#Elul Humility

[dfroza]

A link to my personal reading of the Scriptures

for the 5th of September 2024 with a paired chapter from each Testament (the First & the New Covenant) of the Bible

[The Book of Revelation, Chapter 5 • The Book of Deuteronomy, Chapter 34]

along with Today’s reading from the ancient books of Proverbs and Psalms with Proverbs 5 and Psalm 5 coinciding with the day of the month, accompanied by Psalm 78 for the 78th day of Astronomical Summer, and Psalm 99 for day 249 of the year (with the consummate book of 150 Psalms in its 2nd revolution this year)

A post by John Parsons:

Today marks Rosh Chodesh Elul and the start of the 40 days of Teshuvah... Chodesh Tov, chaverim!

====

Taken as a whole, the central message and ultimate point of the Scriptures is to turn to God for life... Rabbi Sussya once said: "There are five verses in the bible that constitute the essence of the Torah. These verses begin in Hebrew with one of these letters: Tav (תּ), Shin (שׁ), Vav (ו), Bet (בּ), and Hey (ה), which form the word for repentance, namely, "teshuvah" (תְּשׁובָה). The five verses are: 1) Tamim tiheyeh (תָּמִים תִּהְיֶה): "Be wholehearted before God" (Deut. 18:13); 2) Shiviti Adonai (שִׁוִּיתִי יְהוָה): "I have set the LORD always before me" (Psalm 16:8); 3) Va'ahavta lere’akha (וְאָהַבְתָּ לְרֵעֲךָ): "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Lev. 19:18); 4) Be’khol derakekha (בְּכָל־דְּרָכֶיךָ): "In all your ways know Him" (Prov. 3:6); and 5) Higgid lekha (הִגִּיד לְךָ): "Walk humbly with your God" (Micah 6:8). In other words, "teshuvah" (repentance) is an acronym that stands for being whole, seeing God, loving others, knowing God in all your journey, and walking in humility...

[ Hebrw for Christians ]

Micah 6:8 reading:

https://hebrew4christians.com/Blessings/Blessing_Cards/micah6-8-jjp.mp3

Hebrew page:

https://hebrew4christians.com/Blessings/Blessing_Cards/micah6-8-lesson.pdf

9.3.24 • Facebook

from Today’s email by Israel365

Today’s message (Days of Praise) from the Institute for Creation Research

[ruminativerabbi]

Elul Conventions

Like most of you, I suspect, I’ve spent last week and this week floating in and out of the nightly Democratic and Republican convention coverage on television. I suppose political conventions are always three- or four-day-long infomercials pitched primarily at undecided voters, but somehow seeing it all (or mostly all) unfold on Zoom has made that feel even more acutely to be the case. Still, what was I expecting? Conventions are hardly the context in which politicians candidly and openly discuss their shortcomings, weaknesses, failures, or moral flaws. (That never actually happens, of course, at least not in public, let alone on television—only it somehow doesn’t happen even more acutely in the context of these massive quadrennial conventions.)

Just as I suppose also does every other American, I really do understand that it’s all about selling the product. It’s just hard for me to watch night after night without feeling just a bit like Diogenes the Cynic. One of the greatest Greek philosophers, he was as peculiar a man as they come. He declined a salary for his teaching and preferred instead to beg for coins in the marketplace. He chose not to live in a normal home, but preferred to sleep at night in a broken human-sized ceramic jug owned by the local Temple of the goddess Cybele and provided to him as the most basic lodging imaginable. He owned one single item, a clay bowl…until he realized he could scoop his food up with his hand and eat it that way, whereupon he smashed his bowl as a way of divesting himself of what he now saw as a superfluous possession. His most famous stunt—one among many—was wandering around Athens in full daylight with a lit torch in his hands. People would see him behaving so oddly and ask what he was doing, which was the whole point: he would then look at them and explain that he was out searching for an honest man. After two weeks of watching convention television, I know exactly how he felt!

