A Tidbit of Torah – Parshat Va’etchanan 5783
But if you search there for the Lord your God, you will find Him, if only you seek Him with all your heart and soul — D’varim / Deuteronomy 4:29
Rabbi Simcha Bunim of Peshischa(1) was the leader of a movement which revolutionized Hasidic thought by juxtaposing the rationalistic thought model of the Mitnagdim with the belief in the intimate nature of God in relationship to Creation as espoused by the Hasidic movement.
Our teacher, Rabbi Simcha Bunim, reads Moshe’s reassurance to the Israelites who will one day find themselves in exile that they will always be able to encounter God if they search with the fullness of their souls through his new prism of thought, making it a more personal model. He teaches:
This is your reality that you know that when searching for God you need only seek within your own heart, for the divinity is within you. That is the meaning of the phrase “search there”, search within first, for you will find God within your heart, your essence.
Rabbi Simcha Bunem urges us to look inward to find the aspect of holiness within, the spark of divinity that exists as the core of every individual. Our task is to actualize our sacred potentiality through the fulfillment of mitzvot whose purpose is to translate the yearning towards holiness into actions that connect us with the holy aspects of others and the source of holiness in the universe.
A corollary to Rabbi Simcha Bunem’s teaching is that we must be equally diligent and determined to appreciate the divinity within those around us, especially with those with whom we disagree.
Many of us have watched with growing concern as matters unfold in Israel. Listening to rabbinic colleagues and political thinkers in Israel has allayed some concerns that the situation is not as dire as depicted in the media reaching us. However, even if the talk of civil war is hyperbolic, it is difficult to see our Israeli brothers and sisters divided into camps. It is distressing to hear increasing numbers of Israelis who do not see those outside of their camp as their brothers and sisters, as their fellow Jews/Israelis. This phenomenon did not begin with the new governmental coalition, and it is not rooted in differing opinions about the Israeli judicial system.
Perhaps our best contribution to the wrenching debate in our ancestral homeland is to insist that we are all part of one people, every one of us endowed with a spark of divinity. Only by embracing that holiness can Israel fulfill its destiny as the Jewish State, the home of all Jews, and a beacon enlightenment to all.
Shabbat Shalom –
Rabbi David M. Eligberg
1 Rabbi Simcha Bunim Bonhart of Peshischa (born c. 1765 – September 4, 1827) was the First Grand Rabbi of Peshischa (Przysucha, Poland) as well as one of the key leaders of Hasidic Judaism in Poland.
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