english – nitzavim vayelech
THE MEANING OF TESHUVA
The Talmud gives us an example of when a sinner can be considered a genuine Baal Teshuvah (penitent): If he refrains from sinning a second time when he encounters the same woman at the same place and time where he had previously sinned (Yoma 86b).
This is a rather puzzling test. Must a Baal Teshuvah actually return to the same place and the same temptation in order to prove his sincerity? Even more puzzling is the Talmud’s mention of going back to the time of the sin. How can the penitent possibly accomplish this?
We find a precedent for this approach in G-d’s response to Yishmael’s prayer when he and his mother Hagar seemed to have run out of water in the desert. When Yishmael felt himself close to dying of thirst, he turned to G-d and cried out for mercy. G-d was about to create a spring of water when the angels tried to intervene: How can You bring water to the boy whose future descendents will kill Your children through thirst? G-d responded: What is Yishmael at present – a tzaddik or rasha? Tzaddik! He is to be judged as he is now – באשר הוא שם” “The Kli Yakar helps us understand what the Sages mean by drawing our attention to two key pssukim in our parashah: “For this mitzvah is not in the heavens…nor across the sea that you may say: ‘Who will cross the sea and get it for us so that we can fulfill it?’ Rather, it is very close to you; it is in your mouth and heart to do it”(Dvarim 30:12-13). In other words, one must not be afraid to do teshuvah because he might not withstand the tests that lie ahead. Neither does he need to go to the far ends of the world – to the scene of sin – in order to prove that he will not sin again. Rather, the place of the sin is in the heart. Intense regret can return one to the place and time of sin in order to uproot it. Pain and positive regret can change the heart. They can transform past failure into lessons for the present and future. Change in perception on the part of the Baal Teshuvah ultimately result in change of behavior and character. And that is how we are judged on Rosh HaShanah. G-d sees our present state, and how it will result in positive change in the future. What happened in the past does not determine the ultimate verdict. What is decisive is our character and our “re-programmed” heart as we stand before the Supreme Judge on Rosh HaShanah.
Why is this? Because a person’s essence is what is in his mind and heart at the present moment.
This concept can help us understand a curious request we make of G-d numerous times during this High Holiday season: בספר צדיקים וחסידים כתבנו – Inscribe us in the Book of the Righteous and Pious. The question is obvious. If we are righteous, we need not ask. If we are not, why would imploring G-d get us into the Book where we do not belong? How are we to understand such a request?
Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzatto explains how teshuvah works. When the thought of pleasure and willingness is removed from the sin, then the sin itself is erased and nullified (Messilat Yesharim Ch. 4). Sin is generated by an evil thought. When we oppose inner negative motives mentally and emotionally, G-d is willing to see us as different people. Although we may have sinned throughout the year, sincere thoughts of teshuvah can enable us to stand before G-d on Rosh Hashanah and say: “I now perceive all that pleasure I derived from the sin as pain. I do not want to continue such actions. I am not the sinful “I” of yesterday. And I am not the “I” of tomorrow, where I might fail another test. Right now, I am a better person – the ” I” I really want to be”
There is a midrash that can help us in becoming that person we really want to be (Midrash Aseret Hadibrot on לא תגזול). King Solomon was once approached by three merchants who suspected each other of pocketing the profits from their successful business trip. King Solomon replied that he would be willing to judge the case the following day. When the three merchants re-assembled, he told them about a query sent to him by the Roman Emperor involving a boy and girl who had promised to marry when they came of age. They stipulated that in case either one would decide to marry someone else, they would first ask permission of the other party. Time passed, and the young woman found a suitable man whom she liked very much. True to her word, she took her fiancé to the door of the man she once promised to marry in order to get his permission. The man kindly accepted the woman’s decision and refused the handsome present of gold and precious stones that the groom had brought along to appease him. With real sincerity, he wished the young couple a happy life together. On the way home, unfortunately, the pair was captured by a ruthless band of thieves. The booty was split between them, and the young bride was taken to the leader of the gang. She implored him to hear her story. The head of the thieves somehow found it in his heart to be merciful, and returned the bride to the groom – together with all the gold and precious stones.
King Solomon turned to the three merchants, and asked them to help decide the question sent by the Emperor: Which of the three acted most nobly – the woman who kept the promise of her youth, the man who both gave permission for her to marry someone else and refused the lavish present, or the head of the thieves who could have had both the money and the bride had his mercy not gotten the better of him?
Each one voiced a different opinion, but King Solomon commanded that the one who praised the thief be tied up and whipped. If he praised the thief who had no legal rights to the bride or valuables, then he must be a thief himself! And, of course, the man confessed.
