T87 (Tinyana) PNC - Kavanois Elul — Tikkun for Pegam ha-Bris and Finding the Zivug

**"Da, she-kavanos Elul heim tikkun le-pegam ha-bris."** Know that the kavonois of Choidesh Elul are the tikkun for **pegam ha-bris** — and the soid of the Elul kavonois (as is explained in the kavonois of the Arizal) is the pasuk **"ha-noisein ba-yam derech"** (Yeshayahu 43:16) — *He Who places a road in the sea*. The avoidah of Elul is **le-ha'ir bechinas derech ba-yam** — to make a *road* shine *into the sea*. And this *derech* is *opened in choidesh Elul*. **And the ikar pegam ha-bris is precisely in this bechinas-derech.** A man was meant to make the **רכ"ד (224) ohrois** shine into bechinas yam — bechinas emunah. Instead, *natah mi-zeh u-fagam bi-bechinas derech*: **"כִּי הִשְׁחִית כָּל בָּשָׂר אֶת דַּרְכּוֹ"** (Bereishis 6:12). For *isha nikres derech* — woman is called *derech* (Kiddushin 2b) — and there is **"דֶּרֶךְ אִשָּׁה מְנָאָפֶת"** (Mishlei 30:20). The pegam: *the road did not shine into the sea*; the 224 ohrois did not reach emunah; the *derech* turned to a foreign one.

**The lost zivug — and how Elul restores it.** *U-l'fa'mim machmas zeh ha-pegam yuchal le'abeid es zivugo* (see Tikkun 14). Once a person has *turned away* from his zivug, *kasheh lo limtzo es zivugo*; and even if he finds her, *tih'yeh lo me-naggedes — ve-loi tih'yeh notah achar retzono*. Why? — *because he turned away from her and did not shine into her*; therefore *misa-meiavoir she-yeish lah ratzoin acheir kenegdo*. This is the bechinah of **"loi zachah — kenegdo"** (Yevamos 63a). **Choidesh Elul is the chodesh in which this very pegam can be repaired** — *to shine the derech into the yam* — and once that is done, *moitzei zivugo, ve-hi einah kenegdo, rak ki-rtzoinoi.* The 224 ohrois of Elul re-orient him toward the woman who was *meant for him me-rosh*; the road that opens in Elul is the same road that goes from his bris-place straight to her ratzoin. *Tikkun ha-bris ve-tikkun ha-zivug — chad inyana hu.*

**Avraham handed this very soid to Eliezer.** *Ki da, she-zeh ha-soid masar Avraham le-Eliezer avdo, k'she-shilcho le-vakeish ha-zivug shel Yitzchok beno* — the very soid of kavanos Elul, which prepare the tikkun ha-bris through which the zivug is found. And see the wonders of our Torah: when Avraham said to Eliezer **"וְאִם לֹא תֹאבֶה הָאִשָּׁה לָלֶכֶת אַחֲרֶיךָ"** (Bereishis 24:8) — the very pasuk where he raises the *worry* about the future kallah refusing to come — the **roshei teivos** of those words spell **א"ל"ו"ל**, and *be-emtza* the words **"תֹאבֶה הָאִשָּׁה."** *Be-osain ha-tayvois atzman* in which Avraham raised the *fear*, *galah lo es soid ha-tikkun*: through *bechinas Elul* (the soid of the Elul kavanois) — *toi'aveh ha-isha*, she will *desire* him; the alienation collapses, the road reaches the sea, the zivug consents. **Cross-reference**: see also LM I:6 ("Va-yomer Hashem el Moshe kra es Yehoshua"), which speaks of the very same kavanos Elul as tikkun le-pegam ha-bris. *La'a-soik bo eizo avoidah — al-yedei zeh yis-takein pegam ha-bris.*