Parashat Ha'azinu #2 - Enlarged Letter Hey (ה)

בס''ד


The letter Hey of Ha-le-Ad@nai in parashat Ha'azinu, Devarim/Deuteronomy 32:6 is a standard letter written enlarged according to Midrash Rabbah Aqim. This parasha is almost always read on Shabbat Shuvah, during the Ten Days of Repentance, and it is taught that Hey represents repentance. Why?

הַ לְיְהוָה, תִּגְמְלוּ-זֹאת-- עַם נָבָל, וְלֹא חָכָם: הֲלוֹא-הוּא אָבִיךָ קָּנֶךָ, הוּא עָשְׂךָ וַיְכֹנְנֶךָ.
Is this how you repay Ad@nai, O foolish and unwise people? Isn't He your Father who has gotten you? Hasn't He made you and established you?

This Hey is also special in that it's not just the prefix of the definite article ("the"), as the letter Hey at the beginning of a word can be, but it's to be treated as a separate word and therefore should be spaced (Talmud Yerushalmi Megilah 1)

The Ba'al Ha-Turim teaches that this Hey is an indictment against Am Yisra'el, the Jewish People, being so ungrateful to G@d. He had generously gifted us with the original self-help book (Torah), not for His sake but for the sake of our own self-improvement and growth through service. Our Sages taught that the Torah was given to us only to purify the people. The enlarged Hey is referring to the five books of the Torah, as Hey has a gematria of 5.

This Hey also balances out the diminished Hey which can be found in parashat Be-reshit Be-reshit/Genesis 2:4. This pasuq/verse reads:

אֵלֶּה תוֹלְדוֹת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְהָאָרֶץ, בְּהִבָּרְאָם: בְּיוֹם, עֲשׂוֹת יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים--אֶרֶץ וְשָׁמָיִם.
These are the generations of the Heaven and the Earth, when they were created in the day that Ad@nai, G@d, made Earth and Heaven.

The letter Hey of בְּהִבָּרְאָם be-hibaram, "when they were created", is written smaller than all the other letters. So we have a small Hey at the very beginning of the Torah, and a large Hey at the end. And when we read from the end and then cycle back to the beginning again on Simchat Torah, we meet both Heys on the same day.

The world was created with the letter Hey. How do we know this? Because we can read be-hibaram, "when they were created", as be-HEY-baram, "with Hey He created them". These are the generations of the Heaven and the Earth, with Hey they were created.

We also know this by Hey's shape: it reeks of teshuvah, repentance. There are two ways we see this: The Gemara in Menachot 29b tells us that this world is like the letter Hey - very easy to fall out the bottom (sin). But G@d has left a little space which we can climb up to, and squeeze through, to "get back to the Garden". That is teshuvah.

Menachot 29b also teaches that this letter Hey is G@d's sacred breath - as in Tehilim/Psalms 33:6:

בִּדְבַר יְהוָה, שָׁמַיִם נַעֲשׂוּ; וּבְרוּחַ פִּיו, כָּל-צְבָאָם.
By the utterance of Ad@nai the heavens were made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.

What is the sound of Hey? Exhale. That's it. Just like G@d blowing this holy breath of spirit into humankind, speaking all of Creation into existence, the letter Hey shows us G@d's creative power.


The other way is this: Hey is in fact made up of two other letters - Dalet and Yud. Dalet (דלת = door) is the doorway to G@d, to teshuvah, while Yud (יד = hand) is our own will to transform ourselves and getting closer to G@d by pushing open that door...


Both Rashi and the Lubavitcher Rebbe indicate that there is a question and a response (teshuvah) here. The little Hey in Genesis requires and anticipates the large Hey in Deuteronomy. Also, as we accepted, then transgressed the Torah (again Hey, as there are five books to the Torah and the number for Hey is five), we were given an extra gift from G@d to fix everything with. Teshuvah.


This is a new thing in the Universe, the Fifth Element, if you will. Since G@d made Creation to have four elements, four directions, et cetera, Teshuvah is the "fifth dimension". It is with this tool that we repair our lives and the World around us. And it comes straight from G@d.

This enlarged Hey being five also shows us G@d's open hand (five fingers) open to receive our repentance and generously forgive.

We only have Ten Days between Rosh Ha-Shanah and Yom Kipur. Please, let's use it.


Copyright © A. Barclay

BE-ROSH HA-SHANAH...

