Chai Elul ... "The Beginning of the End"

Rabbi Yisrael Ba’al Shem Tov (Besht), the founder of Chassidut, said that the twelve days before Rosh HaShana (beginning on 18 Elul) “the Beginning of the end” - should be used for introspection on the state of one’s relationship to G-d over the preceding twelve months. Through this, it is possible to draw from above a new source of life force for the coming year. And Chai Elul (the 18th of Elul) is the birthday of both the Besht and Rabbi Shneur Zalman, the author of the Tanya, two great neshomas came into the world for our sake.

Monday, September 7, is Chai Elul, and begins the 12 days approaching Rosh Hashana. This is also the secular holiday of “Labor Day”. We can begin our labor of love to the Creator and dedicate each of the 12 days to rectifying that aspect of our neshoma that corresponds to that month’s “sense”.

Each day we can work on that "sense" particular to its corresponding month by performing an action to improve or perfect that "sense", such as in the month of Elul to perform more acts of kindness and giving more tzedaka with a smile. The smile makes all the difference in how one receives your act of kindness.

Forgive me (how appropriate in Elul) but I listed the months one off. Monday, Chai Elul, is actually the tikkun for Tishrei, so bring forward each month by one. "Chai Elul is the beginning of the final twelve days of the month of Elul, each of which corresponds to one of the twelve months of the year, one day per month. In these twelve days a person should 'hold a self-accounting' over his service during the twelve months of the outgoing year. Thus, on Chai Elul itself a person takes stock of the past month of Tishrei and so on regarding each of these twelve days, until Rosh Hashana."

Monday:

TISHREI - Sense: Touch (Intimacy, Marriage)

Personal relationships, physical or spiritual. The sense of touch is the only one of the five senses which is not centered in the face (but rather in the tips of our fingers). (Particularly in the area of intimacy, with tznius.) Spiritual intimacy in our relating to the King, HKB"H, expressing our deepest emotions in appreciation to Hashem.

Tuesday:

CHESHVAN - Sense: Smell

The sense of smell is the most spiritual of all senses. The Hebrew word for "smell" (רֵיחַ) is cognate to the word for "spirit" (רוּחַ). The sages teach us that smell is the one and only sense that "the soul enjoys and not the body." The sense of smell is the only sense (of the five senses) that did not participate, and thereby was not blemished or polluted, in the primordial sin of man in the Garden of Eden. It is explicitly stated that the sense of Mashiach is the sense of smell. "And he shall smell with the awe of God"—"he shall judge by smell" (rather than by sight or hearing. Isaiah 11:3; Sanhedrin 93b). By his sense of smell (his "holy spirit") the Mashiach will know how to connect each Jewish soul to its Divine root, and thereby identify its tribe (branch) in Israel.

Wednesday:

KISLEV - Controller: Belly

The belly (keiva, in Hebrew) is one of the three gifts which we are commanded to give to the priests upon slaughtering a kosher animal. The word keiva derives from kav, which means "measure." Of the great Tanniac sage, Rabbi Chaninah ben Dosah, it is said: "The whole world is fed in the merit of Rabbi Chaninah ben Dosah, yet for Rabbi Chaninah ben Dosah one measure (kav) of carobs is enough for him from Friday to Friday."

In the rectification of one's character traits, the rectified keiva is never to be jealous of others. Our sages teach us: "a man desires one measure [kav] of his own more than nine of his friend." And so are we taught in Pirkei Avot: "who is rich, he who is happy with his portion."

Thursday:

TEVET - Controller: Liver

The sages teach us that "the liver is angry." The function of the liver [kaved, in Hebrew] is to purify the blood with which it is saturated. In Kabbalah, the liver corresponds to the primordial snake, whose rectification is personified by Dan. (The three "rulers" of the body and soul are the brain, the heart, and the liver, which correspond to Adam, Eve, and the snake, respectively). The snake, in Kabbalah, represents the initial state of immaturity of the soul, as characterized by the unrectified attribute of anger. The venom of the snake is hot like the fire of anger. When converted to the good, the fire (and blood of the liver) serves to warm the cold month of Tevet.

Kaved = 26 = Havayah. This reflects the secret mentioned above, that the sum of the four months which "fast" over the destruction of the Temple, which culminate in Tevet, together equal 26. By fasting over the destruction one rectifies one's liver--mellows one's anger--and thereby "sweetens" the anger of G-d (with Israel, the cause of the destruction) and arouses the mercy of Havayah to rebuild the Temple.

Friday:

SHEVAT - Sense: Eating, Taste

The rectified sense of eating is the special sense of the tzadik, as is said: "The tzadik eats to satisfy his soul" (Proverbs 13:25). This verse continues: "but the stomach of the wicked is always lacking." The soul-oriented tzadik feels "full" and happy with a little; the body-oriented wicked person never feels content.

