From the Rebbetzin's Shabbat Table - Parashat Ki Tavo

Dear family and friends,

Hey everyone - this is the last letter I’ll be sending from Eretz Yisrael.

The next one will be from the USA!

Rosh Hashanah is coming, and we all know the language of the day: Who will live and who will not? Obviously, we all want to be written into the Book of Life. But what does it really mean to choose life? To make it more complicated, the Machzor tells you, “Each man’s hand signs.” This means that Hashem is in partnership with you. You write the script together with Him.

THE WHERE, WHEN, AND CHARACTER IN THE BOOK YOU ARE WRITING

The Sfas Emes speaks about three dimensions of life: Olam, Shanah, and Nefesh - place, time, and soul.

Olam - where we are.

I am in Eretz Yisrael. You can be here too, wherever you are.

Eretz Yisrael is called Eretz HaChaim, the Land of Life.

When I first came here years ago, I remember stepping off the plane and thinking, “It’s just earth.” And then I came to Yerushalayim, and somehow I understood that it wasn't. You live with the drama of Hashem’s intervention daily. You would have seen it on October 7, when a flow of tragedy, disasters, and open miracles were there wherever you looked, and on October 8, when we saw how the capacity to feel the bond that makes us a nation was in every breath you took.

And wherever we are, we can do that. We can choose to live within the awareness that Hashem is present in our lives. Rebbe Nachman used to say, wherever I’m going, I’m going to Eretz Yisrael. He surely knew that if the train said Minsk, the last stop wasn’t Tel Aviv, but he made Eretz Yisrael his inner home, and so can you.

Shanah - the time we are given.

Rosh Hashanah is the head of the year. Hashem gave it the energy that lets you look at places in your life that are hard to find. It is a time when things are not yet clear, when so much is hidden. And perhaps that is exactly what we are being asked to do: to look inward and ask, How do I want to live this coming year?

And then there is Nefesh - who you really are.

We are so much more than our jobs, our bodies, our accomplishments, or even the things we are struggling with. Deep inside each of us is a part that wants to do good, to connect, to give, to become something greater.

That is the voice of Yaakov.

When we hear the shofar, perhaps we can listen for that voice - the voice that reminds us who we really are beneath all the noise.

You don't have to become someone else this Rosh Hashanah. You don't have to transform your whole life overnight. The nefesh of a Jew is different from anyone else's - it's awakened specifically by the shofar. The shofar isn't going to awaken anyone else's nefesh the same way. So - in the time you're living in now, there's a self in you that can be awakened. Awakened to what?

Here's something I find interesting: when you hear the shofar, the voice you're really hearing is Yaakov's voice. The Torah tells us that when Yaakov came in to Yitzchak dressed as Eisav, Yitzchak said, "Hakol kol Yaakov, v'hayadayim yedei Eisav" - the voice is the voice of Yaakov, but the hands are the hands of Eisav. The voice is us - what's "the voice"? The voice is your ability to take your thoughts and your inner reality and bring them out. That's how the shofar will speak to you.

Some of you will already be able to hear the shofar this way; if not, try - in our mind - to make a commitment that when you actually hear it, you'll hear the voice of Yaakov within it.

What is this "voice"? We have our desire to do good - everyone wants to do good - and we have our desire to achieve things of meaning. These are the higher parts of who we are, and that's analogous to Yaakov's voice. But they can pull against each other: the drive to give is, by its nature, outward and expressive; the drive toward self-discipline pulls the other way. When you can hold both at once - [...] - that's the voice of Yaakov: it contains both.

I don't know your life the way you do - try to hear the voice of Yaakov within yourself. And remember: all the feelings that say, "I reject this, I don't want this" - that's not the true self. The true self is what we've been speaking about.

Breath and the Two Pipes

When you breathe in air, it echoes the breath Hashem breathed into Adam - the nishmat chaim, the breath of life. You have two pipes in your neck: one is the esophagus, where food goes down; the other is the windpipe, where air goes. These two pipes are analogous [to two drives in a person], because each person is a whole world. Your "food" side wants more, wants to experience, wants to taste - and that can be good or not. But your "windpipe" side is only good - and that part, the part that's only good, can transform the other and put it to use for the good.

Part of Rosh Hashanah is that Hashem determines what you'll have - physically, materially, and in terms of time. There should be an inner commitment, when you hear the voice of the shofar: yes, yes - this can work for me.

One of the released hostages stood under his chuppah and said to Hashem: "You were always with me - You were with me when it was cold at night, You were with me when I was afraid, You are with me every moment." And he made a resolution: "I don't feel worthy to stand here under my own chuppah - but I'm going to light my candles anyway." Others there wanted to say the same.

So when you read this letter, you don't have to get up and become him - you have to be you. But try to hear the voice; you'll hear it soon, from the shofar.

Just listen.

Listen for that deeper voice inside you, and let it tell you: Yes. This is who I am. This is how I want to live.

May Hashem give all of us a year of life - not only life in the physical sense, but a year of real, meaningful, connected life.

Love,
Tziporah

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