One of the important verses that is used to describe our service of God during the month of Elul and on Rosh Hashanah is, “Serve God with fear, and rejoice with trembling (Psalms 2:11).” We are encouraged to be happy on Rosh Hashanah despite the fact that we tremble on the Day of Judgment because the verse instructs us to, “Rejoice with trembling.” This series, Joyous Trembling, will focus on both the idea of finding joy and on the idea of trembling.

“Rejoice with trembling,” it is only after a person has achieved true fear of God, that he can feel safe and confident in being joyous with God, without that sense of joy leading him to behave inappropriately. (Bet Yaakov Ishbitz; Acharei Mot 32)

The Ishbitzer views Joyous Trembling as an opportunity to be completely joyous with out fear of losing perspective. Our goal is to be happy in our service of God. We take advantage of the natural fear of approaching the Day of Judgment to feel secure enough to be happy when facing the King of Kings.

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This series, Voices, will focus on verses that describe different voices, whether the voice of God speaking to us, the voice of the prophets, or our voices addressing God. I hope to use each voice as a practical strategy for listening to the voice of the shofar during Elul, and on Rosh Hashanah.

“My voice is raised to the Lord and I cry aloud, my voice is raised it to the Lord and He gives year to me (Psalms 77:2).” The Seforno explains the repetition of, “My voice is raised to the Lord,” as underlying the dual aspect of Israel’s prayers; we beseech to save us from the direct persecution of the enemy and to alleviate the in direct suffering of the exile, caused by economic and social problems.

There is a separate voice for each suffering. There is a separate voice for each aspect of the suffering; each of its direct and in direct consequences for us. We do not need to cry out to God only in general terms. We sound the shofar over and over as if 2 point out each detail of our suffering. We use the shofar as an expression of each and every emotion we feel in our relationship with God. There are so many soundings of the shofar between Elul and Rosh Hashanah because there are so many different voices deep inside of us waiting to be expressed. All the different voices of the shofar are to encourage us to express all the voices of all our different emotions and experiences as we approach the coronation of the King on Rosh Hashanah.

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We approach God during Elul and on Rosh Hashanah as a servant approaches his master. This series, “Master and Servant,” will focus on this aspect of our relationship with God.

“It is insufficient that you be a servant for Me, only to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the ruins of Israel; I will make you a light for the nations, so that My salvation may extend to the ends of the earth (Isaiah 49:6).” When God addresses Isaiah and Israel as His servants, He wants them to do more than raise up the Jewish people; He wants us, as His servants, to serve as a light for the nations.

When we at dressed God during this time of the year as servants approaching their Master, we approach as servants committed to their highest mission; to leave in such a way that we truly become a light for the nations.

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One of the verses that is used to describe the Teshuvah process of the month of Elul is, “Seek God when He can be found; call Him when He is near (Isaiah 55:6).” This series, The Search, will focus on different approaches we can use to “Seek God.”

“On the day of my distress, my Master, I sought. My wound loses through the night, and does not cease; my soul refuses comfort (Psalms 77:3).” The exile of Tisha b’Av accomplished its purpose, which was to elevate me. Even at the height of my agony I never sought near relief from pain; I asked for spiritual renewal and Divine guidance (Targum).”

I accepted each pain of suffering as a forceful invitation to, “seek out my Master.”

This definition of the word “Seek,” is to view all of life’s challenges as invitations to seek God’s lesson encoded in the challenge. The invitation itself is an expression of God, “when He can be found.”

This approach to Elul is that I review each challenge of the past year as an invitation from God, Who is making Himself available to guide us in the process of learning the lessons He wants to convey.

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“Perhaps the history of the errors of mankind, all things considered, is more valuable and interesting than that of their discoveries. Truth is uniform and narrow; it constantly exists, and does not seem to require so much an active energy, as a passive aptitude of soul in order to encounter it. But error is endlessly diversified, it has no reality, but it is the pure and simple creation of the mind that invents it. In this field, the soul has room enough to expand herself, to display all her boundless faculties, and all her beautiful and interesting extravangancies and absurdities.” (Report of Dr Benjamin Franklin, and Other Commissioners, Charged by the King of France, with the Examination of the Animal Magnetism, as Now Practiced in Paris [1784])

“And this stumbling block is under your hand (Isaiah 3:6).” This verse discusses the time preceding the destruction of the First Temple, when the people of Jerusalem had become lax in the study of Torah, and experts capable of issuing halachic rulings were scarce. Whenever people would encounter someone who seemed well-versed in Torah, they would implore him to assume the position as their halachic authority. They would say, “Come, become our leader, for this stumbling block, the Torah, is under your hand,” meaning you are well versed in the Torah’s laws.

Rabbah bar Rav Huna wanted to retract one of his halachic rulings. “He assigned an announcer before him to broadcast his retraction, and he expounded: ‘And this stumbling block is under your hand.’ Why is the Torah referred to as a stumbling block? Because a person does not arrive at a full understanding of the words of Torah unless he has first stumbled in interpreting them (Gittin 43a).” Rashi explains that if a sage stumbles and rules incorrectly, and is rebuked by his colleagues, he will concentrate until he fully understands the matter.

