Elul:
Reviewing and Renewing Our Marriage Contract with Hashem
By Rabbi Shimon Raichik
This week’s parsha of Shoftim begins with the mitzvah of setting up judges and law enforcement in all the gates of our cities. Chassidus explains that also in our service of Hashem these are the 7 gates of the body. Everyone has 2 eyes, 2 ears, 2 nostrils and a mouth. We need the knowledge to best judge what to yes to and on what to say no. These are the judges that we place over our gates. Still, we may know a lot, and realize what is best but when it comes to implementation we lack resolve. We are reminded to have inner law enforcement; to arouse a strong will to follow through on our best decisions according to the Torah. Uniting this divide between what we know and how we act and getting the judges and law enforcement to work together as one is an essential lesson of the first pasuk of this week’s parsha.
This message is most timely because this week’s parsha falls in the month of Elul, a month of review and reconsideration of our knowledge and opinions that have (or have not) influenced our decisions and behavior in the past year. As we review, we make new resolutions to expand our knowledge base and add in all areas of Torah, avodah and gemilus chasadim. We also resolve to oversee the entire process and make sure that both the knowledge and the action come together and work well as one. This is how this first pasuk ends; “And they shall judge the people (with) Mishpat Tzedek, (righteous judgment)”. So too every one of us knows that our lives are respectable and honorable when we implement and integrate the Torah that we learn into our behavior throughout the year.
When it comes to each individual thought speech and action the Torah teaches us that every detail counts. So when the opportunity arises to hear a juicy piece of gossip, at that moment we are presented with an opportunity to realize that how we react right now makes all the difference. Hashem is waiting for a Jew to use his mouth for words of the Torah, davening and supporting each other with ahavas Yisroel. It’s a 24-hour a day, 7-day a week test. The yetzer hara tries it’s best to intervene. Its way of putting us down and getting us to be insensitive is familiar. It says; “You think everything you hear, see and speak makes a big difference? C’mon!”
I was amazed as a child when my father stood in shul davening late one Friday night after minyan with his fingers in his ears as the shul erupted in discussing a big fresh piece of lashon hara. Two people had an argument and one had hurt the other. My father didn’t go home but instead stayed in his place to complete the davening. That’s when I learned this lesson that every thought word and deed counts. Father went over to the accused person and implored him for his own well being to go back home. By doing this he most likely prevented a difficult confrontation. This lesson is fitting for Elul.
There is a story told about the Rebbe Rashab, that on one Simchas Torah night he was very late in joining hakafos. At one point he called over a certain businessman and asked him how he conducts his business. The man explained that he takes a loan and goes to the markets and buys product. He does business with the product throughout the year. Toward the end of the year he needs to buy new product but doesn’t have the capital. In order to build credit he begins to pay off his loan. When the bank sees that he’s paying his loan they extend his credit and he becomes eligible for a new loan. That’s what he does every year. After hearing the businessman’s description the Rebbe commented. This is the same way that we all prepare for Rosh Hashana. We are looking for a loan of brachos for the coming year of children, life and parnasah. When Elul arrives we realize that the end of the year is coming and we begin to “build up credit” by saying extra Tehillim, blowing shofar, increasing good deeds, giving tzedaka and reciting slichos. We continue this way, building credit, throughout Rosh Hashana, Eseres Yemei Teshuva and Yom Kippur right through Sukkos and Hoshana Rabba. On Simchas Torah we reach the sealing of the loan (the translation of the word loan in Hebrew is hakafa) at hakafos.
The coming year is Shmita when all loans are cancelled. Just as we cancel loans below, so too Hashem cancels all of our debts. One might ask that down here we have a pruzbol, which allows Beis Din to hold the loan to be collected at a later date. So too on high perhaps our debts can be held over and not cancelled? The answer is that nevertheless we can go directly to the lender, not to the Beis Din! We can go above and beyond directly to Hashem by being unlimited in our own behavior. We can daven, learn and give tzedaka without limit. By reaching out to Hashem without limits, Hashem too goes beyond the Beis Din and cancels our debts and gives us new credit.
Some say that it sounds difficult to do, to be unlimited. That’s because we don’t start with everything, we begin with one small turn, one small change or improvement. From there we begin to make a cheshbon, an accounting of all the 7 gates; our eyes, our ears, our nose and our mouth. We take practical and concrete steps in the right direction. By reviewing and renewing on our end, symbolized in the words in the Elul acronym; Ani L’Dodi, we merit the renewal of the marriage contract with Hashem, and merit to have Hashem be with us “V’Dodi Li” throughout the year.
May we merit that this year be the final cancellation of all debts and may we merit the consummation of everlasting marriage contract we have with Hashem with the geula ha’amitis v’hashleima.
A Good Shabbos