As we continue the process started in Ellul, we know that we are engaging in a long process of separating ourselves from this world in order to perfect ourselves, spiritually, as Jews. Some people think this process ends on Yom Kippur when we are “as angels” - no food, no physical needs. However, while this process to Yom Kippur is necessary and essential to our growth as Jews, the process does not end there.
Rav Mordechai Elon Shli”ta once told a story of himself and his Dad when he was younger. I’ll try relating it as I can remember it. On the first Yom Kippur on which he fasted, Rav Elon got very excited towards the end of Neila. He really felt purified; all of his sins were cleansed. However, as soon as the shofar of Yom Kippur was blown, and as soon Yom Kippur ended, he heard the congregating, RIGHT AWAY, start Maariv with the words: “Vehou Racoum Yechaper Avon” - “And he is the merciful who will forgive our sins”. At this point, Rav Elon asked his Dad - Dad, we were just cleansed from our sins, we are pure and clean: Why do we need to ask for forgiveness now? Maybe by the time the Shmona Essrei comes around, we will have problems of Kavanah in our Tefillah or something - but right now? Why do we need this? Yom Kippur just ended!
Rav Elon’s Dad answered - You think Yom Kippur just ended, and ask why we should ask for forgiveness? Well, the reason why we need to ask for forgiveness is for thinking that Yom Kippur is over!
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Shalom! Reb Itzchak Broide of Kelm, Lithuania, proclaimed “You say that time passes- time stands still- you pass!” To understand this baffling statement, picture a round room with 365 doors. Each door is a different day, and we pass through these rooms over and over as the years “go by.” You see, we often think of holidays as commemorations of events of the past. That’s not at all what they are, though. In Judaism, a holiday (”chag”, circle) is a recurring opportunity to evoke the spiritual powers of the day, which manifested themselves on the great events that we commemorate.
So what exactly is the spiritual power contained behind Door Number One, Rosh HaShana?
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My Rabbi always said that as soon as you give up on one thing you’ll give up on another until it’s all gone. Once your barrier is weakened it will keep on getting weaker. It reminds me of something Chazal tell us, that a repeated sin becomes permissible to that person. You do something once and you think it’s bad (I feel so bad!). You do it again and you justify yourself (I shouldn’t have done that BUT…). Once more and you actually deem it permissible, “well, actually…” A modern day example is removing one’s kippa to go into the secular world, whether in university or work. This is, in a lot of cases, followed by a complete rejection of mitzvot. There are of course many more subtle examples which on the outside wouldn’t appear detrimental to our spiritual health, such as a minor laxity in kashrut, but they do indeed gradually persuade us to be even more lenient.
I think this concept is integral for us to internalise as we go into the New Year. The above is nothing more than a tactic of the yetzer horah, the evil inclination inside us. Our yetzer horah is constantly aware of any laxity and rationalisations we make and as such makes it easier for us to justify to ourselves that we don’t have to perform a mitzvah. If only we could all have an awareness of this process happening we would be able to stop it instantly! How do we attain this awareness though?
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Hello All,
I just wanted to wish you all a Shana Tova - may this year only bring joy to the whole world and bring us to the completion of the unfolding of our redemption.
Our sages teach us that, unlike for religious sins, God cannot forgive us for sins we commit against other people before they forgive us themselves. As the new year approaches and we get ready to ask for forgiveness from God on Yom Kippur, I want to ask each and every one of you to forgive me if I have ever done the slightest thing to annoy you, be it intentionally or un-intentionally.
The time of the year we are now in is a time of Tshuva. Tshuva is often translated as repentance. However, in Hebrew, Tshuva really means return. What are we exactly returning to?
We all know about the regular teshuvah – you sin, feel bad, decide not to sin again and therefore “repent”. However, there is a much deeper level of Teshuva. Rav Avraham Itzhak Hakohen Kook explains that when the world was created, God purposely create a discrepancy between his plan for the world and the outcome of the creation. The example that Rav Kook often gives is called Sod Hanesira – the secret of the separation. We are taught that when men and women were first created, they were linked together back to back. However, afterwards, God moved away from his plan and separated men and women. Now, it has become our job to re-connect with our soulmate. When we finally reconnect with our soulmate and get married to them, our connection is so much stronger because it is not a simply physical connection, but it also has a strong spiritual component. On top of that, it is a connection which was created by us, not by God – this makes it much more powerful because we are the ones who have aligned our own actions to God’s original will.
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אני ואתה נשנה את העולם,
אני ואתה ויבואו כבר כולם,
אמרו את זה קודם לפני,
לא משנה – אני ואתה נשנה את העולם.
Anyone with a solid Zionist education has, no doubt, sang this feel-good Israeli song in Hebrew class, yet as I learned it in Ulpan I began to question its legitimacy. “Me and you will change the world”, it claims. That’s a pretty hefty statement, in my opinion. It assumes two axioms that need to be further developed. The first, that the world is indeed changeable. That we are not destined to live in the same world tomorrow that we live in today. And the second, that it is we who have the power to change it. That the entire world can be affected by small things – by individuals, by ideas. We, in a modern day North American culture, are certainly familiar with these empowering and optimistic ideals, but I sometimes wonder how deeply we truly understand them. More often than not, they remain cliché statements repeated during “Awareness Week” at school and “Yom Chessed” at camp, instead of becoming integrated values that we understand, never mind truths that we actually live by. (more…)
