We continue with our pasuk (Tehilim 130,5)
קִוִּיתִי ה׳ קִוְּתָה נַפְשִׁי
I hope to Hashem, my soul hopes.
The word for hope kivoy, comes from the root קוה kaveh. What exactly does this root mean?
The Ramchal, Rav Moshe Chaim Luzatto, wrote the famous Mesilat Yesharim. In another of his sefarim, his Maamar Hakivoy, on Hope, he says that the root of the word is קו- kav which means a direct line.
Hoping to God creates a direct line from you to God. It breaks through all barriers and creates a direct line. That is how he explains kivoy.
The Sefer Be’er Avraham , who was the son of the Gaon of Vilna, says that the word kivoy is the same as the root of the word יקוו המים let the water be gathered.
Kaveh means to gather.
Thus, when a person hopes to Hashem he gathers strength and focuses all of his energy on Hashem; Hope is the gathering of all the forces of your soul, and focusing on God alone. Not an ounce is focused on a person or any other way out of the situation. You are totally gathering your focus and yearning and putting it on God.
That is a fascinating depth on the word Kivoy/hope.
Similarly, the the water a person dips in is called a Mikveh, because it’s a gathering of water- like יקוו המים God gathered the water.
It’s interesting that the Ramchal writes that Tikvah/hope purifies a person. Hope is like a mikveh. Why ?
Because, according to this, a mikveh is a gathering of waters and Hope is a gathering of all you forces and energy, which is a purification process that brings you closer to God.
There is a pasuk in Yermiyah (יז,יג) that says,
מִקְוֵה יִשְׂרָאֵל ה׳
Hashem is the Mikveh of the Jewish people.
There are two approaches to this pasuk- one is that God is the hope of the Jewish people, others explains that God is the purifier of the Jewish people.
According to this, it’s both. They are exactly the same. God is the Purifier, and God is the Hope, because the hope purifies.
We are exploring the root of the word Kivoy- to gather and to hope, which we see are one and the same, because when we hope, we gather together all of our kochot/ energy, to focus on Hashem.
We will end with the beautiful words of Hashem, when He told Rachel Imenu,
“וְיֵשׁ־תִּקְוָה לְאַחֲרִיתֵךְ נְאֻם־יְהֹוָה וְשָׁבוּ בָנִים לִגְבוּלָם׃
There is hope for your end,
Your children will return to their country
Rachel Imenu was hoping for thousands of years, praying for the Geula, and Hashem saod, Don’t worry, there is hope, they will come back.”
We have to use all of our energy, forces and abilities to focus and ignore all of the negative feelings inside us.
Rav Wolbe says that we always have to be cognizant of the rebellious forces within us, that say, “Maybe it won’t happen, maybe we won’t get out of it..”
So we have to take every last ounce. Kivoy is not an easy job. It takes a lot of work to overcome any negative feelings and truly hope on Hashem, to truly use that force of gathering and bringing together everything to hope on Hashem.
And then we have the final
וְיֵשׁ־תִּקְוָה לְאַחֲרִיתֵךְ
Hope for our future.