Weekly Dvar Torah: Ending Hakhel Year with a Bang
By Divine Providence, on this last week of the year of Hakhel, we read about the Mitzva of Hakhel.
We are commanded that during the holiday of Sukkos, the king should assemble the entire Jewish people, men women and children, in the Beis Hamikdash, and read for them portions of the Torah. The purpose is so that the people will learn to fear G-d, and to keep the Torah.
The Rebbe took this to the next level, and he taught that since the purpose of Hakhel was to strengthen our commitment to G-d, this becomes an everlasting event, it is relevant all the time and not just on Hakhel. But especially the entire year of Hakhel is a special time to strengthen our commitment to Hashem, therefore, we must continue to gather whenever possible during the year to strengthen our commitment to Hashem.
What would the king read at the Hakhel gathering?
The king would read various portions from the Torah. First he would read about appointing a king. Then he would read the Shema and similar portions which talk about G-d and our commitment to keeping the Torah. Lastly, he would read about Maaser, that we must tithe our produce.
The Tzadik Harav Levi Yitzchock, the holy father of our Rebbe, explains that these readings represent three levels in our development as the Jewish people.
The first part is about the king, which represents the kingship of G-d, Malchus. This level of kingship is the source of all our blessings, starting with creation and all the G-dly benevolence to sustain us and keep us alive with all our needs. This comes from the supreme king above, without our efforts.
The second level is that Hashem wants us to seek Him out in this world from our own volition. Therefore, G-d conceals Himself that we shouldn’t feel His presence, but we still go ahead to tithe from what is ours, to G-d, and we do what G-d wants from us, without having any G-dly revelation. Because in this physical world G-d is concealed.
Once we have done our part, G-d opens a new flow of blessings by revealing G-dliness in a form that we, in this physical world, are able to internalize, even in this mundane physical world.
Perhaps this is analogous to three stages in a person’s life. When a baby is born, he is showered with love, he is given freely anything and everything that he needs with any effort on his part.
When the child starts growing, we no longer want the child to remain dependent. We stop giving freely, we teach the child to earn his keep. We stop the free-flowing giving.
Finally, when the person starts laboring to earn his keep, and he starts contributing to society, then he is rewarded by a new infusion and recognition, because now he has earned it and he deserves it. He owns it.
Therefore, for six years we have to work, and G-d gives us rain, wind and sun, so that we should have all our needs. But we see it as if this is all about our work. The hand of G-d is concealed. But in reality, we are still the beneficiaries of G-d’s benevolence.
Since Hashem wants us to find Him as a result of ‘our’ work, he gave us the seventh year, the year of Shmita, to cease our own work, and take the time to search for G-d. We should break the concealment, and remove ourselves from the mundane, and we should try to connect to G-d in a more revealed way. Then the search for G-dliness comes from our part down here below.
Once we have come to this point, we have Hakhel. This is when G-d becomes revealed to us from above, but this time it follows our efforts in searching Him out. Now we are the perfect vessel for fresh new and greater revelations to experience G-d, both in the spiritual and in the mundane. This is a gift from G-d above, but this time we have earned it.
As we are coming to the close of the year of Hakhel, we have loaded our baggage filled with the fear of G-d, we have totally dedicated ourselves to His service by gathering and strengthening ourselves and each other in our faith and commitment to Torah. This should keep us going for the next six years, because now after having done our own work, we have Hashem’s gift in the form of additional super strength to take us all the way through till next Hakhel.
Let’s utilize the last week of the year of Hakhel, to use the last moments to gather and strengthen each other for the next trip of six years of serving Hashem with all that we have, and this way we will merit the next Hakhel with the King Moshiach, when G-dliness will be fully revealed forever and ever.
Have a Shabbos of Hakhel revelation,
Gut Shabbos, Gut Selichos
Rabbi Yosef Katzman
