08 Aug RE’EH: ELUL – A TIME TO PREPARE

The Zohar calls the yom

tov of Rosh Hashanah-
Hayom. This parashah –

parashas Re’eh begins
with the words, “Re’eh
Anochi Nosen
Lifneichem Hayom,”
which can be translated
as, “See that I am
giving you days before
Rosh Hashanah, so
you can prepare
yourselves on these
days for the great
judgment of Rosh
Hashanah.
When a person driving
a car, presses on the
brakes, the vehicle
doesn’t stop instantly. Instead, the wheels
still turn slowly, and the car will gradually
stop. But the vehicle will stop short if
someone pulls the emergency hand brake.
There are times when teshuvah can be
compared to someone pressing the breaks on
a car. He has not yet changed his ways (the
wheels are still turning) but is on the road to
improve. This is the typical path of teshuvah.
But there are times when gradual change isn’t
sufficient. Sometimes it is time to put an
immediate stop to bad deeds. This is
compared to someone who pulls the hand

breaks. Rosh Chodesh Elul is such a time.
Although change is generally done in a
gradual, step-by-step manner, Elul is a time
to make an abrupt change and to improve
one’s ways.
The renowned and revered Lubavitcher
chasid, Reb Mendel Futerfass zt’l, was
imprisoned in a Soviet camp. He relays that
when the evil Stalin died, life in the camps
became more bearable for the inmates, and
one inmate celebrated his partial freedom by
demonstrating his talents as a tightrope
walker.
He tied a thick rope to two buildings that
were ten feet high. The first two times he
tried to walk across the rope, he fell. But he
knew how to fall, like a cat, and he didn’t get
hurt. He tried a third time and succeeded. He
danced back and forth on the rope to the
rhythm of the crowd’s clapping, who had
gathered to watch the stunt.
After the show, the tightrope walker asked
Reb Mendel Futerfass, “When I told you that
I know how to walk a tightrope, you didn’t
believe me. But now you saw it with your
eyes.”
Reb Mendel congratulated him on his
abilities and asked how he does it. He replied,
“I focus on where I am going and never think
about falling. The hardest part is when I get
to the other side and have to turn around.
That is the hardest moment because you lose

sight of the goal for a second when you turn
around.”
This anecdote teaches us several lessons.
One lesson is to keep your eyes on your
goal, don’t get sidetracked. If your goal is to
serve Hashem, don’t forget that ultimate
goal, not even for a moment, so you don’t
fall, and so you don’t lose sight of your
primary mission.
Lesson number two is to recognize the
difficulty of turning around. The tightrope
walker knew that the hardest part of his stunt
was turning around, and the same is for those
who do teshuvah. The hardest part is telling
yourself to stop your previous ways and to
turn around and begin a new path. That
turning point is the most challenging aspect
of teshuvah.
Two weeks after their chasunah, a woman
came to the Rav, saying that she wanted a
divorce. “I don’t want to be married to
someone who doesn’t keep kosher,” she
explained. “Yesterday, after eating a fleishig
lunch, my husband asked me to make him a
coffee with milk. I told him, ‘You certainly
mean soy milk.’ He said, ‘No, I want coffee
with regular milk.’ I couldn’t believe my
ears. How can I remain married to such a
person?”
The Rav said, “I can’t arrange a get before I
hear the other side of the story.”
Her husband came to the Rav, and the Rav

gradually broached the subject. Finally, the
Rav said, “You certainly meant that she
should make you a black coffee, or a coffee
with parve milk.”
“No,” the husband said. “I asked her to serve
me coffee with regular milk.”
“Have you lost your mind?” the Rav rebuked
him. “That’s forbidden! It is basar b’chalav!”
The yungerman replied, “You don’t
understand. I’ve been married for two weeks
and know my wife a little. When I ask her for
something, it takes her six hours before she
serves it to me. So, I asked her for a coffee
right after we finished the fleishig meal,
knowing it won’t be ready for another six
hours.”
The nimshal is about teshuvah. We change
our ways ever so slowly. When we are
inspired to do teshuvah, it might take about
six weeks until there is actual change. There
are less than six weeks until Rosh Hashanah.
We blow shofar from Rosh Chodesh Elul.
Hopefully, by the time Rosh Hashanah and
Yom Kippur come around, we will be able to
do teshuvah.