Maybe it’s Elul. Of all the months of the Jewish year, none is as special—to me personally, at least—as Elul. Admittedly, it’s not an obvious choice. Elul has no holidays, no special days at all. For rabbis of all stripes, myself absolutely included, it is a time of frenzied writing and rewriting as the horrible prospect of having to stand up on Rosh Hashanah and not have the most compelling, interesting, and uplifting sermon possible ready to go looms large on the terror-horizon. On top of all that, I’ve almost always lived in places where it is beastly hot and humid towards the end of August, thereby making even something as normally refreshing as going for a walk to clear your mind and re-organize your thoughts a minor misery. And yet, despite it all, Elul is still my absolute favorite month, the month I look forward to all year. And that is for one reason only, really: because Elul is our national month of introspection, of self-scrutiny, of the kind of soul-searching that comes naturally to almost none and yet which is at the heart of the way in which traditional Jews prepare for the holiday season.

It is not a particularly pleasant undertaking, this effort to look deep within. And yet it can also be satisfying and inspiring, even encouraging. Indeed, the very thought that we are not prisoners held in place by the various negative character traits we’ve developed over the decades is the single most invigorating idea I grapple with each year.

Like most people, I claim to hate that feeling of being mired in a slough of my own making. But that’s only what I say to the world—that I hate feeling trapped in my own life—but the truth is that, like most people, I actually revel in that sense of being trapped, of living in a maze I’m not quite bright enough to exit, of having no real choice left in life but to accept who I am and to be the man I’ve become. After all, if I have no choice but to play with the cards that I’ve somehow dealt myself over the years, then why not just accept myself as I am and be done with it? Nothing is more satisfying, after all, than feeling optionless, therefore noble and rational in accepting how things are without whining or wasting endless amounts of time trying to alter immutable reality.

And then Elul comes along and says—wordlessly, in that weird out-of-language way that time speaks to its prisoners, which is everybody—Elul comes and informs us without saying a word that that isn’t really how things are, that we actually aren’t slaves at all. And that Elul-based realization is the lens through which I’ve been watching these last weeks’ political conventions.

The point of the conventions is to make you want to vote for a specific party’s candidate this November. That’s why they promote their nominees so aggressively: to inspire the undecided to decide for their ticket by depicting its occupants as all the things they party-czars have concluded undecided voters want the most to see in their leaders. Interestingly for parties so completely different in terms of their approaches to most things, these qualities are not all that different. And so are both candidates for president depicted by their promoters as having basically the same set of virtues: courage, compassion, insight, unbounded patriotism, and integrity. But, for all I also esteem all those things, what Elul makes me want to see in a candidate more than any of the above is a deep, abiding sense of humility.

I want a candidate to speak about the COVID-pandemic and say, look, I’m not a physician, let alone a trained epidemiologist. I’m not a scientist or a researcher. I’m a politician. And therefore I admit openly that I don’t really have any idea how to deal with this nightmare that has come upon us. But I will find people who actually are experts, who actually are trained professionals, who actually do have some ideas about how best to tackle the challenges that the pandemic has thrust upon us…and I will follow their advice. I will listen carefully. I’ll ask all the questions I can think of, but when a consensus emerges among our nation’s brightest and most qualified scientists about how to deal with this national catastrophe that has already taken so many from us, that consensus will be the basis for national policy.

My mother used to tell me that the sign of being a truly smart person is knowing what you don’t know. I doubt the teenaged-me knew what she was talking about. Or maybe I did on some level, but I doubt I understood just how profound a point my Mom was actually making. In the fifth act of As You Like It, when Duke Frederick’s court jester, a man named Touchstone, recalls the old saying according to which “the fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool,” he is saying more or less the same truth that my mother wanted me to embrace: that the key to wisdom is understanding how little, not how much, you know of the world and then acting accordingly.

