Hakoras Hatov

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

Did you ever wonder from where we derive that Elul is an auspicious time to do teshuvah? The Vilna Gaon writes that Elul is a month of rachamim. We can always repent for our sins, but during Elul Hashem is more forgiving and accepts our teshuvah easier. How do we know that?

The Gaon’s mechutan, Rav Avrohom Danzig, writes in his sefer Chayei Adam that “these days of Elul have been yemei ratzon since the time we were chosen as Hashem’s nation.” When the Jewish people sinned with the Eigel and the Luchos were broken on Shivah Asar B’Tammuz, Moshe ascended the mountain and davened that Hashem forgive them. Hashem acquiesced and told Moshe, “Pesol lecha,” that He would deliver to Moshe a second set of Luchos.

“Moshe went up on the mountain on Rosh Chodesh Elul and remained there until Yom Kippur, when their forgiveness was complete… And since those forty days were days of acceptance then, every year the mercy of Heaven is renewed for us on these days… And therefore, Yom Kippur was established as a day of forgiveness for all time.”

It all goes back to the Eigel. Let us examine the sin of the Eigel and see how it applies to us.

In Parshas Ki Sisa, we learn of the tragic downfall of the Bnei Yisroel as they sinned with the Eigel. Moshe Rabbeinu had gone up to Har Sinai to receive the Torah. When he failed to return at the time the people had calculated, the nation that had ascended to exalted levels descended to worshiping a calf that they had formed from their jewelry.

We wonder how the people who stood at Har Sinai and proclaimed, “Na’aseh venishma,” fell so shamefully. How was it possible for this noble people to fall so far, so fast? What caused them to be led astray? Did they really think that an image they themselves created from a collection of golden jewelry was able to acquire Divine powers?

Rashi (32:1) explains that Moshe told his people that he would return in forty days and they erred in their calculation. Rashi quotes the Gemara in Maseches Shabbos (89a), which explains that the Soton “confused the natural order,” creating a mirage of Moshe’s body being carried in heaven as if in a casket.

And now we wonder: How can we blame the Bnei Yisroel? How were they supposed to know that what their eyes were seeing wasn’t real?

Indeed, they erred in accepting those images at face value and not contemplating their veracity. Nowadays, we know that every picture can be Photoshopped and changed, but even before the days of Photoshop, they should have known from previous experiences that there is often more than meets the eye and that something was wrong with their snap conclusion about Moshe Rabbeinu’s premature death. There is always another side to the story and an alternate explanation.

When the image presented facts that were diametrically opposed to everything they had seen and experienced going back to their time in Mitzrayim, they should have sought to understand how it could be and not accept the image at face value. It wouldn’t have been too difficult to consider whether they misunderstood how long Moshe said he would be gone for.

Instead of being misled to conclude that Moshe would never return, they should have trusted Moshe’s promise and sought to figure out how it could remain viable and consistent with what they saw. They should have restrained the impulse to rush to invent an immediate substitute for Moshe.

The urge to offer an instant response is one of the Soton’s ploys. The Soton achieves his goals by goading people facing a quandary or tragedy into making quick impulsive decisions, spurred on by tension as well as fear. No matter what is going on around us and how dire the situation is, it is vital to remain calm as we attempt to steer our way through. Once a person becomes ruffled, anxious and nervous, it becomes difficult to think clearly and make proper decisions.

The worst thing to do in a crisis is to give an immediate response. It takes time to think through the proper course of action and how to proceed. If you answer on the spot without thought, your response will generally be mistaken.

I have a rule: If a person proposes something to me and then says, “You have to give me an answer now or else the deal is off,” I always respond that the answer is no. You should never be forced to give a response without having the opportunity and time to think it through.

The slope from holiness to depravity is so slippery that, in a few short hours, the Jews slid from the apex of spiritual achievement to the lowest rung possible. Such is the ability of the Soton to use tension to capitalize on human frailty.

Upon Moshe’s return, he called for those loyal to Hashem to rally around him. Only shevet Levi responded to his call. The shevet that dedicated itself to the study of Torah and was free of Egyptian enslavement was the only one whose mind and heart weren’t clouded by the Soton’s devices and lined up behind their leader, Moshe.

