A Hope that Is Close at Hand
In just a few days, the great day will arrive when we all
stand in judgment before Hashem. The sages of the generations
discovered that one of the ways of obtaining acquittal in
this trial is through acceptance.
The posuk (Devorim 30:11) says, "For it is very close
to you, in your heart and in your mouth, to do it."
According to either of the ways in which this posuk is
explained — whether it refers to Torah (as we find in
the gemora [Eruvin 54]), or to teshuvoh (as the
medrash and the Ramban and Seforno explain) —
the question is asked, if "it" is so near, where is it?
The answer lies in the posuk's words: "in your heart
and in your mouth." Fulfilling Torah and doing
teshuvoh require the involvement of a person's heart.
If we open our hearts the tiniest amount, Hashem promises to
open them much, much wider and to fill them with love and
fear of Him and with His Torah. However, a wide gulf still
separates our awareness of all this from actually making that
tiny opening.
Call of the Shofar
The Rambam (Hilchos Teshuvoh 3:4) writes, "Even though
blowing the shofar on Rosh Hashonoh is decreed by the
Torah, it [also] contains a message, as if to say,
`Slumberers, awake from your sleep! Those who are dormant,
rouse yourselves from your dormancy! Examine your deeds, do
teshuvoh and remember your Creator! Those who forget
the truth amid passing vanities, who spend their whole year
immersed in worthlessness and emptiness that will neither
help them nor save them, look to your souls, mend your ways
and your practices! Let each one of you leave his evil path
and his improper thoughts!' "
The Rambam tells us that the mitzvoh of shofar comes
to awaken sleepers, to arouse slumberers and to remind those
who are immersed in worthlessness not to forget the truth.
Some are simply asleep. Others are dormant, sleeping more
deeply. Then there are others who spend their entire year
sunk in emptiness and vanity. The shofar comes to
arouse us and to tell us: "Pay attention to your souls!"
When people slumber, they are oblivious to their Creator and
to all spiritual life. All year round they are busy with the
intervening physical matter and they take no notice of the
concerns of the soul.
The word used by the Rambam to denote the degree of immersion
of those whose year is spent in worthlessness, is
shogeh. This term implies continual occupation and
mental involvement in something, to the exclusion of
everything else. The focus of this person's thoughts is the
entirety of his occupation. (Another instance of such a level
of involvement can be found in Hilchos Teshuvoh 10:6
where the Rambam writes that love of Hashem does not become
fixed in a person's heart, "until he thinks about it all the
time, ad sheyishgeh boh tomid, as is proper, and until
he leaves everything in the world besides it, as He commands,
`with all your heart and with all your soul'...")
This is our level of involvement with the emptiness and
worthlessness of the world. We leave the life of the soul
entirely and occupy ourselves with emptiness. The Mesillas
Yeshorim writes, "How can we escape worldly vanity, which
puts it out of our hearts?" The shofar comes to awaken
us and tell us, "Remember your Creator and look to your
souls!"
Remember Your Souls!
The way to remember Hashem then, is to look to our souls. The
Ibn Ezra writes, "If a person does not know his own soul, how
can he know his G-d?"
We each have a clean, pure soul, adorned with every elevation
and every trait mentioned in the Torah, perfect
understanding, willing traits, full of splendor and beauty .
. . but it is forgotten! The shofar comes to remind us
to look to our souls and thereby remember our Creator.
Just by looking briefly, even without the necessary
contemplation, one can leave a bad path and cease improper
thoughts. This is the meaning of the posuk "for it is
very close to you . . . ": One look at our soul will remind
us of our Creator and that is sufficient to leave the bad
path. (See what Rabbenu Yonah writes in Sha'arei
Teshuvoh at the beginning of Sha'ar 2.)
The Rambam is imparting a novel idea here. The thoughts of
teshuvoh which the shofar arouses within us on
Rosh Hashonoh, do not spring from remorse at our having
sinned, but rather from remorse at our having forgotten the
spiritual life of our souls and over the immersion in
emptiness which resulted. Our teshuvoh is inspired by
this arousal and by our taking heed of our souls. This
purifies our hearts and lays a healthy foundation for our
serving Hashem without which, indeed, it is impossible to
serve Him.
Without the purity of heart which is the result of awareness
of the soul's needs, one will spend the entire year immersed
in emptiness, oblivious to the work which the soul ought to
be doing, and oblivious to the Creator Himself (which is
itself a very serious sin, as is clear from the Rambam).
The posuk's assurance that, "it is very close to you,
in your heart and in your mouth, to do it," refers to a
single glance at the soul, with the resultant recollection of
the Creator.
A Moment's Attention
In Tanna Devei Eliyohu, the story is related of how
Eliyohu Hanovi met someone who mocked and laughed at him. The
man was not choliloh irreligious. He was observant but
an ignoramus.
Eliyohu Hanovi asked him, "How will you defend this conduct
when you are brought to judgment?" The ignoramus answered
that Heaven had not granted him the mental abilities
necessary for learning.
