Gathering

17 Kislev 5782

“Joseph dreamed a dream, and told it to his brothers … ‘Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and also stood upright; and behold, your sheaves stood all around, and bowed down to my sheaf.’” (Bereishis 37:5-7)

“We live in a disjointed and fragmented world. Its countless components each seem to be going their own way, each creation seeking only its own preservation and advancement. Our own lives include countless events and experiences, espousing different priorities, pulling us in different directions.

But this is but the most superficial face of reality. The deeper we probe nature and its laws, the more we uncover an underlying unity. The more we assimilate the lessons of life, the more we discern a ‘guiding hand’ and a coherent destiny. The more we utilize our talents and resources, all the more do the various aspects of our uniquely individual role fall in place.

This is the deeper significance of Joseph’s dream. We are all bundlers in the field of life. Here, each stalk grows in its own distinct little furrow; our challenge is to bring focus to this diversity, to gather these stalks together and bind them as a single sheave.” (Lubavitcher Rebbe)

“This - prolonged prayer buttressed by the disciplined contemptation of G-d’s greatness - is an actual Torah-mandated imperative to those who understand the efficacy of at least a little profoundly considered meditation, each according to his measure” (Lessons in Tanya, Kuntres Acharon, Essay 8)

This, specifically, is the Avodah of davening at length. When we pray with our full heart and mind, stopping at every distraction and working until we bring it into coherence with our Master above, we truly unlock the potential of which the Alter Rebbe speaks here. It is the goal of prayer to gather up all our disparate sparks and all our talents and direct them to one direction. As we sing on Shabbos morning, “Lechai Olamim.”

“My soul yearns, indeed it pines, for the courtyards of the Lord; my heart and my flesh [long to] sing to the living God.” (Tehillim 84:3)

When we daven with the sense of priority described in this passuk in Tehillim we are assured to succeed in the above. When we know that this moment, this prayer, is the most important task of our day, all the more so that now “the primary service in the period just preceding the coming of Mashiach is prayer,” we are sure to defeat and uplift all distractions to holiness.