Pour Out Your Heart Only to God

"Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved?" (Song of Songs 8:5)

I would read the verse a little differently: Who is this coming up from the wilderness, falling apart before her Beloved?

How many times in life do we make the mistake of falling apart before other people? We share our pain, pour out our hearts, break down, and cry before human beings, hoping they can carry burdens that only God can truly carry.

Learning from Jacob: Breaking Only Before God

King David teaches a different perspective. In Psalms he says: "Happy is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God."

The Zohar offers a beautiful interpretation of this verse. The Hebrew word sivro ("his hope") is connected to the word shever ("brokenness"). The Zohar explains that our forefather Jacob knew that only God could truly help him. Therefore, his brokenness was directed only toward God.

Think about all that Jacob endured. He experienced hardship, exile, betrayal, fear, family struggles, and countless tests. Yet despite everything, he reserved the deepest parts of his heart for God alone. He knew how to break only before God. He poured out his soul only before God, not before flesh and blood.

Jacob understood that God alone was his true source of help. That is why the verse praises the one whose help comes from the God of Jacob. Fortunate is the person who knows, like Jacob, that God is the One who truly helps.

The Difference Between Sharing and Collapsing

Our Sages teach, "If there is anxiety in a person's heart, let him speak about it." But they do not say, "Let him shatter himself," or "Let him completely fall apart."

There is a difference between sharing a burden and pouring out the deepest brokenness of the heart.

Sometimes, after a person has emptied all of that brokenness before other people, there is little strength left to bring it before God. And that is a great loss.

The spiritual atmosphere of these days can help us understand this truth more deeply.

The Most Emotional Moment of a Wedding

Our Sages teach that a groom may not marry his bride until he has first seen her. One of the most moving moments in a Jewish wedding is when the groom approaches the bride and places the veil over her face.

Before he covers her face, he must first look at her. Part of the reason is practical, recalling the story of Jacob and ensuring that no one has exchanged the bride. But there is also something far deeper happening.

Before the veil. Before the responsibilities of life. Before the mortgage, the children, the pressures, and the countless layers that life places upon a person.

The groom looks at the bride, and she looks at him.

It is a pure and intimate moment, a moment larger than life itself. In those few seconds, a tremendous amount of love is poured into the relationship, a love that will accompany them throughout their lives together.

God Is Looking at You Before the Veil

This is exactly what happens during the days before Shavuot.

God comes from Sinai. He comes, so to speak, to place the veil upon His bride before the wedding. Before the great day of receiving the Torah, He looks at us.

He looks at you. He sees you before all the coverings. Before the masks. Before the roles. Before the burdens you carry.

He sees your inner self, your true face, your deepest truth, and everything that lives within your heart.

The Special Gift of the Month of Sivan

The month of Sivan is a month of extraordinary love between the Jewish people and their Father in Heaven. These are days filled with closeness, affection, and spiritual opportunity.

Remember that during these days, God is looking at you with love.

There is no greater time to pour out your heart before Him, to speak with Him honestly, and above all to ask: "Enlighten our eyes with Your Torah."

This was the prayer of the Jewish people before the giving of the Torah: "Enlighten our eyes with Your Torah, and bind our hearts to Your commandments."

Pour Your Heart Out to the One Who Truly Hears

May this month of Sivan be a month of blessing, joy, and spiritual renewal.

May we remember that while people can comfort us and support us, there is only One before whom we can fully open our hearts without fear.

And may we merit to bring our deepest hopes, struggles, and prayers directly to God, finding strength, comfort, and closeness in His presence.

Adapted from the teachings of Rebbetzin Chagit Shira, from Shirat HaLev.