Politicians are neither economists nor historians, neither scientists nor anthropologists. And that is precisely why the key quality necessary to negotiate the various straits in which the nation finds itself is humility. To understand the racial politics of our day requires a profound understanding of nineteenth- and twentieth-century American history…with a good background in the culture of race as it evolved even earlier on as the nation’s founders were creating the Constitution.  To understand the Middle East in all of its complexity requires not merely understanding the byzantine process that eventually led to the imperialist nations of Europe—and foremost among them France and the U.K.—carving up the Levant and creating make-believe nations that suited no one’s interest but their own, but a serious grounding in ancient history as well and, at that, in the various events of late antiquity of which the ethnic reality of today’s Middle East is reflection and development. To understand the potentially catastrophic effects of global warming—on the weather, on the sea level, on the quality of air and water, and on the potential for world-wide cataclysm within the lifetimes of our children and grandchildren—to understand anything at all about the environment requires not only a background in geology, climatology, and physics, but—even more importantly—an overall understanding of how the various branches of scientific inquiry come together to create a cogent picture of what the next century might bring to our beleaguered planet.

No one��with no exceptions at all—is a master of all those domains, let alone of all those I’ve just mentioned and all the others I haven’t. Politicians, as noted, are neither scientists nor scholars. Perhaps that’s how things have to be. (That the German chancellor actually does have a doctorate in chemistry merely makes her the exception that proves the rule. But even Mrs. Merkel doesn’t have training in any of the other disciplines mentioned above.) Nothing feels easier than “just” saying that and moving on to moan about something else. But Elul teaches us differently. Knowing what you don’t know is real knowledge. Wisdom always rests on a foundation of profound humility. Promoting yourself as possessed of a meaningful plan for the future at the same time you seem unable honestly to evaluate your own lack of training in more or less every single one of the disciplines necessary to develop a game plan rooted in reason—that is just bluster and self-promotion. Elul doesn’t teach us to evaluate people who function without any awareness of their own limitations unkindly. But to lead the nation, the would-be leader needs to face the future with self-effacing humility and with a commitment to seek counsel from people who actually are entitled to their opinions. Nothing more! But, if a candidate wants my personal vote in November, also nothing less!

[breslovwomansays]

Today-You're Invited, Free Live Class It's Elul! Rebbe Nachman on the Avodah of Elul-Healing & Inspiring Insights

Today-You’re Invited, Free Live Class It’s Elul! Rebbe Nachman on the Avodah of Elul-Healing & Inspiring Insights

Today, Wednesday, August 25 Listen to Previous Elul Podcasts here You can support Breslov Lunchtime Learning and other BreslovWoman and help bring inspiring Breslov programs to women around the world. Dedicate this or other classes for a merit for salvations, success, healing, to find a soul-mate, in loving memory of a loved one, in honor of someone or for other special blessings. Text…

[booksandblintzes]

Elul - Humility and Grace - the new month's Jewish Text Art Challenge verse from Books and Blintzes The beginning of the Hebrew month of Elul signals the beginning of the Jewish people's preparation for the High Holy Days.

[diwinyddiaeth]

ROSH CHODESH ELUL: THE KING IS IN THE FIELD!

The month of Elul, last month of the Hebrew calendar year, is an auspicious time for repentance, prayer and introspection. These are special days of Divine mercy, and the very essence of these days bespeak the basic human need for closeness with the Holy One, blessed be He... and His immediate and unequivocal response.

Elul has a history of being a time prepared for forgiveness:

Following the episode of the Golden Calf and G-d's subsequent forgiveness of the people, Moses ascended Mount Sinai again on the first day of the month of Elul and remained there for 40 days. He descended on the 10th day of Tishrei - Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement - with the second set of tablets and the promise of atonement and forgiveness. Every year, this 40-day period is repeated and brings with it the opportunity - and the challenge - to prepare ourselves for the awesome experience of the fast-approaching High Holy Days, when every descendant of Adam - each and every human being, and every nation, will be judged.

The word Elul in Hebrew is an acronym, an abbreviation of the Hebrew words "Ani l'dodi v'dodi li, "I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine" (Song of Songs 6:3). These words from the Song of Songs are actually the theme of this very special month: realizing how beloved we are to G-d, and how precious our relationship with Him is. Elul reminds us that G-d constantly beckons us to return to Him. During this month, we seek to improve our relationship with G-d and with each other.

