Chasidut su Sheqalim 3:6
Kedushat Levi
We wish to explain a statement by the sages in the Talmud Megillah 29. The Talmud there, commenting on Numbers 28,14 זאת עולת חודש בחדשו, “this is the burnt offering of the new Moon on the day of its renewal,” writes: חדש והבא קרבן מתרומה חדשה, ”begin a new cycle of public offerings by using the money contributed by the people for the public offerings for the year that commences on the first day of Nissan.” The Talmud in Shekalim 3,2 has elaborated on this procedure by describing three different boxes for collection of contributions from which offerings are to be bought. The boxes were numbered א, ב, ג. The reason was to enable the clerks to check in which order (according to calendar dates) these donations had been deposited. We also have a disagreement between the Tannaim Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yoshuah in the Talmud Rosh Hashanah 10 (scholars during the period when the Mishnah was formulated) whether the world as we know it was created in Tishrey or in Nissan.
We have accepted the principle that G’d’s largesse is dispensed to His creatures not so much because of what they deserve but because the very fact that He created the universe is proof of His positive relationship to His creatures, so that His providing them with necessities and comforts is not tied to their having to earn this. [As distinct from creatures who have forfeited such entitlement, from whom such largesse may be withheld. Ed.]
There is also a “super-largesse” that is channeled by G’d to His people which is due to that people’s spiritual awakening and ascending higher rungs on that ladder. Concerning this “largesse” my revered and sainted father of blessed memory used to say that this “largesse” is known as ציץ, the masculine version of the word ציצית, i.e. in full flower, which usually is found in the feminine mode, referring to the blossom that has not yet flowered. Just as we are familiar with direct light as well as with reflected light, (by a mirror, for instance) so G’d’s largesse may be either direct or a reflection of merits accumulated by His creatures. The letters in the name of the month תשרי [the alphabet read backwards. Ed.] are an allusion of such largesse which reflects the good deeds of the Jewish people. Seeing that during the month of Tishrey most Jews perform more commandments and good deeds than during any other moth of the year, it is appropriate that this will result in a “kickback” from G’d in the shape of additional largesse. (Compare Rosh Hashanah 11 on this point.) In contrast to this month, the month of Nissan, a month that occurs in the spring, אביב, the letters אב in that word proceeding in the normal sequence of the aleph bet, are an allusion that it is too soon for additional largesse in the form of “kickbacks” as in the case of the month of Tishrey.
We have accepted the principle that G’d’s largesse is dispensed to His creatures not so much because of what they deserve but because the very fact that He created the universe is proof of His positive relationship to His creatures, so that His providing them with necessities and comforts is not tied to their having to earn this. [As distinct from creatures who have forfeited such entitlement, from whom such largesse may be withheld. Ed.]
There is also a “super-largesse” that is channeled by G’d to His people which is due to that people’s spiritual awakening and ascending higher rungs on that ladder. Concerning this “largesse” my revered and sainted father of blessed memory used to say that this “largesse” is known as ציץ, the masculine version of the word ציצית, i.e. in full flower, which usually is found in the feminine mode, referring to the blossom that has not yet flowered. Just as we are familiar with direct light as well as with reflected light, (by a mirror, for instance) so G’d’s largesse may be either direct or a reflection of merits accumulated by His creatures. The letters in the name of the month תשרי [the alphabet read backwards. Ed.] are an allusion of such largesse which reflects the good deeds of the Jewish people. Seeing that during the month of Tishrey most Jews perform more commandments and good deeds than during any other moth of the year, it is appropriate that this will result in a “kickback” from G’d in the shape of additional largesse. (Compare Rosh Hashanah 11 on this point.) In contrast to this month, the month of Nissan, a month that occurs in the spring, אביב, the letters אב in that word proceeding in the normal sequence of the aleph bet, are an allusion that it is too soon for additional largesse in the form of “kickbacks” as in the case of the month of Tishrey.
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