As King Solomon wrote in the Book of Proverbs: “…a man is according to what he praises” (Mishlei 27:21). If we praise good deeds, then that is who we are. If we ask to be inscribed in the Book of the Righteous, it means that we really want to be righteous. And if we are sincere, that is how we are perceived by G-d as well. כן יהי רצון
THE SHOFAR: BLASTING THROUGH TO OUR TRUE SELF
I’d like to present three puzzling teachings of our Sages concerning the shofar we blow on Rosh HaShanah, and explain how they can all be understood through one fundamental concept.
First of all, why do we use a ram’s horn, and not the horn of some other animal? The Sages tells us that this “brings up before G-d the memory of Isaac bound on the altar, prepared to be offered up as a sacrifice.” G-d then promises to view us as if we prepared ourselves as a sacrifice before Him” (Rosh HaShanah 16b). Now, we might wonder, does G-d really need symbolic reminders of Isaac’s self-sacrifice? The moments of history lay before Him like the words on a paper before the eyes of the reader. G-d does not need a symbolic horn to recall Isaac bound on the altar, and the ram which ultimately substituted for him.
Another puzzle: Our Sages explain that we sound the shofar blasts twice on Rosh HaShanah – once while congregants are seated and then again while they are standing in prayer – in order to “confuse the Satan.” It will cause him to fear that the Final Redemption has arrived, and that his career is over. We want to confuse the Satan so that he does not testify against us during these crucial moments of judgment. Now, again, we might wonder about this: How can a ram’s horn confuse an angel – especially the angel who specialized in confusing us all year round! Hasn’t he learnt already from thousands of previous Rosh Hashanahs that this is not the shofar of the Final Redemption, but rather just the shofar of the Jews in the synagogue on the Day of Judgment?
One more question. In the Mussaf prayers on Rosh Hashanah, we speak of G-d this way: כי שומע קול שופר אתה ומאזין תרועה ואין דומה לך (because you are One who listens to the sounds of the shofar, and you hear the Teruah sound, and there is none like You… This seems to imply that G-d has a special ability to hear something in the sounding of the Shofar that no one else can. What can this possibly be?
The key to all three of these puzzles is the unique capacity of the shofar to wake us up spiritually and put us in touch with our core desire to act in accordance with the will of the King of Kings, and to serve Him with our entire being like our Patriarch Yitzchak. This desire is deeper that any personal desire, will, or want. Although we may not have been fully cognizant of it (in ourselves or others) during the year, it is still deep within us. It is an unspoken emotion, one that can only be awakened and expressed through the sound of the shofar – a sound that emanates from the soul itself. Not everyone can hear this, and no-one can hear it like G-d. At the crucial moments when G-d judges us in accordance with who we are then and there, we want more than anything to reconnect to this core emotion and will.
We may have been oblivious to the secret of the shofar during the entire year. We may have acted in a manner that was not in accord with this core will. But it is there. Rebbe Nachman of Breslov would say that a Jew is like an onion. The more you peel, the more tears come out. We Jews may have many levels that cover our true identity. But the shofar peels them away. On Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, when we wish we would have been able to be better, more real, more spiritual – and we feel a tear roll down onto the Machzor – that is an expression of our true self. And that is exactly how we want G-d to see us when He comes to judge us.
The Satan works overtime all year long to ensure that this does not happen. His mission is to confuse us so that we get out of touch with our true self. When he sees that the core of the Jew is pure and impenetrable to him – an inner will that bursts forth on Rosh HaShanah – he becomes frightened, thinking that he is finished. He knows that if we uncover this level of our true identity, then we will ultimately see the Final Redemption accompanied by the powerful blasts of the great ram’s horn.
Post Script
In the large coatroom of the well-attended synagogue where I occasionally daven, I recently noticed the following sign: “Beware of pickpockets!” A few days later, another sign went up: “Dear thief! The bag you took contains knives and stones that have great value to me, but absolutely no value to you. Please return the bag to its place!” I figured that the owner must be a shochet. For some reason, I could not get this sign out of my head.
I finally realized that this is the kind of message we should all be conveying to our Evil Inclination during these days leading up to Rosh HaShanah. He stole from us our precious inner identity – what we really are deep inside. Indeed, the Evil Inclination’s worst crime is to make each one of us feel like “just another person.” Lowering our sense of self-worth and, consequently, our expectations of ourselves, caused us to feel that we are just fine the way we are. These days especially, we should force the Yetzer Hara to give us back our true identity – which is more valuable than anything else in the world!
