Halakhah su Isaia 51:65
Shabbat HaAretz
The reestablishment of the people in its holy land is still young, and what has been built until now is minuscule compared to the grandeur of our hope, which is mantled in godly power—“I, who planted the skies and made firm the earth, have said to Zion, you are My people!”61Isa. 51:16. So, too, the spiritual revival within us that is starting to raise up our precious country is small and weak. The glory that will appear when shmita and yovel are observed on the holy land still seem far away. Nonetheless, our spirits are lifted by what we can fulfill of the mitzvot that are connected to the land, even though what we have is still only partial. Now is the time to revive those aspects of the Torah that speak precisely to the revival of the land: learning about the special mitzvot of the land is becoming more and more significant for all those of God’s people who are focusing on what is happening in the land to which God’s spirit has returned—where a special holiness must be reflected and revealed by those who are living here, above and beyond the demands that the rest of the Torah makes on us wherever we are.
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Arukh HaShulchan
Therefore, the one who sees the moon in her renewal blesses "Blessed... is the One with Whose word They created shechakim ..." - and the firmament is here called shechakim as we say in Chagiga 12b: "[there are seven firmaments, including] shechakim, since there millstones stand and grind out manna for the righteous" [the word for grind and shechakim are similar]. Therefore Rav Yehuda, who said this statement about blessing of the moon in Sanhedrin 42a, he thinks in Chagiga 12b that there are only two firmaments, "heavens" and "the utmost heavens". And it's possible that the two are firmament and the shechakim, and his intent was: that although it's obvious that there are seven firmaments, they fall into two categories. For in the Tana"ch we find only these two names for the firmaments: firmament [רקיע] and shechakim [שחקים], and these are "heavens" [שמים] and "the utmost heavens" [שמי השמים]. And this is why it says "at Their word They created shechakim, and with the breath of Their Mouth all their hosts" -- since so says David, "at the word of God the heavens were made, and with the breath of Their Mouth all their hosts" (Psalms 33:6). And it says "A law and a time They gave to them, that they should not change their courses". The "time" is all the days if the world, six thousand years. "Being glad and rejoicing to do the will of their Creator", as it is written "[the sun] rejoices like a hero about to run a race" (Psalms 19:6). And it uses the language of "gladness and joy", like the language designated for Yisrael, as it says "Gladness and joy shall abide there, Thanksgiving and the sound of music" (Isaiah 51:3). "Doers of truth whose doings are true" -- this is the text of Rash"i, and it refers to the sun and the moon whose courses do not change. And the Tosfot render it "Doer of truth whose doings are true" and referring to the Holy Blessed One, since with truth and justice did They diminish the moon. "And to the moon They said to renew itself..." -- this is the world to come, which will be entirely renewed. And as for now, it renews itself every month. And this is a sign for Israel, who are "those borne in the womb", since so said the prophet "[the people of Israel] who are carried from the womb" (Isaiah 46:3). And one concludes the blessing "Blessed... is the One Who renews months." [מחדש חודשים]
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