I would like to take the approach this year to the Vidui, the confession of Ashamnu, Bagadnu, of acknowledging mistakes and articulating what we can learn from our mistakes. I believe that the physical action of pounding our chests during the Vidui contains both elements: we bring our fist to our chest as we acknowledge our sin, but then pull our fist away from us toward the future to indicate grow that we will because of, and through our mistakes.

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I took the same steps as every day, but this morning when I stepped into what is Van Cortland Park every other morning, I found myself in the Twilight Zone, I somehow had ended up in Central America. OK, I was exhausted and may have taken one or two wrong turns on my way, but how did I get to Central America?

Large groups were gathered around each playing field and picnic area. Each group was from a different country. I could tell by the flags and tee-shirts: Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras were all represented. I was in a different world.

Having been to all those countries on business trips, I tried to recall each place. All I could remember was my hotel room and the Gemara – Tractate of the Talmud – that I was studying on each trip. I traveled on business so I went from airport to hotel to office and back to the hotel. The trips were opportunities to learn without distraction.

I guess you could say that I had not visited each of those countries as much as I was able to create my own space in each place.

“One thing I asked of God, that shall I seek: Would that I dwell in the House of God all the days of my life, to behold the sweetness of God and to contemplate in His Sanctuary.” (Psalm 27:4)

We do not only pray for the opportunity to be with God in His Sanctuary in Jerusalem, we also celebrate that we have the ability to create a sense of His Holy Place wherever we are.

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My wife told me that I was talking in my sleep: “Red eyed from wine (Genesis 49:12),” Rashi explains that this is an allusion to the great vision we have when we stand on a high place.

Consider the following four “visions” of Moshe: “It happened in those days that Moses grew up and went out to his brethren and observed their burdens; and he saw and Egyptian man striking a Hebrew man, of his brethren (Exodus 2:11).” At the Bush that Appeared to be Burning, the verse says, “He saw and behold! The Bush was burning in the fire but the Bush was not consumed (3:2).” “He said, ‘Show me now Your glory.’ He said, ‘You will not be able to see My face, for no human can see My face and live’ (to say 33:18 and 20).” “Moses ascended from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the summit of the cliff that faces Jericho, and God showed him the entire Land (Deuteronomy 34:1).”

That’s all that Debbie heard me say. She said that the rest was inaudible.

I don’t remember what I was thinking when I was dreaming, but I suspect that my dream was about the correlation between the Four Cups of Wine of the Seder and these four “visions” of Moshe.

In his first vision, Moshe went out to observe, to see, and because he went out with that intention he was able to see something happen right before his eyes. This speaks of the vision we are granted when we are determined to carefully observe everything around us. This corresponds to the first of the Four Cups, Kaddeish, when we declare our intention to sanctify the Seder, meaning to view all that we will be doing through the lens of sanctity.

Moshe’s second vision is important not because of what he saw, but as the verse says, “he turned,” to examine what he saw. This speaks of someone responding to what he sees; to understand it and to learn from it. This corresponds to the second of the For Four Cups, Maggid, when we not only look at every detail of the Pesach story, but we consider how to apply what we see to our lives.

Moshe’s third vision was the greatest vision ever granted to a human being, but still limited; God covered Moshe’s eyes just as we cover our eyes when we recite the Shema. This reflects what happens when we begin to see things we have never seen before, when we are able to see with great clarity, and yet, although we are seeing more than ever before, we sense that there is much more that we are not meriting to see. This is the third of the Four Cups, Bareich, when we are able to see eating, a physical action, as something holy, something beyond the way we normally view the physical things we do. So much of our eating at the Seder is the fulfillment of numerous mitzvot that we are able to view eating with more clarity than at any other time of the year. Yet, there is that sense of there being so much more that we have yet to see.

We sense how much more there is to see, so we turn to the next stage of the Seder; Hallel. When sung properly, Hallel parallels the final vision of Moshe; when he saw the entire Land. He saw everything. He saw all of Jewish history. He was granted a vision that was a long and broad. He saw with clarity and without limitation. This is the vision of the fourth of the Four Cups of Wine.

Hey! It was a dream; but you never know…maybe it was a “vision!”

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Peter Godwin has been described as “The Dante in Mugabe’s Hell,” for his book, “The Fear – Robert Mugabe and the Martyrdom of Zimbabwe.” He describes Mugabe as a, ‘musty anti-colonialist in Saville Row suits. Mugabe likes to wrap his cudgel in a veneer of bureaucratic normality. Lawyers defend torture victims in the courts, but judges are arrested when they rule against the government.” A policeman berates Godwin for blocking traffic, then goes back to cracking women’s and children’s skulls with his stave.   (Think of Moshe’s reaction to the Egyptian striking the slave.) And two Anglican bishops, one legitimate, the other a pro-Mugabe usurper – duel, prissily, with their ceremonial crosiers inside a sedate Harare cathedral. (Think of Pharaoh sending his “bishops,” the magicians, to duel with Moshe.)

