All In

21 Cheshvan 5782

“Sarah, my master’s wife, bore a son to my master in her old age; and to him he has given all that he possesses” (Bereishis 24:36)

“As the first Jewish marriage described by the Torah, the union of Isaac and Rebecca is the prototype of all subsequent Jewish marriages, both in the literal sense of building a home in Israel and in the broader sense of uniting the physical world with its cosmic soul, thereby fulfilling the divine purpose in creation of making the world a dwelling place for G‑d. In this endeavor is invested everything that Abraham possesses: all the resources—spiritual and material—with which the Almighty endows His people to the end of realizing His purpose in creation.” (Lubavitcher Rebbe)

“And even those commandments relating to thought or to the heart — such as the commandments regarding the love and awe of G-d, are also considered as physical acts — the commandments were given only to physical man in this [physical] world” (Lessons in Tanya, Iggeret HaKodesh, middle of Epistle 29)

When you really believe in Hashem it is not just an intellectual idea but a physical sensation. The Rebbe brings a story that the Alter Rebbe while davening (on Rosh Hashana or Yom Kippur) reached the words, “Uvchen ten pachdecha” he fell to the floor and couldn’t finish the word “pachdecha” (“trembling”) (Likutei Sichos: Chayei-Sarah Vol. 1). Here we can also see that we must invest everything we have in our Avodas Hashem, because we are the only one’s able to carry out His mission in the physical world.

“He gave them the lands of nations, they inherited the toil of peoples, so that they might keep His statutes and observe His laws.” (Tehillim 105:44-45)

Giving it our all is not just a one way street. “G‑d is [also] willing to give up ‘all His bounty’ to help each and every one of us fulfill our mission of bringing about the #marriage’ of the physical and the spiritual dimensions of reality by transforming the world into G‑d’s home through our good deeds” (Lubavitcher Rebbe). As in this verse in Tehillim this help can sometimes take a very physical form, which enables us to carry out our mission in gashmius.