24 Sep Feel Awe But Never Give Up

The posuk says, “Aryeh shoag, mi lo yirah – The lion roared, who is not afraid?” The verse is interpreted homiletically to reflect on the feelings of fear and trepidation that one should have during the Days of Awe. Thus, the word aryeh, spelled alef-reish-yud-hei, is an acronym for Elul, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Hoshanah Rabbah. Rav Chaim Kanievsky, shlit”a, asks, Why does the posuk say ‘roared’ in the past test tense? Why doesn’t it say in the present tense, “When the lion roars, who is not afraid?” He explains that, in order to really feel fear for the approaching Days of Awe, one needs to look back at the past year and see what happened. So, as we look back at the year of 5779, we think of the horrific Pittsburgh massacre, the tragic drownings during the summer, the recent passing of such great people as Rav Gissinger and Rav Bluth, and we realize that all these occurrences were decided on last year’s Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. That fills us with a sense of foreboding and mission for the coming New Year. On the posuk “Viyasuru es haaretz – And they spied [inspected] the land,” Targum Onkelos renders the word viyasuru as va’alilu. Thus, we see the word Elul means to inspect.

As we engage in the annual activity of personal introspection, a dangerous Yeitzer Hara flares up inside of us. As we come to the grim realization that the sins which we discover – such as swallowing our brachos, having our mind wander during our davening of the Shemoneh Esrei, wasting too much time without learning, putting on our tefilin without thought, losing our temper in the home, and not spending enough time with our loved ones – we are filled with a sense of despair. We ask ourselves, “Who am I kidding? I’ve been promising to be better in these areas for the last decade.” It almost seems an effort of futility.

Rav Chatskel Sarna, zt”l, zy”a, says this is precisely why we say. “L’Dovid, Hashem ori v’yishi,” after we blow the shofar. For the shofar is a wakeup call and it conveys the message shapru ma’aseichem, make better your deeds, and he says it is normal to feel a sense of yiush, giving up, when thinking about all of our repetitive offenses. Therefore, says Rav Sarna, we say “L’Dovid, Hashem ori v’yishi – A psalm of Dovid, Hashem is my light and my salvation,” to remind ourselves that Hashem is standing right by us, proud of our efforts and ready to bolster us in our teshuva attempts. Rav Sarna then says that Elul is an acronym for Efshar Lehiskaiyem U’laamod L’fonecha, reassuring us that “it is possible to be established and to stand before You (Hashem)”. The great Kotzker Rebbe, zt”l, zy”a, says cleverly, “Yiush shelo midas,” which he renders, that giving up – is just not using your head.

Rav Tzadok HaKohein of Lublin, zt”l, zy”a, points out something fascinating. He says the birth of Klal Yisroel came about only after yiush, for Yitzchak, the furtherance of our nation, was only born after Avraham and Sarah fully gave up hope of having a child. This, he explains, was done to concretize the awareness that Klal Yisroel lives above yiush and that there is no giving up for a Jew. The Noam Siach says a beautiful moshel, parable. If you watch a spider, it spins its web and then goes into a corner to wait for a hapless victim. When a fly gets trapped in the web, it thrashes around but the spider does yet not pounce. It waits until the fly gives up and then comes in for the kill. Says the Noam Siach, so it is with the Yeitzer Hara. As long as we continue fighting and trying, he doesn’t pounce. It’s only when we give up that we fall prey to the Yeitzer Hara and the Satan.

Let’s remember what we say in our Yom Kippur liturgy davening, “Ki lo yachpotz v’mos hameis, ki im v’shuv mi darko – Hashem doesn’t desire anyone to die, he just wants to see from us a little turn and a little effort,” and then he grants us life.

I’d like to take this opportunity to wish the Jewish Press, my dear readers and their families, a New Year of good health, happiness, serenity, and everything wonderful.