A person can repent any time of year, but the days of Elul are days of special Divine mercy, so it is a time that is especially conducive to repentance and making amends: 'Seek the L-rd when He is found, call Him when He is near' (Isaiah 55:6). Elul is the time 'when He is near.' Our great sages call Elul the time when 'the King is in the field.' The analogy is to a great and powerful king who pays a surprise visit to his subjects while they are at work in their fields. For the average man, the king is so inaccessible; away in his palace, distant and removed. He never dreams he will actually see the king, let alone speak with him. Then suddenly, one day, while this man is bent over his menial labor in the field, he feels a gentle tap on his shoulder... he turns around and to his shock, it is the great king himself who is standing over him; he has come to visit, explaining that he wanted to be close to his loyal subjects, to investigate their situation and give them the opportunity to ask for their needs. This is the true meaning of Elul... this is the time to call out to Him!

A unique Biblical insight also ties this concept directly to the place of the Holy Temple, based on this verse: "And Isaac went out to pray in the field towards evening, and he raised his eyes and saw, and behold! Camels were coming. And Rebecca raised her eyes and saw Isaac..." (Gen. 24:63-64). According to tradition, the patriarch Isaac established the daily afternoon prayer service, and the 'field' where Isaac went to pray was none other than Mount Moriah, the place chosen by G-d from the beginning of time for the Holy Temple.

Elul is a good time for repentance of every sort... on an individual level, a national level, and a global level. And the science - or rather, the art - of teshuva, 'repentance,' isn't just about just moving away from 'sin,' from negative actions. True repentance is constant, daily spiritual growth. Within the heartbeat of all creation, a feeling of thankfulness and humility is beating in unison, in constant awe and wonder of the greatness of the Creator. The repentance of Elul is manifest by the desire to deepen the recognition of our relationship with G-d; to grow closer to Him every day.

[dfroza]

A link to my personal reading of the Scriptures

for the 2nd of September 2024 with a paired chapter from each Testament (the First & the New Covenant) of the Bible

[The Book of Revelation, Chapter 2 • The Book of Deuteronomy, Chapter 31]

along with Today’s reading from the ancient books of Proverbs and Psalms with Proverbs 2 and Psalm 2 coinciding with the day of the month, accompanied by Psalm 75 for the 75th day of Astronomical Summer, and Psalm 96 for day 246 of the year (with the consummate book of 150 Psalms in its 2nd revolution this year)

A post by John Parsons:

The Forty Day “Season of Repentance” begins Mon., Sept. 2nd at sundown this year...

====

The last month of the Jewish calendar (counting from Tishri) is called Elul (אֱלוּל), which begins at sundown on Monday, September 2nd this year. Traditionally, Rosh Chodesh Elul marks the beginning of a forty day “Season of Teshuvah” that culminates on the solemn holiday of Yom Kippur. The month of Elul is therefore a time set aside each year to prepare for the Yamim Nora’im, the “Days of Awe,” by getting our spiritual house in order.

During this time we make additional effort to repent, or “turn [shuv] toward God.” In Jewish tradition, these 40 days are sometimes called Yemei Ratzon (יְמֵי רָצוֹן) - "Days of Favor," since it was during this time that the LORD forgave the Jewish nation after the sin of the Golden Calf (Pirke d’Reb Eliezar). Some of the sages liken these 40 days to the number of days it takes for the human fetus to be formed within the womb.

The advent of the “Season of Teshuvah” reminds us that we all fail, that we all are broken people, and that errors and mistakes are part of our daily spiritual life... We journey toward humility and compassion rather than struggle for perfection; we confess our need for forgiveness and seek reconciliation with all those we might have harmed... During this season it is common enough to hear messages about our need to turn and draw near to God for life, but it is equally important to remember that God turns and draws near to the brokenhearted for consolation. As it is said, the Lord is near to the nishbar lev (נִשְׁבָּר לֵב), the one with a broken and crushed heart (Psalm 34:18).

