We are at the start of a new year. The uplifting Yamim Tovim are behind us, and now we come back to the starting point – Bereishis. A new start, an opportunity to forget the past and start everything anew, on the right foot.
Regarding the tremendous simchah of Simchas Torah, tzaddikim have said that beyond the simchah of completing the Torah, there is a joy we feel for the opportunity to start again from Bereishis – the opportunity to open a new page.
The thought then arises: This is not the first time. We’ve already been at this starting point, already promised ourselves that this time we would start anew, and then a year passed – and we did not advance to where we had hoped. If we remain wallowing in these thoughts, then indeed we will continue in the same situation. Only if we seek to move past the thoughts to the actions, and ask ourselves how indeed we can start anew — will we be able to move forward.
The month that passed by, bursting with Yamim Tovim, did not disappear. It is a stop meant to fill us up with spiritual strength for the entire year. If we know how to take the messages from it, then we will truly be able to open a new page.
On Sukkos we left our permanent home and went into a temporary one. The temporal quality was not only symbolic, it demonstrated as a fact that we sit in the shade of Hashem, and that our lives in this world are temporary and fleeting. This is not where our home is; rather, our true home is in the Presence of Hashem, on Whom we are dependent for everything.
Chazal tell us, in Maseches Avodah Zarah, that in the future Hashem will test the nations of the world with an easy mitzvah – the mitzvah of sukkah. Hashem will take the sun out of its encasement, and it will be very hot, and they will kick the sukkah as they leave it. Why will they kick it? Because they will not have internalized the temporal quality of life – they will not understand that sitting in the sukkah is merely an external act, but one that has a great deal of inner significance, emphasizing that we live in the shade of Hakadosh Baruch Hu.
This is the message for life: We are only guests in this world. Everything is in the Hands of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and everything He does with us is for the good. There are people who set a goal for themselves – for example, wealth — and when they don’t succeed in meeting their goal, they “kick.” But this is not the correct approach. The more we internalize the idea that this world is temporary and that we don’t control anything, the more we will increase our bitachon in Hashem, and the more we will daven and beseech Him, and we will live from a place of emunah and bitachon.
For one who knows that he is sitting in the shade of Hakadosh Baruch Hu lives well, with joy, inner peace, and serenity.
Excerpts from the popular shiur by Harav Hatzaddik R’ Beirish Shneebalg shlit”a