Eating from the Tree of Life, the tzadik derives great pleasure ("life" in Torah means "pleasure") from the Divine sparks of light and lifeforce present within the food he eats. In his rectified state of consciousness he is continuously aware that "not on the [physical dimension of] bread alone does man live, but on each utterance of the mouth of God does man live."

Shabbat:

ADAR - Sense: Laughter

Laughter is the expression of unbounded joy, the joy which results from witnessing the light brought forth from darkness. The epitome of laughter in the Torah is that of Sarah at the birth of Isaac (יצחק) whose name derives from the word for laughter (צחוק): "God made me laugh, whoever hears shall laugh with me.”

Giving birth at the age of 90 (and Abraham at the age of 100), after being barren and physically unable to have children, is witnessing Divine light and miracle emerging from total darkness. The word in Hebrew for "barren" is composed of the same letters (in the same order) as the word for "darkness." Purim (פורים) comes from the word meaning "be fruitful [and multiply]" (פרו).

Of Isaac, the archetype personification of laughter in the Torah, it is said "the fear [source of awe, i.e. God] of Isaac." This phrase can also be read as: "fear shall laugh"--the essence of fear shall metamorphize into the essence of laughter. In relation to Purim, the fear of (the decree of) Haman transforms into the exuberant laughter of the festival of Purim.

Sunday:

NISAN - Sense: Speech

The sense of speech implies ones ability to express one's deepest feelings and insights. Therefore, conceptually, all forms of expression are referred to generically as "speech." "This world" (created by the letter hei of Nisan) is one that is founded upon (verbal) communication. Personifying the sefirah of kingdom, our present reality is often referred to as "the world of speech" (or "the revealed world").

Monday:

IYAR - Sense: Thought

The sense of thought in Sefer Yetzirah implies contemplation and introspection. It also signifies the power of calculation (as in the complex astronomical calculations needed to compute the Hebrew calendar). As noted, Iyar is the month during which most of the Counting of the Omer occurs. In Hebrew, the root meaning “to think” (לַחְשׁוֹב ) is equivalent with the verb “to mathematically calculate” (לְחַשֵׁב ), from which stems also the Hebrew word for “mathematics” (חֶשְׁבּוֹן ).

Tuesday:

SIVAN - Sense: Walking

Walking as the sense of the month of Sivan is referring not only to physical walking but to the spiritual sense of progress or development. An individual who possesses a sense of walking has a particular keenness in moving forward and always striving for more. The Torah was given so that mankind could progress, and as such the Torah is the ultimate instrument of progress. Each of the many laws that are learned from the 613 commandments of the Torah is called a halachah (הלכה ) in Hebrew, a word that stems from the same root as “walking” (הילוך ).

“The walkings of the world are His.” Since the word “walkings” (הליכות ) is almost identical to the word for laws of the Torah, halachot (הלכות ), the sages explain that one who studies the laws of the Torah, “the world is his,” referring to the World to Come.

The Torah gives us the power to progress, to move forward, by healing our psyches and by directing us in how to find and elevate the fallen sparks of Divinity that are scattered throughout our present reality.

Wednesday:

TAMUZ - Sense: Sight

The summer (the period of Tamuz) is the "holiday" of the eyes. It is the time that one must "guard" his eyes to see only that which is good (in the world in general and in his fellow man in particular) and modest. The ability to guard and focus one's eyesight correctly is the rectified "sense" of sight.

Thursday:

AV - Sense: Hearing

"To hear" in Hebrew means "to understand," to fully integrate into one's consciousness (into one's heart, not only to understand intellectually in one's mind). To hear another is to fully understand his dilemma and emphasize with him. In the beginning of Isaiah (read on the Shabbat before the 9th of Av), it says: "if you desire [tovu, from the word Av] and hear [the sense of Av], you shall partake of the goodness of the land." The sense of hearing is the sense of inner balance, the foundation of rectified existence. (Imbalance is the source of all fall and destruction). A well balanced ear, a well oriented sense of hearing, possesses the ability to discern and distinguish in everything one hears truth from falseness, as is said (Job 12:11 and 34:3): "the ear discerns words" ozen malin tivchan (the initial letters of this phrase spell emet--"truth").

Friday:

ELUL - Sense: Action

The sense of action is the "sense" and inner "knowledge" that through devoted deeds of goodness (tzedaka and chessed) one is always able rectify any blemished or broken state of the soul. This is the sense necessary for the spiritual service of Elul, the service of repentance and true teshuvah to G-d. The sense of action is thus the sense never to despair.

References to each month and its essence, as elucidated in Sefer Yetzira, comes from the Master of the Wisdom of Kabbalah, HaRav Yitzchak Ginsburgh at inner.org.