Brokenness is the means through which God performs some of His deepest work within our hearts. A.W. Tozer once said, "It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until he has hurt him deeply." Likewise Alan Redpath once wrote, "When God wants to do an impossible task, he takes an impossible individual – and crushes him." William James called this deep work of the spiritual life Zerrissenheit, a term that roughly can be translated as "torn-to-pieces-hood," or a state of being utterly broken and in disarray... The brokenhearted live in day-to-day dependence upon God for the miracle...

[ Hebrew for Christians ]

Psalm 34:18 reading:

https://hebrew4christians.com/Blessings/Blessing_Cards/psalm34-18-jjp.mp3

Hebrew Page:

https://hebrew4christians.com/Blessings/Blessing_Cards/psalm34-18-lesson.pdf

8.29.24 • Facebook

from Today’s email by Israel365

Today’s message (Days of Praise) from the Institute for Creation Research

[breslovwomansays]

Tomorrow-It's Elul! Rebbe Nachman on the Avodah of Elul-Healing & Inspiring Insights

Tomorrow-It’s Elul! Rebbe Nachman on the Avodah of Elul-Healing & Inspiring Insights

Tomorrow, Wednesday, August 25 Listen to Previous Elul Podcasts here You can support Breslov Lunchtime Learning and other BreslovWoman and help bring inspiring Breslov programs to women around the world. Dedicate this or other classes for a merit for salvations, success, healing, to find a soul-mate, in loving memory of a loved one, in honor of someone or for other special blessings. Text…

[breslovwomansays]

You're Invited Today, Podcast: It's Elul! Rebbe Nachman on the Avodah of Elul-Healing & Inspiring Insights

You’re Invited Today, Podcast: It’s Elul! Rebbe Nachman on the Avodah of Elul-Healing & Inspiring Insights

Today, Wednesday, August 18 12:30 PM ET, 11:30 AM CT, 10:30 AM MT, 9:30 AM PT Call in to 712-770-4598, Enter Passcode 144097# You can support Breslov Lunchtime Learning and other BreslovWoman classes and workshops. Help bring inspiring Breslov programs to women around the world. Dedicate this or other classes for a merit for salvations, success, healing, to find a soul-mate, in loving memory of…

[breslovwomansays]

Tomorrow-It's Elul! Rebbe Nachman on the Avodah of Elul-Healing & Inspiring Insights

Tomorrow-It’s Elul! Rebbe Nachman on the Avodah of Elul-Healing & Inspiring Insights

Tomorrow, Wednesday, August 18 You can support Breslov Lunchtime Learning and other BreslovWoman and help bring inspiring Breslov programs to women around the world. Dedicate this or other classes for a merit for salvations, success, healing, to find a soul-mate, in loving memory of a loved one, in honor of someone or for other special blessings. Text 917-348-1573 for details. Join us this…

[breslovwomansays]

Today's Elul Class is Postponed

Today’s Elul Class is Postponed

Wednesday, August 11: Class is postponed and will be rescheduled, אי”ה You can dedicate Breslov Lunchtime Learning classes and help Breslov Woman bring programs to women around the world. Dedicate for yeshuot, hatzlacha, refuah sheleimah, a special zchut to find a soul-mate, l’iluy nishmat in memory of a loved one, or other special blessings. Text 917-348-1573 for details. Join us this…

[breslovwomansays]

Tomorrow-It's Elul! Rebbe Nachman on the Avodah of Elul-Healing & Inspiring Insights

Tomorrow-It’s Elul! Rebbe Nachman on the Avodah of Elul-Healing & Inspiring Insights

Tomorrow, Wednesday, August 11 You can support Breslov Lunchtime Learning and other BreslovWoman and help bring inspiring Breslov programs to women around the world. Dedicate this or other classes for a merit for salvations, success, healing, to find a soul-mate, in loving memory of a loved one, in honor of someone or for other special blessings. Text 917-348-1573 for details. Join us this…

[dfroza]

Love shares its True story of a divine romance

that is certainly rooted in Hebraic History in the way God our Creator has chosen to be revealed. such is the case with how Isaac and Rebekah were brought Together, and just as with Adam and Eve. there is an eternal theme of marriage illuminated that begins in the Heart of God Himself.

and i’ve chosen to reflect upon this in my writing since it bears personal significance in my heart and with its seed of connecting.