בס''ד


30 Elul

My Hebrew birthday is tomorrow. Alef Tishrei, or Rosh Ha-Shanah as more people know it. The following is a list of events which happened in Jewish history on that date:


Death of Sarah Imeinu/our mother and Akeidat Yitzchak/the binding of Isaac, 1676 BCE

Birth of Rav Yisroel Abuchatzeira, the Baba Sali (1890-1984)

Death of Rav Yaakov Dovid ben Ze’ev Wilovsky of Slutzk, Chicago and Tsefas (the Ridvaz), one of the great European scholars to come to America. As a consequence of the halachic standards of kashrus that he attempted to impose in Chicago, he eventually had to flee for his life (1845-1914).

Death of Rav Meir Yeudah Leibush ben Yechiel Michel (Malbim). (1809-1879). He was born in Volhynia and was still a child when his father died. He studied in his native town until the age of 13. He then went to Warsaw where he was known as the ‘iluy (prodigy) from Volhynia.’ From 1838 to 1845 he was rabbi of Wreschen, district of Posen, and in the latter year was called to the rabbinate of Kempen, where he remained until 1860; he was thereafter known as "der Kempener." In 1860 Malbim became chief rabbi of Bucharest, Rumania. But he could not agree with the rich German Jews there; they wished to introduce the Reformed rite, and did not shrink even from violence in the pursuit of their aims. By intrigues they succeeded in throwing him into prison, and though he was liberated through the intervention of Sir Moses Montefiore, it was upon the condition that he leave Rumania. He became Rav of Moghilef, on the Dnieper in 1870, but his lack of subservience provoked the resentment of the richer Jews, who denounced him as a political criminal. The governor of Moghilef ordered him to leave town. Malbim then went to Königsberg as chief rabbi of the Polish community, but there he fared no better than in Bucharest and Moghilef; he was continually harassed by the German Jews. His fame and immense popularity rests upon his widely esteemed commentary to Tanach, in which he details the close reationship between the Oral and the Written Law.

Death of Rav Amnon of Mainz, who died Qidush Ha-Shem (was martyred), while composing the Rosh Hashanah prayer, Unesaneh Tokef (1012).

Death of Rav Yitzchak Meir of Kopycznitz (1931).

Death of Rav Shefatia, author of the selicha, Yisrael Nosha Ba-Ha-Shem, (886)

Committed Inquisitor Cardinal Caraffa (later to be Pope Paulo IV), with the backing of Pope Julius III, publically burns sefarim, including the Talmud, in Rome, 1553
(this list is chiefly from another website whose name & URL I have long since forgotten & I'm sorry)


As my thoughts turn to teshuvah/repentance, for which we Jews are given the gift of these 10 "daze", I'm publicly encouraging anyone reading this blog who I may have hurt & owe an apology to, to please contact me privately.

May 5770 bring you blessings from the flow of G@d of good health, happiness, love, laughter, joy and peace! May all your plans and desires be fulfilled for the good! May we see the Moshiach rise bimheyra be-yameynu, Ameayn selah!

Full Moon of Elul - יָרֵחַ מָלֵא אלול

בס''ד

BS"D

Today is the 13th day of the Jewish month of Elul (אלול). The yare'ach maley, full moon, is just around the corner. This month of introspection, of turning and returning to The Holy One, is almost half over, when the waxing moon will swell to her fullest, then wane through the days leading us to Rosh Ha-Shanah, the Jewish New Year, the anniversary of the Creation of people.

To remind us that another New Year is coming and to awaken our yearning for teshuvah, repentance, each Elul morning except Shabbat my husband and I have prayed in our lush garden facing east, to Jerusalem, then blown the shofar on our back patio. We recite Tehilim/Psalm 27. We are truly blessed.

קידוש לבנה Qidush Levanah is the monthly sanctification of the moon, called levanah or yare'ach in Hebrew. According to various traditional sources, one must perform this ritual either the first moment one sees the moon in its new phase, or before the tenth day of the lunar month, or by the full moon at the latest. And always at night.

Talmud Bavli Sanhedrin 42a gifts us with the words to bless this Heavenly body, although Ashkenazi and Sefardi customs differ. In essence we are praising The Holy One for for such marvelous creations, including the miracle of the moon's monthly rebirth. We see this as a symbol of G@d's promise to redeem all the Jewish People and to make us complete once more in the Land of Israel.

The gematria, numerological value, of Elul is 67. When one add this number to the gematrial of yare'ach, which is 218, we get 285. And what is 285 the number of?

רוח נדיבה - ru'ach nadivah - a charitable, generous open-hearted willing or ready spirit or essence. A giving, open-handed attitude. And guess what? It's feminine.

So when you bless the moon of Elul tonight or tomorrow, remember that The Holy One is waiting with open arms to warmly welcome you back for a New Year.

And say a shehechiyanu.


Copyright © A. Barclay