The others panicked in a time of perceived crisis. The people couldn’t wait until the next day, when they would perhaps be calmer and more level-headed about their predicament and better able to analyze the situation.

Instead, they let themselves be fooled by the Soton and were convinced that Moshe wouldn’t return. Even when their worst fears were proven false when Moshe did in fact return when he said he would, they couldn’t bring themselves to accept the reality of their error. They were too far gone. Thus, when Moshe called out, “Mi laHaShem eilay,” they ignored him.

Life often throws challenges. We lose ourselves, make wrong choices, and then continue to rationalize our actions even as we slide into self-destructive behavior.

The Soton destroys overnight what took painstaking effort to construct simply by sowing insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty. We can outsmart him by remaining calm enough to act rationally and thoughtfully. Rather than falling for his guises and disobeying the word of the Torah and Moshe, it is of course preferable not to sin to begin with.

During this month of Elul, we learn from our past mistakes and seek to rectify them through contemplation of our thoughts and actions, resolving not to repeat those mistakes again. It is not enough to regret what we did wrong. We must also understand what was at the root of those misdeeds so that we can ensure that we will not transgress them again.

We live in an age when politicians and leaders engage in demagoguery instead of offering real solutions to the many problems that confound their countries. In order to solve problems, it is necessary to thoroughly understand the issues. That doesn’t seem to happen anymore, when politicians demonize the opposing parties and play groups against each other, alternately calming and inciting the masses as they feel necessary to maintain popularity. They create one crisis after another, never solving them, utilizing the quagmire for political opportunism.

Governing well and solving problems requires hiring the best people, hard work, a thorough understanding of the issues, and the ability to effectively negotiate solutions. It is simpler to demagogue and manipulate people’s thought processes, spreading fear and anxiety and polarizing the groups who don’t support you. “It’s all their fault,” they tell their supporters, setting up straw men to blame and knock down. “If we could only bring them into line and make them pay their fair share, the economy would improve and your life would be blissful,” they proclaim. The way the government is dealing with the Delta variant of the coronavirus is a case in point.

The Afghan debacle removed the focus temporarily from the Democrats’ efforts to get the rich to pay their “fair share,” as if they don’t already pay a large enough portion of their income in taxes, so that they can begin to pump trillions of dollars into all types of boondoggles and socialist gambits.

President Joe Biden doesn’t talk much. The most he does is read a statement that has been prepared for him, slowly and haltingly. He walks off the stage without answering any questions. On the rare occasion that he is forced to answer questions, such as last week, he invariably has a deer-in-the-headlights look on his face as he offers weak, lame and not necessarily truthful responses. He is not bright and is an awful decision-maker, and once he sets on a course of action, he continues along that course even as it is being proven to be wrong.

Biden saw polls that indicated that the American people have tired of the war in Afghanistan and thought that it would help his poll numbers to pull out of there. Since he is unable to give issues much thought, he hastily set an arbitrary exit date, dismissing the advice of people who tried explaining to him that it wouldn’t work.

He was in a big rush. He said that everyone would be gone and all operations would cease by September 11th. That sounded like a good date and had a ring to it that he envisioned using in campaign advertisements to demonstrate his resoluteness as leader of the free world. Because he acted without thinking, he ended up being his own worst enemy.

When it didn’t go as planned, he dug in his heels and lied. He did not have the capacity to own up to the truth and adjust his course of action.

He had said that his departure from Afghanistan would not be a chaotic mess and would not resemble the U.S. retreat from Saigon. In a way, he was correct. This departure was not as bad as the one from Vietnam. It was worse.

When asked about it last week, he said that he always knew that there would be chaos when it came time to leave Kabul. Just one month ago, he said that he had faith in the 300,000-man Afghan army and its billions of dollars’ worth of American equipment and training. Now he says that it didn’t work out because of Donald Trump, the Afghan army, and intelligence failures.

While throughout his career Biden has shown exceedingly poor judgment, he was sold to the voting public as an accomplished statesman who would be a competent and steady leader. He hasn’t been either. Throughout this disaster, he has barely been seen or heard from.

