The Third Bridal Gown by Rabbanit Yemima Mizrachi
What a time. We’re all on alert. Hashem seems to be giving us that constant reminder, after we told Him we can’t wait any longer, to simply look: you certainly can. Look how you sit in anticipation of evil. Would that you did the same for redemption!
What’s happening right now? אַף עַל פִּי שֶׁיִּתְמַהְמֵהַּ – Even if he tarries – it didn’t come on Shabbat when we were all tense about it; it didn’t happen on Sunday when were even tenser; and we’re still waiting as the days pass, בְּכָל יוֹם, שֶׁיָּבוֹא – each day, that he will come. If we wait so well for trouble, why can’t we use that capacity for the beautiful act of waiting for deliverance?
B’ezrat Hashem, it’s almost here. T’shu’ah B’Av in time for Tish’a B’Av. You can’t ignore this Shabbat, the Shabbat of Ḥazon, of vision, which forces us to visualize Mashiaḥ.
R’ Levi Yitzḥak of Berditchev gives a wonderful analogy. Imagine a bride about to get married, and her fiancé cancels. She tears up her wedding dress. Then she meets someone else, and they’re about to get married – then he, too, backs out. She tears up her wedding dress. On Shabbat Ḥazon Hashem shows her the third wedding dress, the most beautiful one she’s ever seen, and says: this is the dress that awaits you. It will never get ripped.
On Shabbat Ḥazon, the most important thing is to anticipate something good. The word Ḥazon, vision, also means “expectation.” It’s a marvelous word that combines expectation and seeing. I want us to discover together what exactly a woman is, what visionary power we have, what women of vision we have among us. Our women could never have withstood the pain this year without being women of Ḥazon.
Our Sages remark about the verse גָּדַר דְּרָכַי בְּגָזִית – He fenced in my paths with hewn stone: מחילות היו, ונגנזו – There were hidden passages, now buried. There were once underground passages through which women could get to Y’rushalayim instantly on ‘Erev Shabbat. With the Destruction, Hashem closed off those passages.
The Midrash on Eikhah says something similar: בְּנוֹת לוּד הָיוּ לָשׁוֹת עִיסָּתָן וְעוֹלוֹת וּמִתְפַּלְּלוֹת – The women of Lod would knead their dough, enter the Beit HaMikdash, daven, וְיוֹרְדוֹת, עַד שֶׁלֹא הֶחֱמִיצוּ – and leave, returning before the dough soured. The women in Lod would prepare their ḥallah dough, go the Beit haMikdash, daven, and come back in minutes, before the dough could become ḥametz!
They weren’t alone: בְּנוֹת צִפּוֹרִי – The women of Tzippori (in the Galil) would set up their Shabbat candles, hop to the Beit HaMikdash to pray, and come back to light them.
How? How is that possible? It’s so far, and they didn’t even have buses or taxis. How could they make the dough and say, “OK, kids, I’m going to hop over to the Beit HaMikdash for a moment”?
Such a woman had a secret passage to the Beit HaMikdash that’s been hidden from us. That passage represents a spiritual power to envision all the Shabbat preparations as leading to Redemption, to the Mashiaḥ. They saw it in front of them.
Women envision the Redemption ahead of them all the time! They’re practically there already! The doubt, the hesitation, isn’t hers, it’s yours! She has no doubt! Don’t ask her permission. Each time she lights the candles she sees the Beit HaMikdash, she sees the third bridal gown, she sees joy, the return of all the missing and wounded.
You don’t ask women about the Redemption. They see it in their spirit’s eye.
So this week, when you light the Shabbat candles, be a woman of vision. Make manifest וְתֶחֱזֶינָה עֵינֵינוּ בְּשׁוּבְךָ לְצִיּוֹן בְּרַחֲמִים – May our eyes behold Your return to Tziyon in mercy. Behold the hostages returning home. Women can go to Mashiaḥ in an instant, even if he can’t come to them.
This was so important, than you for posting it!!