ELUL: ENTERING AND
EXITING
Shira Smiles shiur 2021/5781
Adapted by Channie Koplowitz Stein
As
we enter the month of Elul and approach the Yomim Noraim/Days of Awe, we
struggle with the same paradox our Sages and Rabbis have struggled with
throughout the ages: Every year we do teshuvah, we regret our past sins and
resolve to do better. Yet, here we are again, not having met our past
aspirations. How can we not feel despair over our past failure, and what can we
do to be more successful in the coming year?
During
this period of preparation, during the month of Elul, we listen to the sound of
the shofar every day. Yet, on Erev Rosh Hashanah, we do not blow the shofar. As
Rabbi Rothberg points out in Moda Labinah, we are aware that blowing the
shofar is halachically mandated only for the days of Rosh Hashanah even as it
has become a universal custom to sound the shofar this entire month dedicated
to arousing us toward repentance. We do not need to be reminded of this
difference, so why not blow the shofar on the very day leading into Rosh
Hashanah?
If
we begin our discussion with the chapter of Tehillim we read every day now,
Chapter 27, we may begin forming some insights into our question, although we
may begin with an additional oft discussed question. King David asks, “One
thing I asked of Hashem, that shall I seek: That I dwell in the house of Hashem
all the days of my life; to behold the sweetness of Hashem and to visit in His
Sanctuary.” The often asked question is that David Hamelech says he is asking
only one thing, yet he seems to be making two requests. But Rabbi Rothberg adds
an additional question: If I am already sitting in God’s house all the days of
my life, am I not already there? Why do I also ask to visit His
Sanctuary?
To
understand our goal in Chodesh Elul, it is important to review the historical
perspective of the month. Moshe ascended Har Sinai three times. First, on
Shavuot he ascended, brought down the first luchot, but smashed them
when he witnessed Bnei Yisroel sinning with the Golden calf. He ascended for a
second forty day period, descending on Rosh Chodesh Elul, and bringing down the
second set of luchot, tablets that he himself had hewed from stone but
whose text had still been written by the finger of God. But the relationship
between Hashem and Bnei Yisroel had not yet been fully repaired. Moshe ascended
a third time, on Rosh Chodesh Elul, pleading with Hakodosh Boruch Hu to fully
forgive Bnei Yisroel and reengage intimately with us. It is on Yom Kippur that
Moshe descended again with Hashem’s promise of “Solachti kidvarecha/I
have forgiven as you/Moshe have said.” It is within this context that we
interpret ELUL as an acronym for (E)Ani Ledodi (U)Vedodi
Li/I am to my Beloved (Hashem) and my Beloved is to me, writes Rabbi
Bernstein.
Elul
is interpreted as the acronym for several other additional verses. Among them
is the verse discussing the cities of refuge for one whose negligence caused
someone’s accidental death, This is described as, “VehaElokhim Ena Leyodo
(U)Vesamti Lach.../And Hashem ‘forced his hand’ and I
[Hashem] have paced for him [a place of refuge].” This the acronym Rabbi
Rothberg uses to discuss the function of the month of Elul. On Rosh Hashanah,
we don’t recite Hallel even though it is a holiday, for we are filled
with fear and awe at our imminent encounter with Hakodosh Boruch Hu. But Hashem
has prepared this safe place in time so that we can less fearfully approach Him
on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, in spite of our sins.
What
is the connection between Elul and the atonement that will be finalized on Yom
Kippur? While Hashem gifted us with the first set of Tablets, completely formed
and written by Hashem, these could not survive in a flawed, human society. The
second set of luchot were chiseled by Moshe’s human hand, representing
an “arousal from below,” the stirring of humanity toward the relationship with
Heaven. Humanity has to prepare for itself the “Tablets” to receive the writing
of God. That connection, writes Rabbi Rothberg, would be permanent, culminating
in the forgiveness on Yom Kippur and the repair of the relationship. Our task
during Elul is to prepare our personal luchot so that Hashem’s presence
can come down into this world, and into ourselves.
When
we first accepted the Torah, we were on the level of total perfection of Adam
before the sin, fully ready to accept God’s presence. While we no longer have
the luchot, they are symbolically contained in our hearts, writes Rabbi
Wolbe. [This explains why the luchot are generally depicted curved, as a
heart.] But those original tablets were broken, and we must prepare to imprint
them again on our hearts. While Moshe was preparing the physical stones for
Hashem’s writing, Bnei Yisroel were also doing teshuvah to prepare to receive
Hashem’s word anew. Hearing the sound of the shofar helps us prepare down below
to receive Hashem’s Sovereignty from Above.
The
Torah itself was not affected by our sin, writes Rabbi Rothberg, but our Sinai
experience was damaged. We create the sounds of the shofar here on earth to try
to recreate the scene of receiving the Torah at Sinai, when the sounds of the
shofar came from above. Our teshuvah did not end on Rosh Hashanah, when Hashem
again revealed Himself to us, but on Yom Kippur, when we received the second
set of luchot. Both revelation and receiving the Torah were one combined
experience on Shavuot, but the experience of the second luchot was
divided into two stages, Revelation of God’s Sovereignty on Rosh Hashanah
followed by a recommitment to Torah on Yom Kippur.
Returning
to the question we asked about Psalm 27, we can follow the reasoning of Rabbi
Gamliel Rabinowitz who maintains that David Hamelech was not asking for two
separate things, but making one request with a necessary corollary. David, as
king, was involved with many issues of state. He could not sit and study Torah
day and night. What David requested was that no matter where he was and what he
needed to do, he would always feel Hashem’s Presence beside him and keep
building the relationship.