Neither the secretaries of state and defense nor the chairman of the army’s chief of staff or the national security advisor inspired any confidence or displayed intelligence in their comments on the situation. They projected weakness instead of strength, haphazardness instead of strategy, chaos instead of planning, yet they stand at the helm of the greatest country and armed forces in the world.

A leader can either be loved or feared. Biden is neither. By now, he is an embarrassment. Reagan and Trump were feared and thus able to accomplish what they did. Although he said that he would return America’s respect on the world stage, Biden is now a laughingstock. His poll numbers are dropping, and it won’t take long until his Democrat colleagues pick up on that and begin distancing themselves from him lest they fall in next year’s election.

From the president on down, it appears as if no one in his administration has the ability to make any decisions or fashion a policy of determination, strength and durability.

The vice president, Kamala Harris, was the only one more closeted than the president. One could be forgiven for thinking that their aides are working feverishly to keep both of them away from microphones, lest the American people realize that these leaders have no understanding of strategy and tactics.

The president committed America’s biggest foreign policy blunder, conducting the withdrawal backwards. Instead of first getting Americans and their allies out of the country and then ferrying out the billions of dollars’ worth of military equipment, he first pulled out the soldiers to make an arbitrary deadline and then tried to do the other things. He created a humiliating situation of devastation, defeat and catastrophe.

It is easy to laugh at Biden, but we need to turn the spotlight on ourselves during these days of Elul introspection as we approach Rosh Hashanah. How often do we act rashly, without thought and foresight, only to be embarrassed later?

The Soton confuses us. He paints visions in our heads that are not consistent with the truth. In everything he does, the Soton has one motivation: to put us in a situation where we will behave in a way that will harm us. He makes us think that people are against us and betrayed us, when they did nothing of the sort. He convinces us that we are smart, and then that we are stupid, in order to get us to do what he wants us to do. Sometimes he pumps up our self-esteem and other times he lowers it like a boom - whatever it takes to get us to mess up, to sin, to act in a way that robs us of our share in the World to Come.

And as he did at the time of the Eigel, he makes it appear as clear as day that the words of the Torah and Moshe are not relevant. We dare not fall for him, no matter how logical a pose he adopts.

In this week’s parsha of Ki Savo, we learn of the mitzvah of bikkurim, which we bring as an acknowledgement of the many gifts Hashem has bestowed upon us. Hakoras hatov is at the root of being a Yid.

It seems to me that we need to show our appreciation for the gift of these days of rachamim and ratzon that are the month of Elul. The way to express our appreciation is by engaging in teshuvah, asking forgiveness for not having properly followed the word of Hashem and seeking to return to Him.

We live in a time of great disturbances and terrible tragedies. Just last week, an 18-year-old bochur was killed inside a yeshiva. The news spread like wildfire, shaking every ehrliche Yid to the core. This is a reminder to us that nothing is guaranteed and nothing can be taken for granted.

Hakadosh Boruch Hu sends us reminders that we must do teshuvah and that the yemei hadin are upon us. He sends us floods and fires, pandemics and collapses, and when that isn’t enough, he brings bullets and death into the most hallowed halls of Torah.

We still have over a week left of the yemei harachamim of Elul. Let us take advantage of them and merit the kapparos we seek.

A News Lesson

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

Quite often, the news has the ability to provide lessons for us in our daily lives.

For the past two decades, Joe Biden, as head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, vice president and as president, has been agitating for a US withdrawal from Afghanistan. For most of that time, he did not have the ability to carry through on his desire, as the people with the real power ignored him.

That all changed when he became president. He could no longer be ignored. Immediately after the election, the Defense Department set out to convince him that it was imperative that the U.S. keep a military presence in Afghanistan. So did his pick for Defense Secretary and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who continued trying to convince Biden until the decision was made. A group impaneled by Congress also recommended that American troops only be pulled out if and when the condition stabilizes.

But Biden, portrayed by Democrats and the media as a seasoned foreign relations expert, was convinced that an immediate withdrawal was the way to go. Eighty-three billion dollars was spent and over 2400 American servicemen lost their lives in the twenty year effort to dislodge the Taliban and keep them from reassuming power in Afghanistan.

