Coming off the unbelievable experience of Tishrei, with so many additional tefillos, and especially those additions within our Shemoneh Esrei itself; we long for something still to add to our davening on Motza’ei Yom Tov....
Chasdei Hashem Yisbarach, Hashem gave us a very great gift: Mashiv HaRuach, a small expression of praise to Him that starts just now as we leave the confines of everything we just went through, something to give our Shemoneh Esrei an additional tefillah to take with us into the winter ahead.
But what is the connection between Mashiv HaRuach, Parashas Bereishis, and the return of the hostages, baruch Hashem?
Allow me to share a perspective: Rav Eliyahu Dessler zt’l writes, that when a person leaves this world and returns his neshamah to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, his body is interred in the ground, where, in a sense, he is likened to a seed that is planted for a future time, when once again he will sprout forth during Techias HaMeisim.
That is why, he explained, the statement of Mashiv HaRuach is placed in the berachah of Techias HaMeisim, specifically to show that this parable is really at the core of that future miracle of miracles. For there will come a time when there will be a resurrection of the dead; and we can see a live illustration of this great event even now, in the fact that there are seeds planted in the ground, and with rain and sunlight, Hashem miraculously allows them to sprout forth anew...
Our Parashah also reveals to us something about Techias HaMeisim. For when Hashem created the very first man, the pasuk says, ה' וייצר — And Hashem formed... (Bereishis 2:7). Rashi explains that at the formation of man the Torah writes the letter yud twice, to symbolize that this creation will have two parts to it: one in This World, and one of Techias HaMeisim.
Yedidi Rav Shloimie Hamada gifted me with an unbelievable sefer by Rav Yonason David shlita (titled Ulim — on the Torah), in which he points out something amazing on this Rashi. The Torah is teaching us here, that the fact man will experience resurrection at a future time is already within his DNA in his creation in this world too. The luz bone that never fades is the place in the body that already holds the life of that future time, while he lives in This World.
The Torah is actually revealing to us that man, even in Olam Hazeh, which is a manifestation of his life in This World, simultaneously has an eternal existence as well, that will come about only in a future time; but even here in the present lie the keys of the future.
While there is so much to speak about when talking about the very great chesed of Hashem, in returning our brethren from captivity, of whom we have all davened for so much until this very day (and we pray that He allow all the holy remains of those who were killed to be returned as well), one particular thought I had in watching the extremely touching scenes of fathers and sons reuniting at last after two full years of captivity, was that perhaps in a sense HaKadosh Baruch Hu is giving us a visual of what future a reunion will look like....
A reunion of a child in captivity with his beloved father who was longing to be with him once more...a reunion of a period of time that rips the heart asunder when even trying to wrap one’s head around it...
We are that child...that child who still remains in galus...in a form of great captivity, as we are surrounded on all sides by enemies that wish us R’l to be destroyed...by influences that have seeped into our miniature batei mikdash, Hashem yerachaim....
And our beloved Father in heaven longs more than we can possibly imagine to be reunited with us in His home once again as before....and for years and years, that feel like an eternity, we still remain here R’l....
Yet, here in this present state of galus, Hashem showed us a glimpse of that future, that we truly hope, b’ezras Hashem, to see very, very soon... of that ultimate reunion... one that will forever remain.... B’Siyata DiShmaya.
