Today is a very special day, it is CHAI ELUL, the eighteenth of Elul. The number 18 means life, so today is known as “the life of Elul.” Chassidic teachings explain that today infuses life into the month of Elul, as well as into our divine service as a whole. There are twelve days left until Roshashana and every day counts as a month. Today we account for last years Roshashana (month of Tishrei).
Today is also the birthday of two great luminaries, Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov(1698-1760), the father of the Chassidic movement and Rabbi Scheur Zalman of Liadi (1745-1812), the founder of Chabad and the author of the Tanya , also known as The Alter Rebbe.
There is one radical teaching of the Baal Shem Tov that revolutionized our perception of G-d. He believed in a G-d who is here and now. He believed that even a leave falling off a tree was divinely orchestrated and had a purpose.
Many scholars minds of his day found the notion absurd. They understood that G-d cared about our actions and that He could be found in the Synagogue or the study hall, but they couldn’t understand why on earth would a great and mighty G-d care about the mundane and every day occurrences, this would be to diminish H”S. But the Baal Shem Tov brought out different sources from the Torah and explained them with a new light. For example “He covers the heavens with clouds, prepares rain for the earth, causes the mountains to sprout grass. He provides the animal its food, to the fledging ravens that for which they cry” (psalms).
“He grasps all,” the Zohar says, “but nothing grasps Him.” The Baal Shem Tov would add, “He encompasses the nature of each thing, yet nothing encompasses and defines Him.”
Live a little higher