Biden said one month ago, “There’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy of the United States in Afghanistan.” As it happened, the army pull out was guided by a date, not a plan, and thousands of Americans and its friends were left stranded, clambering to escape the country before being killed by the invading terrorists.

At that same time, the president said, “The likelihood there’s going to be Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.” Instead, he presided over a humiliating end to American involvement in that country, which will be decried for years to come.

Last week Biden said that he did not regret the decision to leave. He said that the Afghan government and army “have the capacity” to defend themselves and he was confident they would.

As recently as Friday, the Pentagon spokesman said, “They have an air force, a capable air force. They have modern equipment. They have the benefit of the training that we have provided for the last twenty years.”

The State Department spokesman said also on Friday, “We are evaluating the threat environment on a daily basis. The Embassy is in regular contact with Washington with the most senior people in this building, who in turn are in regular contact with our colleagues at the [National Security Council] in the White House.”

Nothing to worry about. The experts were having meetings and discussions and everything was under control.

As the American pullout was being rushed, the Taliban began racking up victories. One region after another fell to them, and in no time at all they had taken over the country.

Powerful America stood by with its mouth agape and nothing of any consequence to say for itself. The president who started the whole mess remained holed up in Camp David. Nobody heard from him. He had nothing to offer. No good excuse. It took until Monday afternoon for him to fly to the White House to read a speech blaming others for the debacle and saying he stood behind the decision to pull up and leave. He then flew back to his bunker in Camp David, safely ensconced and detached.

His secretary of state was speaking for the administration on Sunday and was said to be “visibly shaken.” What a change from the previous administration, which spoke strongly and was feared by friend and foe alike. The best that Secretary Blinken could offer was that the Taliban had better behave, because the US would not recognize them. As if that would scare them.

How can something like that happen? How can so many years of human lives lost and money spent blow up in one week?

There are several answers to those questions and many more associated with the Biden debacle. It shows what happens when a person makes up his mind to do something and ignores the advice of experts. It also shows what happens when people who aren’t smart are given the reins of power. It shows what happens when a person’s judgment is clouded by preconceived notions and he cannot see what is plainly visible to anybody else.

Last week, in Parshas Shoftim, we studied the prohibition of bribing a judge. It is interesting that the Torah does not articulate the issur that way. The posuk (16: 19) states, “Lo sikach shochad – You shall not accept a bribe.” It does not say that you shall not give a bribe to a judge who is adjudicating your case.

The posuk continues and offers an explanation as to why the judge should not accept a bribe: “Ki hashochad ye’aveir einei chachomim visaleif divrei tzaddikim - Because bribes blind the eyes of the wise and confuse the righteous.”

Perhaps we can explain that the most important things a person possesses are his integrity and intelligence, allowing him to perceive what is going on in his courtroom and in the world. It allows him to study and understand Torah. It helps him correctly serve Hashem and do whatever he is doing properly. It allows him to correctly analyze situations and arrive at proper solutions.

I took a break from writing this column to go daven Mincha. I davened from the new siddur Tehillah L’Dovid, which my good friend, Rav Dovid Farkas, gifted me. It is an excellent siddur, with many halachos and peirushim to help enhance davening.

As I was following chazoras hashatz, I noticed that before the brocha of “Atah chonein l’adam daas,” the siddur offers the following introduction: “A person should understand that the beginning of the tefillah is the request for wisdom. Shlomo Hamelech, as well, did not request a long life, nor wealth. Rather, he asked for wisdom… We ask Hashem for intelligence and clear thinking so that we will detest evil, choose good, and understand taamei Torah, and through this, man is separated from animal, for without wisdom and intellect, a person is nothing.”

I took that as support for the explanation of why the Torah forbids bribery. It is to preserve our ability to maintain a proper thought process so that we can be proper bnei and lomdei Torah.

This week’s parsha begins with the words, “Ki seitzei lamilchomah al oyvecha - When you go to war against your enemy.” While the Torah is speaking of a time when the Jewish people will go to combat against a physical enemy, many meforshim understand the posuk to be referring allegorically to Jews battling their yeitzer hora. Our rabbeim teach us (based on Chovos Halevavos, Shaar Yichud Hamaaseh) that the most dangerous enemy man has is the yeitzer hora. We can never rest in battling him or we will be defeated by him.

