I can affect the war?
How do lighting candles, baking challah, putting on tefilin, observing Shabbat or learning Torah help with a war? Sounds a little far out and out of touch with reality, no?
The answer lies in this week parsha Bereshies where GD introduces us to Creation and our individual and collective mission on earth. We learn that “In the beginning He created the heavens and the earth.” and then we learn that the rest of the Torah is about earth, which tells us GD’s interest is on earth. Specifically, to bring Heaven down to earth and to make earth a dwelling place so Gdly that it is fitting for GD Himself.
We do this by making all things mundane, holy. Hamavdil benkodesh lechol as we say at the end of Shabbos where we sanctify time. We take a candle that is mundane and has no intrinsic value and use it to usher in the Shabbat. Now this physical candle is connected to its spiritual source. It is now ONE with its Gdly origin. Heaven is now ONE with earth. The physical is now connected to the spiritual. We take raw earthy material such as wheat and turn it into challah, and with our blessings connect physicality with spirituality. We bring Heaven down to earth. The same with the tefilin, we take leather and parchment and give them life by connecting them to their spiritual source. We take a dollar (that is the root of all evil) and turn it into the root of all blessings when we use it for tzedaka or charity. When we learn Torah i.e. GD’s blueprint and plans for His Creation, we bring G-dliness to the whole World and this Oneness is what GD wants; it is His plan all along as we found out in Bereshies.
Turns out everything and every aspect of our lives is about this Oneness. HASHEM ECHAD. Oneness with GD, oneness with our spouse, oneness with our children, oneness with our people, oneness with our nation and oneness with ALL of GD’s creation. Why? Because oneness is holy and oneness is GD.
Bereshies continues and introduces to a cast of characters which led to the birth of the Jewish nation — the people of the Books. The people of the Books suggests that our primary occupation has to be, was always meant to be and needs to be about the Books — what the Books are saying and their relevance to our lives. How else are we going to know what GD wants from us or how to fulfill His vast eternal plan?
This is what we are “chosen” for — we are the people of the lashon hakodesh, we are the people who understand the holy language and what GD is saying. Thus, we are the people who are supposed to share this knowledge with the rest of the world. To connect GD with the rest of His Creation. This is what it means to be the Light unto the nations.
It seems that the world knows our mission and is constantly reminding us —
Don’t busy yourself with the mundane or the profane, help us connect to the kodesh, keep on bringing us energy from Above, keep on learning Torah and doing mitzvot, keep on telling us GD’s plan. This is what we need from you. We will plow the field and perfect the earth, you just keep to your task and your mission of Oneness.
Our primary avodah, our service of GD and humanity, has always been about being this conduit between the two. We didn’t create this World. It was never about us. It was always about Him. Let’s concern ourselves with what GD and His original plans for us.
We were chosen to bring Oneness into the world by bringing Heaven down to earth and we do it by connecting every thing in our lives to its spiritual source and this is how we win a war, this is where our victory lies. This is what it means to bring Mashiach — by going back to GD’s original plan as stated in this week parsha, Bereshies. SHABBAT SHALOM.