HaBeerPartners in Creation
On the power of a single word, and the small worlds we build every day with our speech.
Tuesday, 2 Cheshvan 5787
From "MiShulchan Shlomo" ยท Issue 299 ยท Parshat Bereshit
Inspired by the holy writings "MiShulchan Shlomo" (Issue 299, Parshat Bereshit) by our master and teacher the Yanuka, the Gaon Rabbi Shlomo Yehuda shlit"a, a hidden mystery of our generation.
"Just as I created heaven and earth with My word, so can you."
The holy Zohar brings these words of the Holy One to the people of Israel. They were brought this week in "MiShulchan Shlomo."
The verse says: "And I have put my words in thy mouth... and say to Zion, Thou art my people (ammi atah)." And the Zohar teaches: do not read "ammi," My people, but "immi," with Me. In other words, you are with Me. My partner.
๐ฃ๏ธ The world was created with speech
"And God said, Let there be light: and there was light." The whole world was created with speech, with ten utterances.
And about man it is said, "and man became a living soul," and Onkelos translates: "a speaking spirit." What sets man apart from all creatures is speech.
Even magicians know this. Every magician in the world says "abracadabra" before performing a trick. Some say it comes from the Aramaic "avra kedavra," I create as I speak. Generation after generation, in every language, people say it out loud. Without knowing that they are repeating one of the great secrets of creation.
And this power the Holy One placed in our mouths. Not a similar power. The same power, in miniature.
And the word "partner" was not chosen by chance. A partner is not an employee carrying out instructions. A partner takes responsibility, invests, feels that it is his. The Holy One tells us: this world is yours too, and you are building it together with Me.
It is a little frightening when you think about it. Because if my speech builds worlds, it can also destroy them.
๐ Our small worlds
I do not create heaven and earth. But every day I build, or destroy, small worlds.
One sentence to a child before he leaves for school can build him a whole day. Or ruin it.
One word in a team meeting can open a door for an employee, or close it for years.
One WhatsApp message, written in two seconds, can warm a heart or wound it.
"I am proud of you," said once by a father, can stay with a child for thirty years. And "what is wrong with you, you never..." can stay with him exactly as long.
And at work, a manager who says "I trusted you, and that is exactly what was needed" gets an employee willing to give twice as much.
And how many times have we said something "just like that," and heard years later that the sentence stayed with someone, for good or for bad?
Our words are not "just words." They are building material. And whoever holds building material in his hand is responsible for what he builds.
Today, before you leave the house, say one sentence to someone close to you whose only purpose is to build them up. A true sentence, precise, using their name. And see what it builds.
๐ฑ Speech that builds begins in the heart
And there is an order in the shiur as well. Right after the words of the Zohar, our Rabbi explains that first one must illuminate wisdom and reflection, and only then bring out words of praise and thanks.
In other words, speech that builds does not begin in the mouth. It begins in the mind and in the heart.
Whoever speaks out of anger, fatigue or pressure almost always destroys something, even when he is right. Whoever pauses for a moment and reflects finds the words that build, even when he must say something hard.
And this does not mean speaking less. It means speaking from a different place.
And this partnership does not end with people. When I thank the Holy One, bless, praise, I am using the same building power. Every word of praise is another stone in the building of the glory of Heaven in the world.
๐งญ Another tool: what do I want to happen?
Here is a small tool you can adopt today. Before an important message, or before a conversation you know will be hard, stop and ask: what do I want to happen after I say this?
Not "what do I want to say," but "what do I want to build."
If the answer is "that he understands he was wrong," I am probably about to destroy. If the answer is "that we find a solution together," the words already come out differently.
Say an employee missed an important deadline. You can write to him "you missed it again." Or you can write "let's understand together what held things up, and how we make sure it doesn't happen again." Both sentences say the same truth. Only one of them builds.
This small question turns me, for one moment, from a judge into a partner.
โจ With Me you are
There is something moving in the fact that the Holy One chose to call us partners.
Not employees, not spectators from the side. Partners. Those through whom the world continues to be built.
And this does not happen only in prayer and study. It happens every time I open my mouth.
So today I suggest that each of us choose one sentence, and build a small world with it.
Good luck, and have a blessed week ๐น
Yaniv
โจ From the Great Light to the Small Deed
I was stirred to gather and draw out upright, practical ways of living from the holy writings "MiShulchan Shlomo," by our master and teacher the Yanuka, the Gaon Rabbi Shlomo Yehuda shlit"a, a hidden mystery of our generation.
Our Rabbi is great beyond measure, and we cannot grasp his greatness. And it is exactly here, in my eyes, that a great wonder lies.
From an immense depth, from the secrets of the Torah and the heights of heaven, he reveals to us the glory of the Kingship of Hashem precisely through the small, simple things of life.
One small practice, and then another small practice. One deed you can do today, and another you can add tomorrow.
What seems far, high and complicated to us, our Rabbi brings close, breaks into small steps, and gently leads us into the service of Hashem within everyday life.
Here, in the kingdom of this earth. At home, in speech, in thought, in how we treat others, and in every simple act.
And those small practices, whose greatness we sometimes barely notice, act and reach all the way to the Life of all worlds.
And from this awakening came the desire to write: each time to take one point from our Rabbi's words, to reflect on it, and to try to bring it down from learning into action.
Not to grasp the depth of his words, but to begin walking in their light.
One small step, and then another small step.
of our master and teacher the Yanuka, the Gaon
Rabbi Shlomo Yehuda shlit"a
Issue 299 ยท Parshat Bereshit 5787 ยท 4 pages, in Hebrew, ready to print
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