CHOCHMAS NASHIM: B’SHALACH:
SUNRISE SUNSET
By: Suri Davis
The famous song in the show/movie Fiddler on the Roof, is the song by which Tevya’s daughter Tzeitel walks down her wedding aisle. The lyrics:
Is this the little girl I carried?
Is this the little boy at play?
(Golde)
I don’t remember growing older
When did they?
(Tevye)
When did she get to be a beauty?
When did he grow to be so tall?
(Golde)
Wasn’t it yesterday
When they were small?
(Men)
Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly flow the days
(Women)
Seedlings turn overnight to sunflowers
Blossoming even as we gaze
(All)
Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly fly the years
One season following another
Laden with happiness and tears
I have one daughter, and she is engaged. I can now understand the deep feelings underscoring the lyrics of this song. The passage of time.
We ponder the year every Rosh Hashanah, and then every secular new year, we ponder whether in the past few months, we are following through on our resolutions to think, speak and do better. The three clothes of man as set forth in Tanya by the Alter Rebbe, thought, speech and actions.
Two Sundays ago, my daughter became engaged. The prior year on that day in the Jewish calendar I was sitting shiva for my father. Yesterday, we had a vort, the past year on the same Gregorian day, I was an onen, it was Shabbos, and the next day we buried my father, Ah. And I ponder, but not for long, about the meshing of the two. There is no doubt that my father is looking down and interceding on behalf of us, his family. M’afelah l’orah/from darkness to light.
Speaking of which, I came across the pictures I took during the worst of the pandemic. I was hit with Covid early on, before vaccines, and I was on Oxygen, before the virus broke. There was one thing that I knew, every day I committed to walking for an hour, but where could I walk in solitude? On the beach at sunset. I walked and watched the magnificence of grandeur of each sunset, and there is one sui generis artist who does us the favor of showing this magnificence every morning and evening. The Master of Our Universe Himself.
I set forth the pictures I took on the beach in this newsletter, that even as the sun set into darkness, G-d reveals His glory, I AM HERE, CAN YOU SEE ME? And then there are several hours of darkness. And G-d challenges us, it’s dark, BUT DO YOU HAVE FAITH THAT I AM STILL HERE EVEN IN THE DARKNESS. And then with another burst of glory, the sun rises in its majesty, and we can see again.
Blue skies are beautiful, but seeing the contrast with clouds is a true wonder. I realized at night time, the clouds do not add to the darkness, they reflect the moonlight and add light to night. Every night when I was sick, I walked alone on the beach and communed with HKBH b’yichidut/one on one.
The Parshah discusses the war with Amalek. We learn that when Moshe’s hands went up, the Jews were winning the battle, and when Moshe’s hands relaxed, they were losing the battle. The Talmud asks whether it was Moshe’s hands which were doing battle for the Jews. The answer is that when Moshe raised his hands, it reminded the Jews to look to G-d in heaven for deliverance.
Every week in Havdalah, which is the service which ends Shabbos, we thank G-d who separates:
Holy from and the mundane
From light to darkness
The chosen nation from the rest of the nations
The seventh day (of rest) from the remainder of the six days
Bless You our Master who separates holy from the mundane.
We are given contrast in our lives so we can appreciate the holy from the mundane, light from darkness, feel the special quality of being a chosen nation, “answering to a higher authority.” And we are given the ability to reason, so if we feel in contrast that we have gone from light to darkness, we understand that we have the ability to raise our eyes heavenward, pray to G-d for intervention, and while partnering with G-d, change the sunset into sunrise again.
Don’t forget to feed the birds on Friday before Shabbos.
Shabbat shalom.
-Suri