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The Ark Rests in Tishrei: Holiness Breaks the Kelipos

The ark came to rest in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day, on the mountains of Ararat. Why should the Torah record the month, the day and the place where it rested? And what could the seventeenth of Tishrei hold for a person’s own avodah?

Bereishis 8:4

וַתָּנַח הַתֵּבָה בַּחֹדֶשׁ הַשְּׁבִיעִי בְּשִׁבְעָה־עָשָׂר יוֹם לַחֹדֶשׁ עַל הָרֵי אֲרָרָט

The ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat.

26“The ark rested in the seventh month …” This hints that the main time for a person to repair his deeds is the seventh month, Tishrei. Then his prayer is more favorably received than in the rest of the year, as Chazal expounded “Seek Hashem when He may be found” of the Ten Days of Teshuvah.¹ For then holiness comes to rest with greater power. This is “the ark rested … on the seventeenth day of the month”: once the first two days of the festival of Sukkos [the fifteenth and sixteenth] have also passed, and he has fulfilled the mitzvos of sukkah and lulav in them, the holiness has the power to rule. “On the mountains of Ararat” hints at the kelipos, the husks that hide holiness, which are to be broken through that holiness.

וַתָּנַח הַתֵּיבָה בַּחוֹדֶשׁ הַשְּׁבִיעִי כו׳. רֶמֶז שֶׁעִיקָּר הוּא לָאָדָם לְתַקֵּן אֶת מַעֲשָׂיו בַּחוֹדֶשׁ הַשְּׁבִיעִי הוּא תִּשְׁרֵי, וְאָז תְּפִילָּתוֹ רָצוּי יוֹתֵר מִשְּׁאָר יְמוֹת הַשָּׁנָה כְּמוֹ שֶׁדָּרְשׁוּ חז"ל "דִּרְשׁוּ ה׳ בְּהִמָּצְאוֹ - אֵלּוּ עֲשֶׂרֶת יְמֵי תְּשׁוּבָה", שֶׁאָז הוּא כֹּחַ יוֹתֵר הַשְׁרָאַת הַקְּדוּשָּׁה, וְזֶה "וַתָּנַח הַתֵּיבָה כו׳ בְּשִׁבְעָה עָשָׂר יוֹם לַחוֹדֶשׁ", דְּהַיְינוּ לְאַחַר שֶׁעָבְרוּ ג"כ יְמֵי הֶחָג שְׁנֵי יָמִים הָרִאשׁוֹנִים, וְקִיֵּים בָּהֶם מִצְוַת סוּכָּה וְלוּלָב וְאָז יֵשׁ כֹּחַ לְהַקְּדוּשָּׁה לִשְׁלוֹט, "עַל הָרֵי אֲרָרָט" רֶמֶז לְהַקְּלִיפּוֹת, לְשַׁבֵּר אוֹתָם ע"י הַקְּדוּשָּׁה.

Rosh Hashanah 18a, on Yeshayahu 55:6: “These are the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.” ↩

In shortTishrei, the seventh month, is the time to repair one's deeds; after the Ten Days and the first days of Sukkos, holiness has power to break the kelipos.

The maamar as a whole

R’ Elimelech reads the ark’s resting in the seventh month as a hint that Tishrei is the main time for a person to repair his deeds. Then his prayer is received more favorably than in the rest of the year, as Chazal read “Seek Hashem when He may be found” of the Ten Days of Teshuvah, for then holiness rests with greater power. The seventeenth day comes after the first two days of Sukkos, once he has fulfilled the mitzvos of sukkah and lulav; then the holiness has the power to rule. And “the mountains of Ararat” are the kelipos, which that holiness is to break.

Takeaway

Tishrei is the season when prayer is most welcome and holiness rests with the greatest power. R' Elimelech asks us to use it to repair our deeds, and to let the mitzvos of sukkah and lulav give holiness the strength to break the husks that hide it.

Learn this in the merit of Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk. His yahrzeit and life ›

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