 Contradictions: One of the interesting aspects of Judaism is that you find unexpected seeming contradictions alive and well in the same context. There are many examples of
this. One that comes to mind is that of not saying Tachanun or Selichos (said on fast days) on Tishah B’av – the saddest day in the Jewish calendar. Yet the pasuk (verse) in Eichah which deals with the destruction of the Temple calls it a mo’ed (a connotation of simchah – joy).
In a similar vein, on Rosh Hashonoh, which is a day of din (judgment), we have festive meals, whereas on Yom Kippur, which is a day of rachamim (mercy), we fast.
On Meaning
As we know, a person’s time in this world is limited. His purpose during this time is to gather as much Torah and mitzvos and doing kindness to others as possible. Everything else has no meaning because it does not last.
The problem is that we get involved and tend to forget. Days, weeks, months and years can be lost striving for goals and indulgences which ultimately have no meaning.
The Wake-Up Call
Rosh Hashonoh is a yearly wake-up call. It gets our attention. That is its beauty. It can help us change our direction to a more meaningful and ultimately more rewarding life. The reason it gets our attention is because of the fright involved. One is reminded that there are no guarantees from one year to the next. A new year, a new judgment, a new direction. What was decided last year is no guarantee for the next year. What are on the scales are health, livelihood, sholom, life itself. It is a frightening time but it is also a time of beauty; of tremendous opportunity and potential. “Dirshu Hashem behimatzo, kra’uhu b’heyoso karov.” (Seek out Hashem when He is to be found, call out to Him when He is close.) “These are the days between Rosh Hashonoh and Yom Kippur” when He is closer to us than at any other time.
Even in the din itself there is beauty, not just fright. A call to din means that man is important and has meaning, and what he does is important and has meaning. Otherwise, why bother?
Rosh Hashonoh – fright yes, because of all that is potentially on the scales. But beauty also – it shows the importance of man and his deeds, it is a wake-up call that could change one’s whole life and it is the best time to approach Hashem because He is now so close.
Ma’amar 2
Year After Year
At times one can get discouraged. Every year one comes into the Yomim Nora’im (Days of Awe) with high hopes and determination that indeed this year he will turn over a new leaf and change. Yet the next year finds him basically no different than he was. It can be disappointing and even depressing. What now?!
This is not necessarily true. Every year that one goes into the Yomim Nora’im honestly – meaning he really regrets his past, and really wants to change in the future, makes a roshem (an impression). Perhaps no change can as yet be detected but nevertheless an impression was made. The person is indeed now different.
And yet we can ask the question. Right now, which is the real person – the one we see on Rosh Hashonoh and Yom Kippur, subdued, broken-hearted, accepting restraints on his future actions, his various plans to learn more, daven better, be nicer, kinder to others. Or is it the one who is what he is the whole year and his thoughts and actions during the Yomim Nora’im are not really sincere but rather he is fooling himself and hoping that Hashem will buy into it.
A Surprising Rambam
There is a well known Rambam (Maimonides). If one is compelled by outside forces to give a document of divorce (Get) to his wife, the divorce is null and void. A Get must be given solely of one’s own volition. However, if a Beis Din (a Jewish court) decides that the halachah is that he must give his wife a Get, for whatever reason, and he refuses to do so, Beis Din may force him until he agrees to give the Get. Asks the Rambam what’s the difference? In either case he is forced and does not willingly give the Get which should automatically void the Get.
Not so states the Rambam. Since he is a person who in general wants and tries to keep the mitzvos, his problem here is that it is his yetzer hara (inclination towards the bad) that is applying the force, not the other way around. Beis Din’s use of force is only a counter measure to help the person do what he really wants to do – to keep the mitzvos. The answer is an extremely interesting one. It is completely different from our usual way of thinking which is that whatever I want is me. Not so says the Rambam.
We, therefore, now have the following. According to the Rambam and the seforim in Note 16 (plus others not listed there), the real Jew is the one who comes Rosh Hashonoh and Yom Kippur and davens and cries and takes upon himself the various kabbalos (commitments) to be better the next year. The more he strengthens himself in this, the more he develops his own intrinsic connection to Hashem. Later, when the commitments fall away one by one, that comes from the pressure and “force” of the yetzer hara. The pressure of the fear of the Yomim Nora’im is like the fear of the force of Beis Din which only counters the pressure of the Yetzer Hara. The person then is free to do as he intrinsically wishes to do which is to be close to Hashem.
A Caveat
Although the above answers the question of who we really are, it is not a heter, a permit, not to fight the battle against the yetzer hara during the whole year on his own turf. That is where the main crux of schar v’onesh (reward and punishment) is .
How?
So we are left with a question – how do we overcome the yetzer hara a whole year when one tends to get carried away by his guiles? Rav Dessler zt”l writes that two parts of teshuvah are remorse over the past and a will to change in the future. He says that one should have remorse for everything that he did wrong. However, in regard to change for the future he should, if I remember correctly, take on two or three small items and perhaps one medium sized item to change. The main point is they should be doable and one be willing to give it his all through thick and thin.
No Vidui on Rosh Hashonoh
Although Vidui (confessing one’s sin(s) verbally) is a plus the whole year and a must on Yom Kippur, we do not do so on Rosh Hashonoh. Since it’s the day that the Soton (the accuser) indeed accuses, we do not want to give him extra ammunition to say, so to speak, “See, he himself admits it.” One may think (in fact should think) teshuvah, but not verbalize audibly.
Ma’amar 3
Sh’ma Yisroel
“Sh’ma Yisroel Hashem E-lokeinu’ Hashem Echod.” (Hear O Israel: Hashem is our G-d, Hashem, the One and Only.)
One must say and concentrate on the meaning of every word to have fulfilled the mitzvah of saying Sh’ma.
Why the Word “Yisroel”
One can see why all the others words (names) are an important and basic part of the Sh’ma and the linchpins of our emunah (faith). Why, however, is the word “Yisroel” important to the extent that if it is not said one has not fulfilled the mitzvah. The basics seem to be in the other words.
To Define
One answer is that when one says “our G-d” whom does he mean. “Israel,” therefore, defines that “our G d” is the G-d of Israel.
Again, “Yimloch Hashem l’olam E-lokayich Tzion l’dor vodor Hallelukah.” (Hashem shall reign forever – your G-d O Zion – from generation to generation Hallelukah.) Who is the G-d who will reign forever? Only your G-d O Zion!
Again, in the brachah in Shmoneh Esrei on Rosh Hashonoh “V’yomar kol asher neshamah b’apo” – “let everything with a life’s breath in its nostrils proclaim: Hashem the G-d of Israel is King …” Who is the King? Only the G-d of Israel is the King. It is only through the definition that the declaration has meaning.
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