

On Tisha B’Av morning and Mincha, focus on the blessings of Teshuva, Healing, Sustenance, with cries for others who are suffering.

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