We are all too familiar with evil in the veneer of normality. We are the Dantes of countless hells all over the world, throughout history: “In very generation they stand against us to destroy us.”

We describe our encounter with the Mugabe of Egypt, Pharaoh: “And the Egyptians did evil to us,” as it says, “Come, let us outsmart him, lest they increase…” I read this as, “The Egyptians portrayed us as evil,” to themselves and to us. They created a reality in which we had to prove our loyalty to their land.

The Egyptians were not the first Mugabes: “Pharaoh decreed only against the males, and Laban wanted to uproot everything.” Laban used his propaganda to portray Jacob as a thief who could not control his urges. “Why do you sneak away as a thief in the night?” “Why did you steal my gods?”

Laban was the first Mugabe. He wrapped himself in his own Saville Row suits of righteousness, “I am the patriarch of this family. The girls are my daughters. The boys are my sons. I am the Zaidy of this family.”

Laban wanted to flip the whole picture upside down: He, not Abraham, was the patriarch of the family. He wanted to discombobulate our identity as a family with a grand mission.

The story continues in a world that challenges the most moral nation on the planet for being immoral. They speak with the same intention as did Laban and Pharaoh; they want to deprive us of our identity as a unique and holy nation.

Pesach night is our celebration of identity and our ability to hold on tight to that identity despite the unceasing attacks of the Labans, Pharaohs, and all the Mugabes in history.

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“Many daughters have amassed achievement, but you surpassed them all.”

My daughter wanted a specific dress, but it was far too short. “Don’t worry,” she assured me, “Mommy can fix it.” I suggested that even Mommy can’t make a dress grow, but she insisted, “Mommy can do anything!”

My children are convinced that their mother can do absolutely anything. They have seen her successfully tackle one insurmountable problem after another. They do not need proof that she possesses the specific skill necessary for a particular task. They know that she will succeed at whatever she does.

The Woman of Valor projects that sense of surpassing anything and anyone. She is a woman without limitation. She incorporates everything she learns. She lives all that she believes. She has confidence and courage, determination and destiny. She is a Whole and Complete person, a paradigm of a person striving to master herself and attach to the Creator.

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He is sitting in his living room studying a scroll he inherited for Methusaleh, his wife preparing dinner, his kids in cheder, when God appears to Noah: “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with corruption through them; and behold, I am about to destroy them from the earth. Make for yourself an Ark…I will establish My covenant with you, and you shall enter the Ark…” (Genesis 6:13-21)

I don’t know about you, but if God appeared to me and gave those instruction, I would feel pretty good about myself. He is going to destroy the earth, but will save my family, me, and make a covenant with me!

I imagine that when God appears the person experiences total clarity, so, it is safe to assume that Noah knew that God liked him. Yet, the Sages question the Torah’s praises of Noah. Some say he was the real thing, while others say that he was only considered a righteous man in his generation; compared to his contemporaries. Why do the Sages qualify the Torah’s praises of Noah?

Because Noah did! “Then God said to Noah, ‘Come to the Ark, you and all your household, for it is you that I have seen to be righteous before Me in this generation.’” (7:1) Why did God add “for it is you that I have seen to be righteous before Me” only at the point when Noah had to enter the Ark?

It seems as if Noah did not appreciate that God was saving him because of his righteousness. Even after receiving a prophecy, defined as absolute clarity (Derech Hashem, 3:3:4), Noah did not feel that God chose him because of his righteousness. Some clarity was missing. Noah, the “Righteous man, perfect in his generations (See “Noah, Man of Clarity”), Noah walked with the Lord,” (6:9) did not perceive himself as a Tzaddik, and refused to believe that God chose him because of his righteousness. Noah had a vision problem. (See “All Sorts of Arks,” and “The View From The Window”)

Noah had to learn to appreciate himself before he could successfully rebuild the earth. The Tzohar, that shone the Ark’s light outward, was to teach him to see his own inner light. He had to see, appreciate and honor the light of someone who could stand up to more than a century of ridicule, dedicate 120 years to building the Ark without hearing God’s voice again until just before the flood, and care for the animals day and night. The light in the Ark was Noah’s inner light. The Tzohar took that illumination and shone it outward. The world was dead, dark and empty. The inside of the Ark was teeming with life and filled with light. Noah had to see that light, for he would need it once he stepped out of the Ark.

We spent most of the month of Tishrei inside the Ark of intense holidays, all filled with light. The light we experienced was our inner light, and the Tzohar of the Succah, the open spaces in the S’chach reminded us that we can shine that light outward, beyond the walls of the Succah, the Ark of the Holidays.

We must spend time reflecting on the inner light we saw over Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Succot and Simchat Torah, so that we are fully prepared to step away from the Ark back into the world and continue to shine as we build a better world.

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Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.