Thursday, September 13, 2012
Preparing for Rosh Hashanah
9:29 PM | 
Posted by
Rabbi Chaim Coffman |
By Rav Moshe Sternbuch
Gratitude
”And it
will be, when you come into the land” (26:1); “Perform this mitzvah since because
of it you shall enter the country”(Masseches Kiddushin 37b)
Why is the
performance of the mitzvah of bikkurim specifically credited with granting us the right to enter Eretz
Yisroel?
Rashi (on 26:3) connects bikkurim to the trait of gratitude,
because when offering them the person expresses gratitude to Hashem and
acknowledges that everything is from Him. Similarly, our right to Eretz
Yisroel
is contingent upon feeling gratitude for having been granted the eretz
hakodesh.
On Rosh Hashono we tend to focus on the future,
wondering which events will transpire during the coming year. However, we
should also be thinking about the past year, and feeling gratitude for all the chesed
which Hashem has bestowed upon us.
We always read the tochocho just
before Rosh Hashono, and pray “tichle shono vekileloseho” (“Farewell
to the year and its curses”). What does this mean? Surely the tochocho and its
messages will remain just as relevant in the coming year! When we rebel against
Hashem, we may deserve to be punished,
and yet we look back at the year which has elapsed and feel gratitude that the tochocho has nevertheless
not been fulfilled; this gratitude in turn facilitates and catalyzes the teshuvo
process, because instead of feeling despondency about the state of our avodas
Hashem we remind ourselves that just as Hashem has spared us from the worst
punishment until now, he will continue to shower us with His mercy if we only
invest all our efforts into doing genuine teshuva and coronating Him on Rosh
Hashono.
MERCY FOR MORTALS
“Look
down from Your holy dwelling, from the heavens, and bless Your people Yisroel” (26:15)
We ask
Hashem to look down on the deeds committed by all the nations and compare those
to the performance of the Jewish nation. We request such a comparison, because
that way we will achieve a much better "score", making us worthy of
being the recipients of Hashem's continued bounty, than we would if we were to
be judged only by virtue of our own actions.
Alternatively,
although tzaddikim of our generation, who have been taken
from us and have joined the pamalia shel ma’alo (celestial retinue) are
familiar with the specific trials of our generation, and are in a position to
serve as our defense counsel, heavenly beings such as angels, who have no idea
of the tribulations experienced by mortals that lead them to sin, are incapable
of interceding on our behalf, and, on the contrary, are only familiar with the middo
of din, (character trait of Divine judgment) which requires us to be
destroyed due to all our acts of rebellion against Hashem. Hence, we ask Hashem
to look down from His holy dwelling and cleanse us Himself by activating the middos
of chesed and rachamim, and pay no regard to the arguments advanced by the angels.
Upholding the torah
“Cursed
be he who does not uphold the words of this Torah” (27:26)
The Ramban
cites a Yerushalmi that even someone who has learned, taught
and observed the mitzvos, but is in a
position to uphold the Torah, and fails to do so, is covered by this curse.
This means that rabbonim who are able to stem the
tide of secularization and heresy will not be spared from this curse, however
much Torah they have spread to those who are already observant. Conversely, the
reward of those who refuse to make peace with the status quo, who fight against
anti-religious incitement and engage in activities that strengthen their
spiritually weak brethren, is increased manifold, and they will enjoy the
blessings set aside for those who uphold the words of the Torah.
Reward in this world
“And
all these blessings will come upon you and cleave to you, if you obey Hashem,
your G-d” (28:2)
In
general, there is no reward in this world for the mitzvos, which we
perform. However, one of the exceptions to this rule is the reward set aside
for those who observe stringencies, which act as fences protecting the actual halocho.
Although it is important to know the distinctions between strict halocho
and stringencies, those who do consciously go beyond the call of duty, will be
rewarded in kind: Hashem will go beyond the strict rule, and reward such
persons already in this world.
Looking to the top
“And
you will be only at the top, and you will not be at the bottom” (28:13)
This possuk
seems to incorporate a superfluous repetition: is it not obvious that someone
at the top will not be at the bottom?
The Or
Sameach explains that a person must
realize and feel the vacuousness of this world and that the whole purpose of
his creation was only for the sake of the next world, the only location where
it is possible to obtain eternal reward. A person's thoughts should "be
only at the top”, lest he dwell upon and limit his goals and ambitions to this
"bottom" ephemeral world.
JOY
“Because
you did not serve Hashem, your G-d, with happiness and with gladness of heart” (28:47)
The Arizal
writes that this sin is considered so severe, and one that calls for all the
punishments enumerated in the parsha, because the greater a person's joy when
performing mitzvos and his enthusiasm to fulfill the will of
his Father in Heaven, the greater is the esteem with which his avoda is held in the eyes of the Creator, since it serves as an indication
of the depth of his love and fear of Hashem pulsating in his heart; by contrast,
those who serve Hashem by rote and mere habit distance themselves from Hashem, and
their punishment is correspondingly great.
The Arizal
himself is said to have commented that he had merited great insights into the kabbolo
because of the joy with which he observed mitzvos. Moreover, the Chasam
Sofer notes that the "ministering angel of forgetfulness" have no dominion
over the Torah learnt by those who serve Hashem with joy.
Learning WiTH DEVOTION
“Yet
until this day Hashem has not given you a heart to know eyes to see and ears to
hear” (29:3)
Although the
home of intelligence is the mind, this possuk nevertheless refers to the
heart, because a person will only be deemed worthy of attaining true
comprehension of the Torah if he does not approach it like some secular
discipline studied at University. He must rather work on his emotions and develop
a strong desire to understand the Word and Will of Hashem, and the source of
such a desire is the heart. That is the recipe for success in his learning.
For this
reason we ask for divine assistance in acquiring an intense desire to learn
Torah every day in ahava rabbo: "fill our hearts with the ability
to understand and comprehend, to listen, learn and teach”. This request is especially
apt at this time of year since three times a day in the amido in
birkas hashivenu we emphasize the link between coming closer
to Hashem’s Torah and doing teshuvo: “Cause us to return, Our Father, to
Your Torah; draw us near, Our King, to your service, and bring us back in perfect
repentance to Your presence”.
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