“I was in the midst of the exile, on the river of Kevar.” (Ezekiel 1:1)

(Kevar is the Hebrew word for “already.”)


At the onset of the exile, Ezekiel sat on the bank of a river called “I heard that already.”

It is a river so cold, it can make icicles from fiery sparks of wisdom.

It is a river of exile. Because it is a lie.

Wisdom never says, “I heard that already.”

When you truly hear, when you absorb wisdom deep within your soul until it means everything to you, it is new to you each time you hear it, again and again.

Torat Menachem 5751, vol. 1, page 330.