BS''D
15 Av 5772
Today is Tu Be'Av, it is an auspicious day to daven for your Shiddoukh and Shalom Bayit!
Shabbat Nahamu Parashat VaEt'hanan
Hadlakat Nerot NY 7:49pm
Mossai Shabbat 8:53pm
Rabbenu Tam 9:19pm
The following is taken from Chabad.com who took it from Meaningfulife.com who took it from the Lubavitch Rebbe. Words have been changed and parts were condensed or left out.
The Talmud tells us, There were no greater festivals for Israel than the 15th of Av and Yom Kippur. On these days the daughters of Jerusalem would go out... and dance in the vineyards. And what would they say? "Young man, raise your eyes and see which you select for yourself...."
The Talmud goes on to describe three different categories of "daughters" and how each would call out to her perspective bridegroom:
What would the beautiful ones among them say? "Look for beauty, for a woman is for beauty."
What would those of prestigious lineage say? "Look for family, for a woman is for children."
What would the ugly ones say? "Make your acquisition for the sake of Heaven, as long as you decorate us with jewels" (Talmud, Taanit 31a).
The Lubavitcher Rebbe explains that the marriage of HaShem and His people also includes these three categories of "brides": the Neshamot of Yisrael include "beautiful" souls, souls "of prestigious lineage," and "ugly" souls, each of whom contribute their own unique dimension to our relationship with HaShem.
There is a deeper significance of the Talmud's description of how "the beautiful ones," "those of prestigious lineage" and "the ugly ones" among the daughters of Jerusalem conducted their courtship dance in the vineyards on Av 15.
The dancing maidens of Jerusalem calling out their virtues to their prospective bridegrooms echo the call of the souls of Benei Yisrael to their Divine Groom. Among these are the 'beautiful souls', those who have achieved a best-of-both-worlds perfection in their love of HaShem: a passionate, self-generated love set upon the immutable foundation of inherited love from our Forefathers. They call to HaShem directly to take them as a wife.
Then there are the souls of 'prestigious lineage' who say, we cannot offer you the flawless beauty of our perfect sisters -- they call to HaShem -- but we have unearthed the hereditary love You have implanted in us. "A woman is for children": our relationship might not, as of yet, yield beauty, but it will bear fruit -- the mitzvot generated by our natural love for You. Our love for you might not excite our senses and illuminate our lives, but we offer You the rewards of family -- the good deeds that are the tangible, enduring offspring of Israel's commitment to her Creator.
And the ugly ones? Those who have neither roused their minds and hearts to desire their Creator, nor wakened their hereditary loyalty to Him? Those who never generated a self-created love and whose inborn love lies dormant under a squalid veneer of apathy and iniquity? They cry: "Make Your acquisition for the sake of Heaven!"
"Do for Your sake, if not for ours," call the "ugly" souls of Yisrael. Take us as Your own, despite our appearance, because only You know what lies behind our appearance, and only You know the truth of what You can inspire in us. For You know that, in truth, "The daughters of Israel are beautiful, it is only that poverty obscures their beauty."5 You know that our "ugliness" is not our true essence, but imposed upon us by the spiritual poverty of galut.
If we have failed to realize our potential for beauty and fruitfulness, then it is left to You to "decorate us with jewels" -- to shower us with the gifts that will waken our quintessential bond to You and bring to light our innate perfection.
For a Devar Torah on the Parashah, please visit www.flyingsoul-o.com
Shabbat Shalom uMevorakh!
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