Yoav & Maya Cohen - 8 Nissan 5774 / April 7th, 2014

As I said in shul on Shabbat, I have been zoche to a balata in shamayim. A year ago we spoke, you were debating, thinking about it. I said, what is there to think about? Between us I didn't really know what I was talking about. But I felt there was something so incredibly obvious that the two of you should be zoche to meet each other, to be with each other and now, you have come together under the chuppah in order to build your lives in Israel, even if it is actually in Westchester County for a little bit.

You are people that we can say have tremendous amounts of energy that exudes from the two of you. And it is not by chance that you are getting married in the month of Nissan, which is the month of tremendous miracles, when Hakodesh Baruch Hu intervenes in the natural order of things. And Baal Hatanya says that this kind of love on the part of G-d is like a burning fire. It comes out of nowhere, its powerful, its potent, but it only happens once in a while, and it evokes a certain response on our part. It changes the normal current of activity.

But the Baal Hatanya says that there is also another type of love; love that is like water. We have sound effects in the background of the water, but this is the same as any natural water- if you go to any stream or a river, or by the sea, the water does what it has always been doing. It maintains the natural ebb of life. It is the same love, but it is a totally different type. It is the love of every day life. It is the love that I have for G-d when I wake in the morning and say Elokayai Neshama, Mode Ani, Asher Yatzar. The person has the natural ability to conduct his life day in and day out; that too is a source of love.

Nissan is the month of the burning fire, that is why we read Shir Hashirim over Pesach- because the natural order was somehow broken. And the chuppah, and the wedding, is similar. They say that it is difficult like Kriyat Yam Suf to bring two people together; it is as difficult as that. That is something that has tremendous power, and that is what you feel at the moment, but you can't live on that all the time. The time will come, in a week, in a month, and then you will have the love that is like water. There is going to be that constant, natural, nurturing love between the two of you. We have Nissan with its power love, breaking the barriers of the natural order, and then there are the intervening months in which we have the love like water.

If you just take a look around, you would see a miracle in our times. I am not talking about the miracle- that the people from the eastern part of the city are able to be at the same event as the people from the western part of the city. As astonishing as that is, there are people from the whole world here; that for generations were at all the corners of the earth. I think it was Moshe who spoke at the engagement party who mentioned that people were here from all around the word and it is a miracle to behold.

And now, Yoav and Maya, are bringing these worlds together here in Eretz Yisrael. But even though they are going to be out of Eretz Yisrael for a while, it is for Am Yisrael. They are not just two people having a good time somewhere. It is two people who are going to be working for Am Yisrael, for Klal Yisrael.

I want to just bless you. May you together both always keep that balance between the constantly nurturing waters of love, and the passion, the ability to break through the barriers that the fire of Nissan are able to provide you with.

It is truly, truly a personal source of joy for me to stand here with a young man and a young women... and the truth is that I met Maya leading her group with the Masa Yisraeli at Har Hertzl, you remember? And it is, about a year ago, that I thought- this guy and this girl- there is something. You should be together! And I want to bless you both- that you may always look after each other in kindness and in goodness and that you will build a home that will continue the love and care that you have been merited to have from your respective families; and that indeed your home be a source of love not just for each other, but for the many many hundreds if not thousands of people that the two of you are going to touch just by being Yoav and Maya.

May Hashem bless you with bri'ut and nachat. Mazaltov!