Eliyohu asked him what his occupation was and he replied that
he was a fisherman. "And who taught you how to make fish
nets?" Eliyohu asked him.
"For that, I was given sense," the ignoramus replied.
"For that you were given sense," said Eliyohu, "but not for
the Torah, about which it says, `in your heart and in your
mouth to do it'?"
The man immediately raised his voice in weeping and Eliyohu
told him, "There are many who answer like you did, but their
deeds prove them wrong."
Here was an ignoramus, who could mock a prophet on account of
his Torah scholarship and say that he had no use for Torah
since he lacked the intellectual tools necessary for its
study, imagining that this argument would rebuff any claims
that Heaven may have on him for his ignorance. However, after
paying attention for a single moment he grasped the truth
about his situation and dissolved in tears. The message
penetrated, because "it is very close to you."
A heart that spends the year immersed in emptiness produces
all sorts of answers and excuses for itself — but with
a moment's attention, its owner will find that all his
excuses are self-contradictory, and he will immediately take
heed of his duty in this world.
A Permanent Change
What is needed is some way of ensuring that the awareness of
the Creator to which the posuk promises us that we are
so close, will have some permanent effect.
The posuk continues, "for it is very close to you, in
your mouth and in your hearts to do it." The Targum
Yonoson renders the words, "in your hearts to do it" as,
"purify your hearts to do them" [the mitzvos]. This refers to
the purification of one's heart from whatever else the spirit
is immersed in and the redirection of one's attention to the
path of good. Since "it is very close to you," since
wellsprings of purity will flow from a pure heart and since
it is Hashem Himself who is purifying us, we will truly serve
Him and not forget Him.
The way to receive this purity is through the acceptance that
accompanies repentance. The posuk says, "and you shall
return to Hashem . . . and listen to His voice. The Targum
Yonoson renders these words as, "if you accept," meaning
that our return to Hashem consists of undertaking to hearken
to His voice.
This is also the essence of Malchuyos, as is clear
from the parable of the king whose subjects asked him to
enact decrees over them. The king's reply was, "First accept
my rule, then I will enact decrees." By accepting Hashem's
rule, we thus attain purity of heart and we merit being the
subjects of favorable decrees from Hakodosh Boruch
Hu.
The Power of Acceptance
At the end of parshas Nitzovim the posuk says,
"And if your heart turns away." Rashi explains that "this is
`the evil,'" which was mentioned earlier (in posuk
15), as being one of the options before bnei
Yisroel.
The Targum Yonoson however renders these words, "and
if your hearts entertain thoughts and you do not accept."
According to this, the failure to accept the yoke of Hashem's
rule, where this is the consequence of an earlier thought
process, is in itself evil (even if it has not yet found
expression in evil deeds). A heart that is vacant, without
acceptance, is something evil. The person who possesses such
a heart is called beliya'al, meaning, without any yoke
of authority over him.
It should be realized that the power which is contained in
acceptance is the only means by which one can be elevated.
This is how our teachers, the great sages of each generation,
grew and developed.
Amongst those who come to learn in yeshivos too, one sees
that after a short period of time, in a wondrous way, certain
individuals have made tremendous progress, greater than that
of their peers, becoming the `one in a thousand' [out of
those who embark on Torah study at a young age] to attain the
distinction of determining halochoh.
The only reason for this is the fact that such a student
learns because he has accepted the yoke of Hashem's rule upon
himself and has undertaken to serve Him and to thereby grow.
His thoughts are wholly occupied with Torah, with the toil
over understanding it and knowing it, and with the acceptance
of the yeshiva's schedule for learning Torah and
mussar and for prayer. This is the course to follow
for success.
Upholding the Kingdom
The judgment of Rosh Hashonoh concerns a person's actions and
standing. Not only his actions are scrutinized, explains Rav
Chaim of Volozhin zy'a, but his standing, his station
in life, is also examined. The responsibility borne by the
manager of the king's stables is hardly the same as that
borne by the army general, upon whose shoulders rests the
responsibility for the safety of the entire kingdom. A small
mistake made by the latter can place the whole country in
danger.
Bnei Torah are Hashem's army, as the Rambam writes at
the end of Hilchos Shmittoh Veyovel. The maintenance
of Hashem's Kingdom in this world is dependant upon bnei
Torah. Each and every individual must be aware of this.
He must feel that the upkeep of this Kingdom is up to him and
must accept the yoke of Hashem's rule upon himself.
Happy is he who accepts this yoke. He thereby becomes "a
chariot for the Shechinoh,' one of the bearers of
Hashem's Presence in the world and he merits growing into the
"one in a thousand" who attains the proficiency to determine
halochoh.
In this merit may we all be written down and sealed for a
year of life and peace, for a good and sweet year for
ourselves and for all Yisroel, and may this also be
the will of our Father in Heaven.