In the month of Elul we determine anew that we must and can defeat him.

We are now in the middle of Elul, with Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkos, Hoshanah Rabbah, Simchas Torah and so much more to look forward to.

We all have a personal mission now, the success of which brings us to a realm of blessing and happiness. We get there by undertaking a self-examination to see what we are doing correctly and what needs improvement.

In order to be able to properly prepare ourselves for the yemei hadin, we need to use our daas. It takes wisdom and courage to correctly assess where we are holding at this stage of Elul and what lies ahead of us. If we fool ourselves, we will lose the opportunity to take advantage of these days of rachamim Hashem gave us to straighten ourselves out.

In Parshas Shoftim, we learn about the preparations Am Yisroel engages in prior to going to battle. Weak soldiers are weeded out, lest their presence lead to defeat.

The posuk (Devorim 20:2) relates that before the Bnei Yisroel go to war, the kohein announces to the nation not to fear battling their enemy, for Hashem will be with them, assisting them and ensuring their victory.

Following that, the shotrim address the people and seek out those who fear war: “Mi ha’ish hayorei verach haleivov? Yeileich veyashov leveiso - Who is the man who is fearful and fainthearted? Let him leave and return home” (ibid. 20:8).

What is it about this fellow that causes him to be afraid to go into battle after the kohein promised that Hashem will be joining them in the war and guaranteeing their success? Rav Yosi Haglili (Sotah 43a) explains that the man who leaves is afraid to fight because he is a sinner. In order to be worthy of fighting in Hashem’s army, every soldier must purge himself of sin.

In order to be worthy of victory, there can be no ra - no evil or sin - because ra separates man from Hashem. In order for a soldier to merit Divine beneficence, there can be no aveiros disconnecting him from Hashem.

Ki seitzei lamilchomah al oyvecha. We are now in a battle against the yeitzer hora. We must beat him so that the barrier that has been erected between us and Hashem can come down. That barrier brings us down and can lead to our defeat r”l during the yemei hadin.

Where do we start? What can we do to enhance the meaning of Elul personally and for others, thus helping ourselves and those around us merit a successful Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, leading to a joyous, successful and healthy year? The parshiyos that we lain these weeks offer many lessons and examples for us to follow.

We learn the parshiyos of the week and find in their pesukim hints of support and encouragement in our daily exercises and battles. Without honesty and wisdom, we cannot expect to overcome the yeitzer hora, our ever-present enemy who seeks to detour us from our missions and intrude on our efforts to improve ourselves.

Every time we have an urge to do something, we need to consider whether that urge is coming from the yeitzer hatov or the yeitzer hora. If it will bring us closer to Hashem and make us a better person, then we should follow the urge, but if it will lead us away from Hashem and take us from our Elul mission, we should refrain from doing it and seek to rid ourselves of the urge.

It can take honesty and strength to recognize which acts will help us and which will not. We need to engage in the study of Torah and mussar especially in this period. We should pay special attention to davening and concentrate on what we are saying and the translation of the words, so that we can effectively be inspired and advocate for ourselves.

We need not look further than the news pages to see what happens when people do not have wisdom, failing to properly comprehend a combat situation. America spent twenty years in Afghanistan to prevent it from becoming a terrorist haven again. The war in that region began following the terror attacks of September 11, which emanated from that part of the world, where terrorists were allowed to operate with impunity.

People who read the map and understood the situation in that region realized that without rooting out the Taliban, al-Qaeda, ISIS and their compadres from those areas and robbing them of a foothold and home, the forces of evil would not be defeated. They would be ever-present, lurking, plotting and carrying out deadly attacks on Western targets.

The present administration determined that twenty years, 2,000 lives, and billions of dollars were enough. We can’t continue the war. It’s time to declare victory and leave.

The world quickly saw what happens when you quit the battle.

It happened now during Elul so that we will see for ourselves what happens when you decide that you can’t fight the yeitzer hora anymore. What happens when you decide that you are tired of fighting and have fought enough. What happens when you negotiate with the yeitzer hora and think you got him to come around and stop battling you.