A reflection upon the Historical significance of the current Hebraic month of Elul shared in a post by The Temple Institute in Jerusalem that speaks of a King, of whom is revealed in the New Covenant whom we know to be Yeshua (Jesus) who is the Messiah that many are still waiting to find.

[The Temple Institute]

ELUL: THE KING IS IN THE FIELD

The month of Elul, last month of the Hebrew calendar year, is an auspicious time for repentance, prayer and introspection. These are special days of Divine mercy, and the very essence of these days bespeak the basic human need for closeness with the Holy One, blessed be He... and His immediate and unequivocal response.

Elul has a history of being a time prepared for forgiveness:

Following the episode of the Golden Calf and G-d's subsequent forgiveness of the people, Moshe ascended Mount Sinai again on the first day of the month of Elul and remained there for 40 days. He descended on the 10th day of Tishrei - Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement - with the second set of tablets and the promise of atonement and forgiveness. Every year, this 40-day period is repeated and brings with it the opportunity - and the challenge - to prepare ourselves for the awesome experience of the fast-approaching High Holy Days, when every descendant of Adam - each and every human being, and every nation, will be judged.

The word Elul in Hebrew is an acronym, an abbreviation of the Hebrew words "Ani l'dodi v'dodi li, "I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine" (Song of Songs 6:3). These words from the Song of Songs are actually the theme of this very special month: realizing how beloved we are to G-d, and how precious our relationship with Him is. Elul reminds us that G-d constantly beckons us to return to Him. During this month, we seek to improve our relationship with G-d and with each other.

A person can repent any time of year, but the days of Elul are days of special Divine mercy, so it is a time that is especially conducive to repentance and making amends: 'Seek HaShem when He is found, call Him when He is near' (Isaiah 55:6). Elul is the time 'when He is near.' Our great sages call Elul the time when 'the King is in the field.' The analogy is to a great and powerful king who pays a surprise visit to his subjects while they are at work in their fields. For the average man, the king is so inaccessible; away in his palace, distant and removed. He never dreams he will actually see the king, let alone speak with him. Then suddenly, one day, while this man is bent over his menial labor in the field, he feels a gentle tap on his shoulder... he turns around and to his shock, it is the great king himself who is standing over him; he has come to visit, explaining that he wanted to be close to his loyal subjects, to investigate their situation and give them the opportunity to ask for their needs. This is the true meaning of Elul... this is the time to call out to Him!

A unique Biblical insight also ties this concept directly to the place of the Holy Temple, based on this verse: "And Yitzchak went out to pray in the field towards evening, and he raised his eyes and saw, and behold! Camels were coming. And Rivka raised her eyes and saw Yitzchak..." (Gen. 24:63-64). According to tradition, the patriarch Isaac established the daily afternoon prayer service, and the 'field' where Isaac went to pray was none other than Mount Moriah, the place chosen by G-d from the beginning of time for the Holy Temple.

Elul is a good time for repentance of every sort... on an individual level, a national level, and a global level. And the science - or rather, the art - of teshuva, 'repentance,' isn't just about just moving away from 'sin,' from negative actions. True repentance is constant, daily spiritual growth. Within the heartbeat of all creation, a feeling of thankfulness and humility is beating in unison, in constant awe and wonder of the greatness of the Creator. The repentance of Elul is manifest by the desire to deepen the recognition of our relationship with G-d; to grow closer to Him every day.

9.2.19 • Facebook

[dfroza]

Today’s message from Israel365:

What can we learn from a grape?

August 31, 2021 / 23 Elul 5781

Let me sing for my beloved A song of my lover about his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard On a fruitful hill.

