Devar/5770/Shemini Atseret
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עברית
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You have chosen us among all nations… (Laws of Prayer, Order of Prayer 42)
On every festival, the middle blessing of the amidah prayer begins with these words. Thanksgiving to God may He be blessed, for having chosen us among all the nations of the world. How did He choose us, and what is the meaning of our having been chosen?
The blessing continues: …and desired us above all tongues, and sanctified us with Your commandments, and drew us closer, our King, to Your worship. He set us apart for himself, to worship Him -- at the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai, when He gave us the Torah and commandments. He sanctified us -- just as a groom sanctifies his bride. Marriage sanctification occurs when the groom gives the bride something worth at least a perutah, and the bride accepts it in order to be set apart for her groom. So did the Holy One, blessed is He, give us His Torah -- which is worth the World to Come, and we accepted it upon us forever.
The meaning of our having been chosen is that we are married to God, so to speak, the bride of His youth -- and His Torah, which we accepted upon us as a ketuba details all the conditions of the relation between us. And just as a wife may not initiate a divorce against her husband, so too Israel cannot "divorce" Him from being our God. And so it says: Thus saith the LORD: I remember for thee the affection of thy youth, the love of thine espousals; how thou wentest after Me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown (Jer 2:2). He relates to us, so to speak, as if we were his beloved bride. Who even though she strayed -- nevertheless is still loved and desired by Him, if only she were to abandon her bad ways. So too are we with the Holy One, blessed is He.
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