The yeitzer hora never sleeps. He never tires. He never gives up. He lies in wait, plotting his moves. He wears you down, inducing you to think that there is a common goal, that he will behave, and that he means everything for your good. The minute you acquiesce to him, he comes in for the kill. As soon as he senses weakness, he is all over you, pulling you down, destroying you.

You can never negotiate with him. You can never think that he might mean it all for your benefit. You can never be fooled into doing something that if you would use your intelligence, you would know that it is wrong and detrimental to your well-being. There is no bribe that makes it worth doing an aveirah.

How did they do it? How did America blow this so badly? The same way someone skips Mincha one day and buys something very tasty but not really kosher. How did they do it? The same way someone skips out of the bais medrash and takes a drive down to the beach instead.

The battle against the yeitzer hora is constant, but it is winnable, especially in this month of chesed, when we receive huge assists as we arm up to defeat our eternal enemy. We use our daas and chochmah. We don’t allow our thought process to be corrupted. We do what good Jews have done since the chet ha’Eigel and seriously regret our errors and missteps. We fight our way back, every day getting a little better, showing improvement and getting closer to our goal of keeping ourselves free of any smattering of evil, because that is what chet is - evil.

The sooner we realize that, and the sooner we get to work, the easier and more victorious we will be in our battles.

 

Consideration

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

Many contend that the United States is currently being led by a president who is out of touch. He is not in control, is often dishonest, breaks campaign promises, doesn’t follow the will of the people, makes wrong decisions, and knowingly skirts the constitution.

A Covid-inspired nationwide ban on evicting renters who have not paid their rent expired July 31st. The Supreme Court ruled that the ban exceeded the government’s power and could not be renewed without an act by Congress, but the progressives couldn’t muster enough votes to enact such a law, so last week President Biden was pressured into announcing a new, albeit narrower, eviction ban.

Biden admitted that “the bulk of the constitutional scholarship says that it’s not likely to pass constitutional muster.” In other words, he knew that he was likely acting in an unconstitutional fashion. But, he explained, “I went ahead and did it. I can’t guarantee you the court won’t rule if we don’t have that authority. But at least we’ll have the ability, if we have to appeal, to keep this going for a month, at least — I hope longer than that.”

Meanwhile, they’ll press forward with their attempt to save people from paying rent, and as long as they can drag it out, they will.

That is not the way Biden promised to govern. In fact, all during the campaign, he, other Democrats and the media continued harping that it was imperative to vote for Biden if only to “end Trump’s assault on the rule of law.” Biden said that a vote for him would be a vote for “the rule of law, our Constitution.” Apparently, that hasn’t happened.

Throughout the campaign, Biden claimed that he would govern as a mainstream Democrat, and it was that promise that helped the lackluster candidate beat back the long list of progressives who were running against him in the primary, convincing middle-of-the-line voters to choose him over Donald Trump in the general election.

But you couldn’t tell that from the way the administration has been handling every issue that has come down the pike. We’ve seen massive government spending, plans for all types of new taxes, myriad new regulations, open borders, advancing critical race theory at every opportunity, and actions to satisfy every whim of The Squad and other radicals.

Biden and his administration, along with allies Schumer and Pelosi, continue moving ahead with their socialist agenda, even as recent elections demonstrate that a majority of Democrats aren’t supportive of the progressive takeover of the party. For example, last week in Cleveland, in what was termed an upset, mainstream Shontel Brown beat the heavily favored radical candidate for a congressional seat. In New York, Eric Adams beat back a slew of progressives to win the Democrat primary – tantamount to winning the election – for mayor of New York City.

The government continues to dump – read: waste – money on silly programs, such as increased unemployment benefits and other holdouts from when the economy was in lockdown because of Covid. That infusion is causing runaway inflation and shortages of workers and, consequently, goods and services. No matter, Biden denies that one thing has anything to do with the other.

Another situation in which Biden denied that his action would affect what anyone could have expected would be the outcome, was when he announced in July that he would quickly pull U.S. troops out of Afghanistan, where they have been stationed for the past twenty years to prevent terrorists from establishing bases there from which to attack the U.S. and other Western targets.