Isaiah 5:1

אָשִׁירָה נָּא לִידִידִי שִׁירַת דּוֹדִי לְכַרְמוֹ כֶּרֶם הָיָה לִידִידִי בְּקֶרֶן בֶּן־שָׁמֶן

a-SHEE-ra NA lee-dee-DEE shee-RAT do-DEE l’-khar-MO KE-rem ha-YAH lee-dee-DEE b’-KE-ren ben SHA-men

Chapter five of Isaiah presents one of the most famous parables in the Bible, known as the song of the vineyard. In it, Isaiah gathers the people together to pass judgment on a disobedient vineyard. Despite the owner’s efforts to care for the vineyard that he loves (a metaphor for God’s care for the Children of Israel), it produces unripe grapes. Therefore, the owner announces that he will tear down the walls that protect the vineyard from thorns and other dangers of the forest. With beautiful word-play, Isaiah states that though the men of Judah are “the seedlings He lovingly tended,” instead of ‘justice,’ in Hebrew mishpat (משפט), they caused ‘injustice,’ mispach (משפח). Instead of ‘equity,’ tzedaka (צדקה), they caused ‘iniquity,’ tza’aka (צעקה) (verse 7). God will therefore remove His protection from Israel and allow for its enemies to enter.

As in this metaphor, grapes and vineyards play a prominent role throughout the Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible. The first cultivated plants mentioned in the Bible were grapevines: “Noach, the tiller of soil, was the first to plant a vineyard” (Genesis 9:20), and grapes are mentioned more than any other fruit in the entire Hebrew Bible. When Moses sent the 12 spies to scout out the Land of Israel, the book of Numbers (13:23) records that they returned with a sample of grapes that was so large it had to be carried on poles by strong men, an image used as the logo of Israel’s Ministry of Tourism.

Grapes, like each of the other seven special agricultural species for which the Land of Israel is praised (Deuteronomy 8:8), are symbolic of the People of Israel. The Sages teach that the vine is the weakest and lowliest of trees, lacking even a trunk. And to produce wine, which is served at royal banquets, grapes are crushed underfoot. Similarly, the Jewish people are a small, modest nation. Often, they are crushed and trampled by others, but ultimately they will be raised to royalty. Additionally, the largest grapes hang at the bottom of the cluster, similar to the greatest leaders, such as Moses, who carry themselves with great humility (see Numbers 12:3).

Contemporary author Rabbi Natan Slifkin explains that grapes can also shed light on the question of why bad things happen to good people. He explains that grapes must be totally crushed, either underfoot or in a press, to produce valuable wine. “The same is true of the righteous. The difficult question of how bad things can happen to good people is partially resolved through realizing that it is precisely through trials of suffering that latent potential is brought to fruition.” One message of the grape is that suffering and hardships are not intended merely as punishments. Rather, God hopes that the pain and anguish will eventually bring out the best in people, and inspire their return to Him.

Furthermore, the rejuvenation of vineyards in Samaria, a miracle taking place today, also symbolizes the return of life to the Holy Land. In fact, the prophet Micah uses the imagery of every man in Israel sitting under his own grapevine to describe the period of the future redemption (Micah 4:4).

Like the procedure for producing wine from grapes, salvation will take time. Winemaking requires a process involving various stages such as laborious harvesting, crushing, selecting, fermenting and ultimately waiting, before producing the finished product. So does redemption. But just as with fine wine, it is well worth the wait.

[breslovwomansays]

Podcast: Special-Hear the Shofar /Teshuvah, Honor & Humility, Advice for Elul, LM Lesson 6, Part 3 Part 3 There's so much to do as we prepare for the Days of Awe. Are you ready to step up?

[breslovwomansays]

Podcast: Honor & Humility, Advice for Elul, LM Lesson 6, Part 2 Part 2 There's so much to do as we prepare for the Days of Awe. Are you ready to step up?

[breslovwomansays]

Podcast: Honor & Humility, Advice for Elul, LM Lesson 6, Part 1 There's so much to do as we prepare for the Days of Awe. Are you ready to step up?