Eishet Chayil: At Our Best

“Distinctive in the gates of council is her husband, when he sits with the elders of the land.” The Marganita D’Rabbi Meir (Page 12) connects this verse with a story in the Talmud (Shabbat 30a) that when King Solomon completed the Beit Hamikdash, the gates refused to open to allow the Aron – the Holy Ark – to enter, until Solomon called upon the merit of his father, King David,  and the gates opened. It was only at that moment that all of Israel knew that David had been forgiven for his sin with Batsheva.

“Distinctive in the gates of council is her husband,” the gates revealed that David was intended as Batsheva’s husband from the six days of creation.

There was additional proof of King David’s and Batsheva’s holiness and purity, when he sat with the “elders of the land,” the patriarchs, as they are three of the legs of the Highest Chariot, and King David is the fourth. (Emek Hamelech 153a)

The opening of the Temple reminded all of Israel that all was planned from the beginning and that the Beit Hamikdash would offer the same opportunity for purification as King David experienced.

Shabbat, too, offers us the same opportunity of Teshuva and returning to who we were intended to be since the beginning of creation.

Application:
Sing Eishet Chayil as a celebration of Teshuva.

Use Shabbat as an opportunity to purify yourself and reconnect to your best, the highest realization of all your potential, unencumbered by mistakes of the past.