It's all about Quiet, Simcha, and of course, Emunah!!!!

Sorry about the lateness & the rush!!! This weeks Jewels is dedicated to the memory of Chanah Gittel bas Miriam Rivkah, my brother in law Shlomo's grandmother. May this and all the other good deed done by her family and all that knew her be an aliyah for her neshama!

After all of the noise, the slavery, the screaming, the crying, then the awesomeness of the Makos/The Ten Plagues, the great escape, the big chase, a dead end!?!? more awesomeness, the Splitting of the Sea/ Kriyas Yam Soof , the run through, the water crashes, down on the mitzrim. Action, action action!!! No time to stop, no time to think, about whats really going on and who is really running the show!!! After all of this, after the sea calms down and the dying mitzrims voices come to an end. SILENCE, not a sound but the calm waves rolling in. "Az Yashir/Then they sang..." Then we sang a song to Hashem, for now we realized that it was, it is, and it always will be Hashem who is running the show.

That's lesson #1 and it's a 2 for one special! Reb Nachman and Rav Nosson z"ya, speak a lot about "Dome (daled, vav, mem) / to be quite. Many times we don't have words, many times we have words but they don't fit. In both instances the best thing to do is "Dome/Silence"!! Think, or don't think, the essence is silence. "Az/ then, you could sing, then you could ask, then you could do anything. What does the silence bring us to? Simcha! When we have that clarity that we get from just being silent, even if its just a bit of clarity, that's when we can truly feel Simcha/ Happiness/ Contentment etc... And this Simcha is what helps us and allows us to overcome those obstacles that we couldn't pass with just the Silence. That's why we learn that a maidservant at Kriyas Yam Soof saw more than Yechezkel Ben Boozi (?) one of the greatest prophets. Because it's all about Emunah! All about seeing Hashem's hand in everything from the greatest wonders to the smallest detail.

What about Parnosah? Etan you said you were going to talk about that! Well, that is it in a nutshell. In the zechus of that Emunah, finally seeing it as a nation we were able to eat out of Hashem's hand. The finest of the fine, whatever your heart desired, all Glatt Kosher! So someone said to me this week. "I'm sorry but we don't live in the time of the mannah, we're not on such a high level." That's right we're on a higher level, we're at the darkest of times, but also at the lightest times, if we only start trying to see through eyes of Emunah, our tefillos would improve (The Sea actually split into 12 lanes, 1 for each Shevet) Reb Nachman talks about these lanes corresponding to the 12 different ways/levels of prayer and by Dome, Silence and Simcha we are able to make our tefillos go on the right path.

How does it tie into Tu B'Shvat? Well we're all like trees, we all need to keep on growing, pruning, de-weeding, and all else that's best for our continued growth. Seasons change, leaves grow and wither and grow and wither. Take a look at Perek Shira and lets start singing once again to Hashem, and merit bringing the Mashiach out of hiding to help us in the building of the Third Beis Hamikdash, Speedily, in our days, Amen!!!!

Once again I'm sorry about the rush. I also gave my editor the day off, so all mistakes are mine only. A great Shabbos!!!!
Peace & Joy,
Etan