NITZAVIM 2012

     WRONG SIDE OF THE BED

The following day the Baal Shem Tov posed the identical question. This time the response was different. “Baruch HaShem, every morning I wake up and HaShem gives me strength to go about my business,” he answered with a huge smile. “Through my buckets I bring brachah into my home. At the end of a long, hard day, I return home to find my wife waiting for me. Without me, she wouldn’t be able to survive. All this gives me the strength to continue.”

With this, the Baal Shem Tov turned to his students and said, “Chaikel has just helped me understand something I’ve been trying to comprehend for a long time. There are two contradicting phrases from Chazal (Rosh HaShana 16a). First, they state that a person is judged on Rosh HaShana; but then, it goes on to say, that he’s judged daily. Chaikel has just explained this to me.”

“As you’ve just seen, Chaikel hasn’t changed his difficult schedule or back breaking work since yesterday, yet his mood has changed. On Rosh HaShana, the day on which it’s decided how much money one will earn during the year, it was decided that Chaikel shall receive parnasah from carrying water. Every day, however, it is decided what his mood will be, whether or not on that particular day he will enjoy what he’s doing.”   (Story from the sefer חיים שיש בהם, על מועדי השנה)

This story relates to us a point that may, at times, confuse us. The story seems to express that we are not in control of our emotions; rather, the way we feel is subject to Divine Judgment. If one is angry or sad, there is nothing that he or she can do about it. That was the Heavenly decree of the day, due to their actions. The wrong side of the bed that one wakes up on is out of one’s control, for it is a Heavenly punishment.  

This is a common mistake. Our emotions, the way we feel, have everything to do with the way we think. Waking up on “the wrong side of the bed” is a follow-up of going to bed with a negative thought or belief.

If a person feels strong emotion about something, and we tell him to stop that feeling – stop being frustrated, stop worrying, stop being angry – this just adds to the fire. The way we can help to get ourselves or others out of a negative emotion is by finding out what thoughts or beliefs caused it. Guidance to a healthier and more positive way of thinking can be given only when the strong emotion has subsided. Not always are we in control of our thoughts: ironically, if one were to decide not to think tomorrow, he would wake up thinking that he does not want to think! Thoughts come to mind with or against our will. However, we can decide if we would like to entertain a certain thought, and how we want to believe and look at things.

By perceiving life in a certain way, we bring judgment on ourselves. I believe that the Baal Shem Tov was telling his students that the way we think brings about Heavenly Judgment that determines how we feel. And the way we believe will bring judgment as to what type of “luck” we will have in life. We can learn this from Chana.

“On Rosh Hashana, Chana was remembered”(Rosh H.10b, 11a). Each year for the Holidays, her husband, Elkana, would bring the family up to Shilo, the place of the Mishkan.  Her husband had another wife, Pnina, who did have children: ten of them. Elkana would always give Chana a double portion of the holiday feast, for he loved her, and commiserated with her for her being childless. Pnina teased Chana, trying to get her to pray for children at the Mishkan with bitter tears on the holidays. This gave Chana great pain, causing her to lose her appetite at the meals. Elkana came to Chana to console her and said, “Why are you crying? Why do you not eat? Why is your heart bitter? Am I not better for you, as a husband, than ten children?

We might ask, what kind of a consolation was this meant to be? So what? Her Shalom Bayit, tranquility at home, is fine. Still, she does not have any children! How can she be happy when she is taunted by the other wife, who has a whole school bus of children, when she is all alone?

The answer is that Elkana was trying to shift Chana’s perspective to look at what is working out and be happy and appreciative for it. It is for her to choose her focus, and she had a beautiful marriage with Elkana. Elkana tried to cheer her up saying that their marriage was everything. Chana was so overwhelmed with pain and bitterness that she was unable to hear Elkana’s attempts to help her. So, she went to the Mishkan to pray and pour out her frustration to G-d.

She made a silent prayer, which, as the first of its kind, aroused the suspicion of Eli, the Kohen Gadol. Something here was strange, so Eli Hakohen approached the woman. When Eli heard of her trials, he blessed her with a baby ואלקי ישראל יתן את שלתך   )the word is spelled  שלתך, not שאלתך . Commentators deduce from here that Eli was telling her, not only will G-d answer your prayers, but he will also give you a baby) .  Then, she stopped being angry. ופניה לא היו לה עוד (Anger was no longer visible on her face). Immediately after she changed the expression on her face from anger to calm, she was remembered by G-d, and she became pregnant. – Blessings follow those who believe that things will be okay.  (Adapted from a class by Rabbanit Y. Mizrachi)

Not only is it important for us to take charge of our thoughts and beliefs for better living; we must repent having negative and invalid thoughts of the past, as well. R’ Ovadia Yosef, shlita, mentioned this in his weekly worldwide class a few years back. The passuk says יעזוב רשע דרכו ואיש און מחשבותיו the wicked shall leave his ways, and a strong-minded man (shall leave) his thoughts. The passuk here is describing two types of teshuva: teshuva from sin and evil ways, and teshuva from thoughts that are invalid – those that are against Torah principles or against the truth. For example, says R’ Ovadia, a person who thinks, even for a minute, that learning Torah is not saving the world, that learning Torah is not keeping our nation alive must do Teshuva for such thoughts. For this goes against the teachings of our Rabbis, אם לא בריתי יומם ולילה חוקות שמים וארץ לא שמתי . Thoughts and beliefs are of great importance, because they determine the way we are going to feel and behave. And it is safe to say that if our belief in G-d – that He cares for us and loves us so much, that He always has only the best for us in mind – is ever weakened, even to an almost negligible degree, it is a serious breach of faith which requires our repentance.

The way we look at things, the way we believe, can instill hope in us.  This may even be the way that G-d will judge us. This is what I believe the Baal Shem Tov wanted to teach his students, and teach us all!

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.

In the large coatroom of the well-attended synagogue where I occasionally pray, 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!