SCALES OF LOVE

Dear Family,

I hope everyone is well.

Wishing all those who are travelling, happy flights, and we are so excited that some of the Family will be with us for parts of Yom Tov!

I saw a very nice dvar Torah today in a maamer of The Alte Rebbe's Likutei Torah, Parshas Netzavim.

It was speaking about SCALES based on the pasuk (which could be from Yishayeh), 'Veshakal bepeles harim, ugevaos bemoznaim.' - 'You shall weigh the mountains with (a scale called) a peles, and the hills with (a regular) scale'

And isn't it interesting that the mazal (zodiac) for the month of Tishrei is SCALES (Libra)!

The Alte Rebbe starts by describing the the meaning of a bris (covenant), and uses the parable of 2 friends who love each other.

What they do is that they decide to make a covenant or pact between them that their love for each other should never end.

Ie even if obstacles come in the way or circumstances change etc, their love for each other will continue regardless, because of the covenant which they set up. (a bit like a marriage)

Through this bris, their love for each other becomes eternal, and they become as one.

That is why Torah calls it koret bris (cutting a covenant), whereby the procedure was to walk through the 2 halves of an animal, ie the 2 people walk through one body to become united.

Similarly Hashem made His Covenant with us, Am Yisrael, and this is mentioned in numerous places in Torah.

Now the Mountains and the Hills spoken about in the above posuk, represent our Forefathers and Foremothers (as spoken about in the prophecies of Bilam) and the love between husband and wife, and between Hashem and us.

The Hills, which are smaller than the mountains, represent an EXTERNAL LOVE of Hashem, brought about by our contemplation of how great is Hashem and His love for us, and our connection to Him through Torah and mitzvos, and this arouses our love to Him.

The Mountains are bigger, and this represents a much deeper, hidden, INTERNAL LOVE to Hashem, (Ahavah Rabah), beyond understanding and reason. One cannot get to this love with Torah and mitzvos, but rather it comes with Teshuva from the depths of the heart. It comes about from the bitterness and pain that we feel when we realise how far away we are from Hashem.

In the above pasuk it says that the Hills are measured with a scale (moznaim) ie when Torah and mitzvos are on the one side of the scale, the LOVE on the other side of the scale rises ie comes into play.

The Mountains are weighed with a peles.

This scale works different from a regular one ie the further away one pushes the weight on the one side, the more it lifts the other side! (see attached diagrams)

How does one do this practically? The more we push away the 'loves of the body' the closer we get to this deep love and unity with Hashem.

Gut Shabbos and Gut Yom Tov to all, and we should use the opportunity of Yom Kippur, when we are not eating and drinking etc and not attending to all the loves of the body, to come closer to this Ahava Rabah (the Mountains).

Gmar chasima tovah for a Happy and Sweet New Year.