I pleaded with the Lord at that time… Devarim / Deuteronomy 3:23
Rabbi Shmuel Bornsztain1, in his commentary to the Torah, Shem Mishmuel, cites a teaching of his grandfather, Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk2, who taught regarding our verse, “These things sit upon the heart like a stone, waiting for a unique moment when the heart opens so that they may enter.” The Shem Mishmuel explains the teaching by noting that, “a person’s heart is generally closed to the entrance of new ideas or the introduction of new perspectives. This is true even for words of Torah.” Rabbi Bornsztain continues by asserting that, “…unlike ordinary expressions, words that emanate from the Holy One remain atop the heart waiting, waiting for that moment of awakening, of the heart opening, at which time they enter into the essence of the individual’s being.”
Reading the Parasha in shul every Shabbat, studying the weekly Torah portion in the days beforehand, reciting prayers on a thrice daily basis, engaging in a variety of rituals, daily ones, those for Shabbat and festivals, and observances connected with life cycle events, all become, to use the Shem Mishmuel’s image, stones that sit upon our hearts waiting to enter and have a transformative effect on us. These are truly the moments when we encounter the sacred, feeling holiness permeate the fibre of our being, and emerging somehow other. This is a significant aspect of ritual, bringing us into potential moments of engagement with God, creating a space in our lives in which we can enter a nexus with the Divine.
Reflecting upon this idea suggested by the Kotzker and his grandson, the Shem Mishmuel, evoked for me a lyric written by Leonard Cohen from the song “Anthem,” off his 1992 album The Future:
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.
Shabbat Shalom –
Rabbi David M. Eligberg
1 Rabbi Shmuel Bornsztain (16 October 1855 – 10 January 1926), became the second Rebbe of the Sochatchov Hasidic dynasty following the death of his father in 1910. Known as the Shem Mishmuel, the title of his nine-volume collection of homiletical teachings on the weekly Torah portion and Jewish holidays. A leading Hasidic thinker in early 20th-century Europe his work synthesized the Hasidic thought of the schools of Pshycha and Kotzk.
2 Rabbi Menachem Mendel Morgensztern of Kotzk (1787–1859) was born in Goraj, a town near Lublin, Poland. Most often called the Kotzker Rebbe, he was drawn to Hasidic teachings as a youth and became a student of Reb Bunim of Peshischa. Menachem Mendel was already known for having acquired a vast knowledge of Talmud and even Kabbalistic teachings despite his youth.
As a Hasidic rabbi and leader, the Kotsker was well known for his incisive and down-to-earth philosophy and sharp-witted sayings. The Kotsker’s teachings were preserved by his students and suggest that he had little patience for false piety or stupidity.
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