פרשת נצבים-וילך וענייני ראש השנה
This week’s Parsha opens with the verse, “Behold, you are standing in front of Hashem today”. The Midrash Tanchuma which is quoted by Rashi asks, “Why does this verse follow the previous Parsha of all the curses? This is to show us that when the Jews heard the 98 curses in the previous Parsha, and the 48 curses mentioned earlier in the Torah, their faces fell and they exclaimed, ‘Who could stand up to such a rigorous system?’ Moshe therefore came in this week’s Parsha to tell the Jewish people that although they had angered God a many number of times during their travels in the desert, ‘Behold, you are standing in front of Hashem today’ meaning, you are still standing here in spite of your wayward behavior.” The Midrash goes on to ask parenthetically, why have many non-Jewish nations been destroyed over the years and the Jews remain? This is because when Hashem punishes the non-Jews, they curse Him out of anger, whereas when the Jews receive rebuke and punishment, they respond by humbling themselves and trying to serve Him better.
This Midrash seems a bit strange. Hashem wrote down a great number of very frightening curses in the Torah, 146 to be exact, and His goal was obviously to scare the Jewish people into submission to His will. How could Moshe have taken the initiative to go and extinguish that fear that had been instilled in their hearts directly by God? The famous Rabbi Eli Lopian explains beautifully that the word “Yisurim”, which is normally translated as “painful retribution”, actually has another connotation as well. The word “יסורים” comes from the word “מוסר” which means to give rebuke. In other words, the point of Yisurim is not to punish us for our wrongdoings, but rather to humble our hearts and hopefully generate change in us. One way to do that happens to be through misfortune and suffering. But if the Jewish people “get the point” before it comes to that, nobody would be more pleased then Hashem to not have to bring that misfortune on us. This explains why Moshe felt that he could comfort the Jewish people when they felt so afraid. If he saw that they got the point from Hashem’s threat alone, and they humbled and subjugated their hearts, there was no further reason for him to continue to grieve them using tactics of terror.
According to R’ Eli Lopian, the Midrash is teaching us a powerful lesson. Since the primary trait which fuels all sin is haughtiness and arrogance, it stands to reason that humility and subjugation of the heart will inevitably generate true repentance in a person. All the Jewish people had to do was realize how seriously God took the Torah, and take it seriously themselves by being afraid to transgress it, and they had reached the optimum level of Mitzvah observance. In addition, Hashem fosters a special love for a humble person as the verse says in Psalms, “God doesn’t forsake a broken and downtrodden heart.”
Being that humility and submissiveness to God’s will are the primary traits which generate proper repentance and correct service of Hashem, it stands to reason that we too must take on that same humility in order to approach Rosh Hashanah with the proper mindset and attitude. Rosh Hashana itself has many indicators that humility is the primary trait to focus on. The Shofar on Rosh Hashana must be bent in order to teach us that only someone who bends his heart can properly repent. Similarly, the Gemorah in Rosh Hashana (16) says that when the Jews make themselves low in front of God, they are guaranteed a good year. It seems that according to the Gemorah, this attribute of humility is even more crucial to our success then the prayers themselves.
If one examines the actual content of the Rosh Hashana services, one sees that they all seem to point to this concept. God says to the Jewish people, “Recite before me verses of coronation, remembrance, and of the Shofar in order that you should coronate me on this day”. The verses of coronation are clearly referring to coronating God upon us and subjugating our hearts to Him. And the verses of remembrance are referring to the fact that God remembers and records every one of our actions and to the fact that we will need to take responsibility for any wrongdoings that we may have performed. This too is a powerful form of humility. The Shofar verses as well are a true lesson in humility. The Shofar blasts are referred to by the Gemorah as a form of weeping. When a baby weeps, it has no ability to express itself. The best it can do is scream out wordless cries in order to indicate that it is in pain and that baby is completely dependant on its mother for salvation. This cry is completely pure in its meaning. Similarly, when we blow the Shofar, we are expressing that truthfully, we have no defense for our rebellious actions, and all we can do is blast this monotonous horn in order to communicate our complete inability to help ourselves without the absolute mercy of Hashem. This form of expression is a powerful way to articulate our total dependence on Hashem and the awe and humility that he have in front of Him. This also explains the special prayer that we recite immediately following the Shofar blowing on Rosh Hashana. We say, “Lucky is the nation who knows the secret of the Shofar blasts”. This seems strange. Are we the only nation who knows how to blow a horn? Rather the meaning is certainly that we understand the secret of what is behind the Shofar blasts which no other nation understands, and that is the complete and total dependence on Hashem for our success and the wordless articulation that we don’t deserve His help and ironically, this realization is what actually ends up causing us to deserve His help!
May we merit to serve our magnificent Creator with a truly humbled heart!