On July 8th, he said that the goal of denying terrorists a haven in Afghanistan was accomplished. To the question that the Taliban could be expected to sweep back in and gain control of large swaths of the country, he said, “I trust the capacity of the Afghan military, who is better trained, better equipped, and more competent in terms of conducting war.”

Anyone could have told you that to speak that way showed that he was not in touch with reality. In fact, since that statement, the Taliban have been fighting and beating the Afghan army and setting up shop wherever they please.

But it doesn’t matter. Nobody confronts him on any of these things and he continues to steer the country on a downward path. Nor is he forced to answer for his bumbling response to Covid and the new variant. He and his administration swing and swerve, with a different story and strategy every day. First, it’s no more masks. Then, it’s yes masks. First, it’s no mandate forcing people to take the vaccine. Then, it’s pretty much down to you’re going to have to get the shot, like it or not.

They couch it in different language, as epitomized by former Chicago mayor and Obama aide Rahm Emanuel, who said on Sunday that he would advise the administration “not to use the word mandate.” He would say to “call it a requirement to participate in the rest of the economy opening up.” They’re playing word games with people.

In Eretz Yisroel, as well, the country is being led by a bumbling crew of hypocrites. They took over a country in which Covid had become largely absent, and now it is once again spreading, unafraid of their pronouncements and edicts.

The government kept the country open throughout the weeks of summer vacation, knowing that the people wouldn’t stand for another lockdown. But they sit behind closed doors and plot on a shutdown in honor of the upcoming Yomim Tovim. They will seek to shut shuls and yeshivos, preventing people from davening and celebrating as Jews have been doing for thousands of years.

They seek to force people to leave kollel and to squeeze yeshivos and Torah institutions, but this week kollelim and yeshivos across Eretz Yisroel opened with larger attendance than ever before. They work to suppress and torment us, but the forces of Torah, emunah and bitachon are stronger and longer-lasting than the paste that holds down the prime minister’s kippa.

The decrepit coalitions of ego and depravity are no match for the accumulated eternal inner strength of the Jewish people, fortified under the duress of centuries of exile.

We have something no one else has, and it is laid out in this week’s parsha. The Torah prescribes proper leadership.

“Shoftim veshotrim titein lecha.” In order to maintain a society, it is incumbent to establish a system of incorruptible justice. The shoftim, judges, must be learned, intelligent, honest, upstanding and incorruptible. Their ambition and motivation must be to pursue truth and justice. There is no room in the Torah’s system of jurisprudence for people driven by ego and lust for power and money.

The officers of the bais din must also be beyond reproach. They must be men of uncompromising honor and power, who have the skill and determination to enforce the rulings of the shoftim with strength and dignity. Anarchy and mediocrity have no place in our system of rule, for they result in a breakdown of respect for authority and righteousness.

The Torah, in this week’s parsha, also states that when the people choose a king, he must not be driven by a need to enrich himself or a desire for the senseless trappings of power, a big house, a retinue of aides, a fleet of cars wherever he goes, and lots of publicity. The posuk further commands that the king write for himself two Sifrei Torah, from which he should learn throughout his life.

The Torah’s priority is to encourage people to follow an honorable, humble and just path. The monarchy, the Sanhedrin and other institutions were created to foster correct behavior and ensure that society is governed by Torah.

The beginning of the parsha is connected to its ending. Proper shoftim and shotrim keep everything straight, honest, compassionate and proper. Under their guidance, the society flourishes and produces a successful, happy populace.

The parsha ends with the mitzvah of eglah arufah, the procedure to follow when a lifeless body of an person is found and it is unknown who killed him. The elders of the city must wash their hands over the eglah arufah and state that their hands did not kill the person and their eyes did not witness it: “Yodeinu lo shofchu es hadom hazeh ve’eineinu lo ra’u.”

Obviously, no one would suspect the elders of murdering a person. The lesson of the eglah arufah is that the leaders must be able to declare that they worked to establish a society in which murder would never take place.

They proclaim that they established a proper system of justice, a compassionate treatment of strangers, and everything in between. With the kohanim at their sides, the zekeinim proclaim that they did everything in their ability to ensure that no person suffers abuse of any kind. They state that they have always acted in the best interests of the community, without engaging in corruption and favoritism of any sort. They say that there is nothing that they knew of in the city that would cause a person to meet their end in this way.