This
is a lesson we can also learn from Yaakov Avinu, writes Rabbi Belsky in
Einei Yisroel. Yaakov Avinu metaphorically took the Throne of Glory
wherever he went to whatever he was doing. Therefore, when the angels ascended
the ladder in Yaakov’s dream, they saw Yaakov’s image at the top of the ladder,
for Yaakov never left Hashem’s Presence behind. This is indeed what the month
of Elul is all about.
The
Torah itself has a similar verse. Devarim 10:12, “And now, what does
Hashem ask of you? Only to fear Hashem, to go in all His ways, and to love Him,
and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul.” Rabbi Shmuel
Auerbach suggests a commonality between these two verses. He posits that in
each verse, There is truly only one thing being requested, and that one thing
is the heading and general, comprehensive category that encompasses all the
other requests. “To visit in His Sanctuary” is one example of dwelling in the
house of Hashem, and “to fear Hashem” covers loving Him and serving Him. All is
included in the Oneness of Hashem, in the knowledge that nothing exist outside
of Him. The one thing that David wants, and that Hashem wants of us, is that
our entire life be a unified whole, being lived under the constant umbrella of
creating and maintaining our relationship with Hakodosh Boruch Hu. Absent this
unifying factor, our lives become fragmented and confusing.
It
is not enough, however, just to have an awakening. One must follow up with
action. The word shofar shares its root with leshaper/to improve.
One must take the message in the sound of the shofar as the impetus for
improving ourselves, teaches Rabbi Kofman in Mishchat Shemen. One
should not begin with trying to do a complete overhaul, but by trying to make
one small improvement at a time, perhaps reciting one or two daily brachot
more mindfully. When we ask Hashem to help us improve, we must make our own
effort as well. We must be proactive.
One
must take action at the time of inspiration. Our Sages have told us that Hashem
needed to take Bnei Yisroel out of Egypt at the precise moment He did or we
would have sunk to the lowest level of depravity and would have lost all
opportunity for redemption. Rabbi Schwadron questions this premise, saying we
were at a higher spiritual level at the end of the redemption process that at
the beginning. From merely having faith in Hashem and in Moshe, Bnei Yisroel
were taking action, taking a lamb, one of the Egyptian gods, and tying it to
the bedpost for all Egypt to see, to slaughtering it, to witnessing the death
of the firstborn Egyptians while they themselves were saved – certainly Bnei
Yisroel had achieved a high spiritual level. However, this is precisely the
paradox Rabbi Schwadron sees. When one is on such a high spiritual level, it
can dissipate very quickly. Had Hashem not redeemed us at that moment, the
faith and inspiration would have fallen away so quickly that we would have sunk
to an even lower spiritual level that ever before and would no longer qualify
for redemption.
It
was to that redemption that the Prophet Isaiah alludes when he writes that
Hashem created a path for us through the Sea. Rabbi Biderman notes that there
is no path through water, that each person must forge his own, personal path
through the water. At the right moment, the smallest action can bring you to
the greatest realization of and connection to Hashem. One must know that one’s
purpose in life is to have this closeness to Hashem, to develop it by following
in His ways that can be achieved only by working on our midos, adds Rav
Yechezkel Levenstein. If one’s midos are not whole, one will never come
close to Hashem no matter how much Torah he learns. Work on the midos
internally, not just externally, exhorts us Rabbi Kestenbaum. And the main
classroom for this work is in your own home with your own family. Reframe tasks
at home as opportunities for chesed, for emulating Hakodosh Boruch Hu. Carve
your heart to resemble the luchot.
You
may think the task of changing your midos is too big. You would be
right. Rabbi Wolbe understands human nature and suggests the smallest of steps.
Just five minutes at a time can change your life. Begin with resolving to not
speak loshon horo for only five minutes, for example. Those five minutes
will be the hole Hashem enlarges to a wide open gate to help you overcome this
negative tendency further. With this process, we can understand that we do not
return to the same point of the teshuvah process each year, writes the Tallelei
Chaim. The process is a spiral from year to year. We may return to the same
shortcoming, but we can see some improvement from year to year, all from five
minutes of change.
Hashem
judges each person ba’asher hu sham/where he is at at that moment. On
Rosh Hashanah are we ready to crown Hashem as King over us? Can we be serious
about any resolution to bring us closer to Hashem, even for five minutes at a
time? It seems that eleven months later we really haven’t improved, writes
Rabbi Rothberg.
Rabbi
Schlesinger provides us with an encouraging metaphor. If we picture a
tightrope, we will note that it is high at one end, then it sags in the middle,
but returns to the high end again at the other end. We begin the New Year on a
high, but as the year progresses, our resolution flags and the “rope” sags.
Then comes Elul, and we hear the shofar that reminds us of our previous
resolution so that we can begin working on it anew, even though we weakened in
the middle of the year. But we don’t sound the shofar right before Rosh
Hashanah because this month has been dedicated to following through from last
year’s Rosh Hashanah. Hence, the Shofar of Elul is a reminder of the
commitments we made last Rosh Hashanah when we heard the Shofar, and we break
for a day, before we encounter the Shofar of this year’s Rosh Hashanah.
Elul
gives us the opportunity to save face, to exit the year on a regained high. We
can now focus on the second half of our initial verse, not only to dwell in
Hashem’s house, but also to visit. It is difficult to maintain a constant
momentum, but at least let me visit to reignite the relationship with God. Let
us return to the loving relationship with Hashem that the name of the month
alludes to.