By the Grace of G-d4th1 Day of the Week Sedra: Sovo2 El Ho'oretz Chai Elul,3 5745Brooklyn, N. Y.

Greeting and Blessing:

It is customary to begin with a blessing,⁴ and, as we are now in the days of Elul, especially in the auspicious day⁵ of Chai (18) Elul, the birthday⁶ of the two great luminaries:⁷ the Baal Shem Tov⁸ (in the year ⁹נח״ת — "Nachas" — 5458), and the Alter Rebbe, author of the Tanya and (Rav's) Shulchan Aruch¹⁰ (in the year קה״ת — "Kehot" — 5505);

Particularly this year, when the 18th of Elul is on Wednesday,¹¹ the fourth day of the Six Days of Creation, the day when the two great luminaries in the sky¹² (the sun and the moon) began to shine and illuminate the earth:

This day — today — is therefore certainly the appropriate time to wish everyone, in the midst of all our Jewish people, the traditional blessing, according to Jewish custom¹³ — a good and sweet year,¹⁴ both materially and spiritually.¹⁵

All the more so since there is a special connection between Chai Elul and Rosh Hashono in light of the well-known perception¹⁶ of the special significance of the last twelve days of Elul. It is that, while the whole month of Elul is a period of preparation and introspection,¹⁷ the last twelve days of this month, beginning with Chai Elul,¹⁸ have the distinction of representing the twelve months of the previous year respectively, each day representing a corresponding month. Thus, the day of Chai Elul, the first of the twelve days, relates to the first month of the outgoing year, namely, the month of Tishrei beginning with Rosh Hashono. It follows that Chai Elul is the link that connects Rosh Hashono of the old year with Rosh Hashono of the new year.

At the same time, is is well to bear in mind the emphasis which our Torah, Toras Chaim (our "guide in life")¹⁹ places on the actual deed.²⁰ Thus, however necessary and important contemplation and introspection are, the essential thing is that they be translated into actual deeds, namely, the practice of the Mitzvoth, with all the more and more Hiddur and inner joy,²¹ as from today and in each and every day of the new year - may it bring us and all our people Israel Good and Blessing.

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We find in Rosh Hashono two basic aspects which viewed superficially - seem contradictory:²²

First and foremost, as our Torah, Toras Chaim, explains, Rosh Hashono is the day of the Coronation of the King of,²³ the Holy One, blessed be He in response to Kings,²³ HaShem's instruction and request, "Make²⁴ Me a King over you." This means that it is not enough to recognize G-d as the Creator of the World; we are required to recognize that the Creator of the World is also the "King²⁵ - and Master - over all the earth," and of every individual, in a personal relationship. Indeed, this is one of the main reasons²⁶ for sounding the Shofar, the sounding of the Shofar being the special Mitzvo of Rosh Hashono.²⁷

Needless to say, when a person is in the presence of a king²⁸ (even a human king), especially at the moment of the king's coronation;²⁹ how much more so when one has an active role in the act of coronation; and infinitely more so - at the "coronation" of the King of Kings, the Holy One, blessed be He - it surely evokes the deepest sense of Bitul (self effacement), when all "measure and limit" becomes irrelevant, since Hashem is beyond any concept; and this is the meaning of the Hebrew word HaKodosh³⁰ ("The Holy"), (HaKodosh Boruch Hu), and of Kedusho in general.

At the same time, Rosh Hashono is also the day when the entire world, the entire created order was completed and fulfilled³¹ with the creation of the first man, in the Sixth day of Creation, as the Torah underscores: "And³² G-d saw all that He had made, and, behold, it was very good³³...(whereupon) were completed (and fulfilled) the heavens and the earth..."

The completion (perfection) of the created order consists in the fact that everything was created in a precise form, measure and limit^,34 neither more nor less, limited in "space", and so forth.

Moreover, the spiritual fulfillment of the created order is achieved through man's conduct³⁵ in the everyday life in accordance with the Will of the Creator, the King of the Universe, as He revealed and implemented it in the Torah and Mitzvoth, expressed in clearly defined Halochos and Dinim, where each Mitzvo has its time and place, etc.

When a person conducts himself in accordance with the Will of the Creator and King, then not only is he (or she) elevated to the highest concept of ³⁶אדם — אדמה לעליון (Odom, "man," from adameh I'Elyon — "I will strive to be like the Supreme One" — imitating³⁷ His attributes of deeds of kindness, etc.); but thereby are also elevated³⁸ the "lower" creatures in the other three sectors of the created order: animal, vegetable and mineral, which nourish and serve mankind, according to their limited possibilities, and thus become partners in all man's achievements to the point of fulfilling the Creator's design —

As it was fulfilled on the first Rosh Hashono, which took place of the Sixth Day of Creation, through Adam, as our Sages of blessed memory tell us,³⁹ namely, that as soon as Adam was created, he called upon all creatures, "Come,⁴⁰ let us worship, bow down and kneel before HaShem, our Maker."

The contrast becomes even more striking when we contemplate that man, the preeminent⁴¹ one of all creatures, was created from "dust⁴² of the earth," which is the lowest thing even in the inanimate (mineral) world; and only thereafter⁴³ did the Creator "breathe into him a living soul!"

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Herein, however, is also the explanation of the aforementioned seemingly contradictory aspects:

Precisely because man is a composite of two contradictory parts: "dust of the earth" and "a living soul," he has the ability to connect the finite material world with the infinite spiritual world; the earth and the heaven, earthiness and Holiness;

And not only to unite them together, but, at the same time, unite them in a way that elevates and transforms⁴⁴ earthiness into holiness; weekday commonplace into Shabbos-like Special, thus preparing our material world, the lowest in the hierarchy of created worlds, to become a "world that is thoroughly Shabbos,"⁴⁵ completely permeated with holiness.

This, indeed, is one of the main instructions of Rosh Hashono to man: To unite our world, as it is in its state of finitude, with, and in a completely subservient (Bitul) manner to, The Infinite (Ein Sof), the Supreme Ruler of the Universe.

The above is a basic element in the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov and the Alter Rebbe, whose birthday we are observing today, with a resolve that it be "observed and done,"⁴⁶ namely, an observance that produces action.

They both of them together, disseminated and revealed the kind of Avodas HaShem (Divine service) that leads to the said fulfillment in the best and easiest way. They furthered this also by their personal way of life, as living examples the Baal Shem Tov frequenting small towns and villages, spreading G-dliness with Ahavas Yisroel among the unlearned "earthy" Jews; the Alter Rebbe, the eminent author guiding light in both Nigleh ("revealed" Torah) and Pnimius Hatorah ("inner soul" of Torah), namely, Chabad Chassidus, which he made accessible to all Jews, from the great Torah scholar to the untutored simple Jew —

They, and their successors and disciples, down to our own generation, have shown and enabled every Jew, man and woman, to discover within one's self the bond between the innermost soul of every Jew and the innermost soul of the Torah; and the bond between the "material" substance of the Torah and the physical structure of a Jewish body;

And the bond between one Jew and another Jew, and the bond between each and all Jews with their Heavenly Father.

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May HaShem grant that the inspiration of Chai Elul and of the subsequent last days of Elul should evoke in every one of us, man and woman, in the midst of all our Jewish people, the appropriate resolutions in the aforesaid direction, resolutions with full determination, which will make certain that they be implemented in actual deed — and proceed in all above in a manner of "going⁴⁷ from strength to strength."

And all this will surely bring additional Divine blessings in the Kesivo vaChasimo Tovo (being inscribed and sealed) for a good and sweet year, both materially and spiritually.

With esteem and blessing,

/Signed: Menachem Schneerson/