ימים הנוראים, תשס”ח וענייני תשובה

The Gemorah says that there are three books opened up every year. The book for the completely righteous people who get inscribed immediately on Rosh Hashanah, the book for the extremely wicked, who also get inscribed on Rosh Hashanah, and the book of those whose good deeds and bad deeds are equal. This third category of people are held in the balance during the 10 days of repentance. If they return to God, they will be forgiven and placed in the “good book”, however if they don’t, they will be inscribed in the “bad book”. One could pose an interesting difficulty on this famous Chazal. Why does it say that if we repent and return to God will we be inscribed in the “good book” implying that this is the only way? Why can’t a person merely do more good deeds to tip the scale in his favor? Why does repentance seem to be the only successful ticket to a good year?

R’ Yitzchak B’lazar explains beautifully that during this period that we find ourselves in, Hashem is waiting for our repentance, so to speak, and expects us to come close to Him. If He sees that we do, that attempt alone will earn us a good year. But if, on the other hand, He sees that we seem apathetic to this tremendous opportunity then even if we add many more merits to our slate, this will not save us from an unfavorable judgment.

The verse says “Seek God out and you will find him, call out to Him and you will find that He is indeed very close”. Chazal teach us that this verse is referring specifically to the Ten days of repentance that we find ourselves in. I would like to explain that we see two integral facets of Teshuva from this verse. The Rambam (2:6) says that although prayer and repentance is always special, during these days it is especially special and is accepted by God immediately. So we find that the two primary activities that are intended for this period is order to seek out Hashem are a) repentance, and b) prayer, and I would like to explain both of these aspects.

Regarding repentance which is expected of us during this time, it stands to reason that if Hashem teaches us in Tanach that He is close to us during this time, and expects us to come close to Him, it is a big insult on our part to ignore that precious opportunity that was granted to us. R’ Elazar Ben Dordaya was an interesting fellow who had performed many grave sins until one time, when he was about to sin, a woman told him that his crimes were so heinous, that he could never return to God. The words of this woman struck him right in his heart, and he began to cry. He cried out to all the forces of nature to beseech God to take him back, but they all refused. So he put his head between his legs, and cried in remorse for his evil ways until his sadness actually made his soul leave his body and he passed away. A voice came out from the heavens and said, “Lucky is Rabbi Elazar Ben Durdaya whose repentance was accepted and is now in Gan Eden.” When Rebbi heard this, he too began to weep. He exclaimed, “Come and see how powerful one moment is in this world, that in one moment, a person can draw close to God and earn his portion in the World to Come”. Rebbi, with his emotional display was teaching us what a single moment in this world can mean and how foolish it would be to waste that moment when it is offered to you, and how severely one will be punished for not taking advantage of that moment?! The Rabenu Yonah compares this to one who is imprisoned, and his fellow prisoners dig a tunnel out of the prison but he refuses to go. The next day the warden comes, and understands what happened, and he begins to beat him. The warden exclaims, “You had the ability to escape and didn’t, now I must break you”. Similarly, how foolish would we be not to take advantage of these incredible days, and what a powerful claim Hashem will have on us if we don’t as the verse in Shir Hashirim (5) says, “I tried to come close to my Beloved, but alas, it was too late for my Beloved had already left”!

Until now, we have explained the importance of Teshuva during this period. Now I would like to explain the other aspect the Rambam referred to – prayer. The Midrash learns out from the verse in Psalms (102) which says, “A nation which is created, will praise God” – that even if a person went into these holy days as a dead person, the prayers during this time have the power to completely revive him and turn him into a new human being. The simple understanding of how this works is like the Rambam says, “To affect true Teshuva, one must be able to testify about himself that even if he were in the same situation, with the same temptations, he would not succumb and he must be able to call out about himself that he is not the same person anymore.” This shows that Teshuva helps us to evolve into a completely new human being. We can now understand how Teshuva transforms a person, but the Midrash also said that prayer allows a person to metamorphosize into a new human being. How does this work?

We find that prayer in general, and having intent during prayer is the primary focus of the holy days which we find ourselves. Yet when one examines these prayers carefully, one can’t help but notice that the content of these prayers is different from those of the rest of the year. Usually, we pray for our needs, but during these holy days, many of our prayers are focused on our concern that God’s name be sanctified and glorified in the world. The Zohar explains this anomaly by saying that during the year, many of our prayers resemble that of a dog. Just as a dog says, “Hav! Hav!” – which means “Give! Give!”, so to we constantly besiege God with our requests for a better life. However, the special prayers that we say during these times have a unique lesson in them. The prayers teach us to realign our priorities and to begin to focus on our service of God and to stop focusing on our own needs. This focusing on God’s “needs”, and our roles as His servants, is exactly what we require in order to recalibrate our actions. Once we do this, we can easily understand the Midrash because we truly become “new” people who now have a single minded purpose in life. And ironically, when we pray for God’s honor to be increased in the world, and succeed in seeing beyond our own selfish needs, it stands to reason that we ourselves will be blessed with every blessing for the upcoming year, on account of our concern for God’s honor and our rededication to His will.

May we all merit to utilize this tremendous gift of these days, and not waste even one precious moment from the time that was granted to us for repentance, and draw close to God and transform ourselves into the people we can become!