Shabbat Parashat Vaetchanan 5777

Ein Ayah: The Value Bridge between the Past and Future

Gemara: [We continue with the significance of the word “tav,” which refers, in Yechezkel 9, to a mark placed on the foreheads of those who received punishment, but also is the name of the last letter in the Hebrew alphabet.] Reish Lakish said: “Tav” is the end of Hashem’s signet, as Rav Chanina said: Hashem’s signet is “emet” (truth).

Ein Ayah: Every period in the life of a person and the nation makes a special impact. When the period’s character is complete, it imprints a unique face on the future according to the good goal that the Master of History prepared in advance. The accumulated imprint from the entire course of the period and all that took place within it, relates specifically to its beginning, its continuation, and its end, which fit each other.          

When one period comes along to replace the previous one, those elements of the old that hold back the success of the new period need to be discontinued. However, those elements that can transfer goodness from the old period into the new should continue and help start it off.

The completion of something desirable can be recognized by the viewer of a period of human history as a long string of historical events. This demonstrates the divine interest in that development and gives it life. The divine value that is imbedded within this element connects the significance of the different edges of the matter with its essential part. This is the significance of emet (which begins with aleph, the first letter of the alphabet, continues with mem, a middle letter, and ends with tav, the final letter).

Tav represents the end, when one periods ends and another is about to begin. That is when an accounting takes place. Those elements that are still fitting and do not hinder the realization of positive divine processes will continue to exist. That which impedes will be removed, for only that which helps complete the goals that are set as a foundation of eternal truth will remain at a time of transition, as the pasuk says, “For the lips of truth will be established forever” (Mishlei 12:19).

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