The Auspicious Days of Shovavim
The period between Parshas Shemos and Parshas Mishpatim is known in the sefarim hakedoshim as the Yemei Shovavim—a time described as particularly auspicious for avodas hakedushah (Shelah, תושב”כ, beginning of Shemos, and similarly in the Kisvei Ha’Arizal, Sha’ar Ruach Hakodesh, 27). If we are to engage in this avodah, even in some small measure, we must first reflect upon why it is especially suited to these days. Such understanding may also illuminate the proper approach to the avodah of this period.
The Essence of Vitality Through Feeling
At its core, life affords a person a rich array of “feelings.” As the Ibn Ezra comments (Devarim 30:19), “Life is for love,” and as Rav Yisrael Salanter writes in his letters (10), “Every living being feels.” These feelings arise from the world in which one dwells. They need not be coarse or physical—such as those associated with eating or the like—but may be refined and subtle, evoked by works of art or by profound insights into the nature of existence. The essential principle is that when a person experiences “feeling” in the world, he is “alive.”
Klal Yisrael in Mitzrayim came perilously close to losing this vitality altogether. The Egyptians enslaved them both physically, through avodas perech, and spiritually, through a wisdom utterly antithetical to Torah and to the feelings it engenders. The crushing yoke of servitude stifled all expression of feeling; without feeling, there can be no vitality in this world. Consequently, they approached the very brink of death—close, but not entirely there.
It was against this backdrop that a kind of dialogue unfolded between the Borei Olam and Moshe Rabbeinu concerning whether Klal Yisrael would still believe in their destined redemption. Moshe protested, “Behold, they will not believe me” (Shemos 4:1)—implying that they were so numbed that there seemed no longer any possibility of having anyone left to redeem. Yet the Ribbono Shel Olam responded that they would indeed believe, for a spark of vitality still lingered within them, sufficient to enable redemption. What was the nature of this vitality? How could it persist amid such a hostile reality?
The Abstract Life That Preserves Kedushah
The only way vitality could endure in such circumstances is through a mode of living that is “mufshat—abstract”—detached from superficial reality, rooted in the recognition that there exist dimensions beyond the visible. Only then can even a harrowing reality fail to extinguish all feeling entirely. Had Klal Yisrael in Mitzrayim pursued merely a realistic existence, the slavery would have drained their vitality completely, leaving no possibility of redemption, chas v’shalom. It was precisely because they also lived more mufshat lives that vitality persisted even within a reality seemingly devoid of life.
This mufshat mode of living is none other than a life of kedushah, for the essence of kedushah lies in perceiving life from a loftier vantage, less bound to physical reality, with the understanding that the world’s true content transcends the superficial. Indeed, it is in this very sequence of parshiyos—from Shemos through Mishpatim—that we see how Klal Yisrael preserved their vitality solely through a life of kedushah. Similarly, Kabbalas HaTorah and its mishpatim became possible only when living in a manner somewhat mufshat, somewhat removed from total immersion in the tangible, empirical world.
The Avodah of Elevated Perspective
The avodas hakedushah of these days does not center on any single specific practice, but rather on our fundamental orientation toward life: Are we wholly enslaved to superficial reality, or do we possess the capacity to live and perceive the world in a somewhat more elevated and mufshat fashion? Are our feelings confined exclusively to the physical realm, or can we remain “alive and feeling” through higher, spiritual perceptions?
This explains why the gedolei olam have taught that the path to avodas hakedushah during these days lies through avodas haseichel and machshavah—for it is only through them that one can live somewhat more elevated above our tangible world. Through machshavah, we can view the world from a more mufshat perspective and discover within it feeling and meaning. Herein lies the distinction between the seichel and machshavah of the world and that of Torah: worldly intellect and thought strive to refine the surface of reality, rendering it ever more tangible, pleasant, and comfortable. The seichel and machshavah of Torah, however, bestow upon us an exalted perspective, beyond the mere appearance of the superficial world.
We must examine ourselves, particularly during these days: Whence do we derive our feeling and vitality? Are we wholly preoccupied with the realistic and tangible, or do we retain the capacity to feel and live within a more elevated and exalted world that is not apparent on a surface level? May we thereby merit geulah from Mitzrayim, and to be mekabeil the Torah Hakedoshah and its beneficent mishpatim.