In this week’s Torah reading, Eikev, when the Torah describes the greatness of the Land of Israel, it says: “a land the Lord, your G-d, looks after; the eyes of the Lord your G-d are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.” (Devarim 11:12)
The word "from the beginning"(מראשית) is written without an aleph מרֵשית)). Our Sages explain that רֵשית here hints at poverty and destitution (in Hebrew, “rash” and “evyon”), indicating that “any year that begins in poverty will be enriched at its end.”
The simple meaning is that at the beginning of the year—that is, on Rosh Hashanah—a person should feel humble and impoverished, subdue himself, and plead before G-d. When the Jewish people begin the year with humility and supplication, the year will “become enriched at its end” – the Divine blessing will be revealed and abundant.
From Trouble to Salvation
The Baal Shem Tov explains that the very feeling of poverty and humility is the vessel for receiving Divine abundance. He interprets the verse, “And your beginning shall be small, but your end shall increase exceedingly,” (Iyov 8:7) to mean that the state of being “small” is itself what brings success and great growth—“shall increase exceedingly.”
The Baal Shem Tov similarly explains the verse, “...it is a time of distress for Jacob, through which he shall be saved,” (Yirmiyahu 30:7)—that the salvation grows precisely from the trouble. This is achieved by transforming the tzarah (trouble) into a tzohar (a luminous window).
A Vessel for Blessing
When a person faces hardship or distress, he must remember that G-d is the ultimate good, and no evil descends from Above. Even the distress contains a hidden higher good, and our task is to draw out the light and goodness embedded within it. This approach helps turn tzarah into tzohar.
This principle also applies in our Divine service. In order to ascend to a higher spiritual level, a person must nullify his ego. Only through the attitude of, “let my soul be as dust to all,” can one reach, “open my heart to Your Torah.”
As long as a person is satisfied with his spiritual state, he is not a vessel for Divine blessing. Only through the feeling of poverty and lowliness can he attain true richness.
Spiritual Broken-Heartedness
This is the value of the prayer of the poor, whose suffering causes him to pour out his soul before G-d. An average person needs effort to open his heart, but the poor person “weeps in bitterness immediately, needing no contemplation at all” (as stated in Chassidic discourses). And it is precisely this broken-heartedness that brings his prayer before G-d.
One need not be materially poor, G-d forbid, to reach this state. Every Jew should have material abundance, so that he can serve G-d with joy.
But broken-heartedness can be achieved through nullifying oneself before G-d—when a Jew feels his distance from the Divine light, and how the physicality of the body and world conceal G-dly truth. Out of this broken heart comes great light, as in the verse: “From the narrow place I called to G-d,” and then, “G-d answered me with expansiveness.” (Tehillim 118:5)
(from the teachings of the Rebbe, Torat Menachem, Vol. 34, p. 304; Vol. 21, p. 12, translated from Sichot HaShevua)