In our day, although we no longer have the eglah arufah, we still must all be able to proclaim that we have done what we can to set up institutions of jurisprudence, chesed, tzedakah, chinuch, mesorah, and so on, so that people can live their lives without fear of crime, hunger or deprivation.

The obligation to have such shoftim and shotrim is a communal responsibility, not only the responsibility of the ziknei ho’ir, the ones who make the declaration when a body is found. It is incumbent upon all people to see to it that their community is a loving, peaceful place, where people get along and proper leadership is in place to guide and lead.

We need to all live our lives in a way that ensures that we can all safely say, “Yodeinu lo shofchu es hadom hazeh,” our hands never spilled the blood - both literally and figuratively - of anyone. We must act in a way to never cause people needless pain. We must be considerate in all we do, including the way we drive. Why is it that in our neighborhoods, people aren’t given a break and aren’t extended common courtesies of the road? Why is it that when people park, they aren’t careful to stay within the lines, allowing others to park as well? These are just minor things; they are indicative of a larger problem. We aren’t considerate.

We must be sensitive to other people’s needs and feelings. We should give chizuk to people who need it. It doesn’t necessarily require much. Sometimes, all it takes is a smile, or a hello, or a good Shabbos. Some people are lonely or shy, and it’s hard for them to get out of their shell. If we help them, it will breathe life into them and be a zechus for us as we approach the yom hadin.

Many years ago, I was away for Shabbos and met someone in the shul where I had gone to daven Friday night. I knew that he lived far from that shul and asked him why he troubled himself to walk there from the other end of town. He said something that stuck with me: “When I come here, I know that at least one person will say good Shabbos to me - the rov.”

Imagine the zechus you get if you are the one to wish such a person a good Shabbos. Imagine if you do it with a smile. Imagine if you ask him how his week was. You’d make his day. You’d make his Shabbos. And you’d earn yourself eternal reward.

Start with the little things. They add up. And when you are down and need a little chizuk, Hashem will repay you.

Elul is a good time to start.

Choices

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

Last week, I went away with my wife for a few days. We were in an elevator in a hotel on the West Coast and a well-dressed man stepped in.

“Hi,” I said. “How’s it going?”

He said it was going great.

When I noticed that he was wearing a carnation in his lapel, I said, “Going to a wedding?”

He smiled broadly and said, “Yes. In fact, my daughter is getting married soon on the beach.”

I offered my congratulations and asked him if he was from the area.

“In fact, no,” he responded. “I live right outside of Philadelphia. Where are you from?”

I told him that I am from New Jersey. Why go through the whole routine of saying, “I’m from Lakewood,” and then he’ll ask where Lakewood is, and I’ll tell him, and he’ll say to himself, “Oh, there are Jews there, too.” So I just said, “Jersey.”

But he had to know where. And he pressed the issue. So I replied nonchalantly, “Lakewood.”

“Oh, that’s nice,” he said. “My mom was born in Lakewood. Shalom.”

He got off the elevator and I said mazel tov. He thanked me and went on his way.

And I began thinking. Nebach, it’s so sad. He’s Jewish, his mother is from Lakewood, and it is impossible to tell that he is a Jew. Who knows if his wife is Jewish or if his daughter was marrying a Jewish boy?

We think of Lakewood and we think of Torah. The two are synonymous. And here was a guy who hails from Lakewood and knows nothing of Torah.

How did he end up where he did, and how did we end up where we did?

Moshe Rabbeinu said, “If you want to be blessed, follow me,” and we did, and our parents did, and our grandparents did. Therefore, we are blessed to live the Torah life. And this poor fellow, he was never given the choice, because the last person in his chain who was given the choice chose not to follow.

In Parshas Eikev, we studied the posuk (8:14) which states, “Verom levovcha veshochachta es Hashem Elokecha - You will become wealthy and pompous and then you will forget Hashem… V’omarta b’levovcha kochi v’otzem yodi asah li es hachayil hazeh - I amassed what I have on my own, through my own intelligence and strength.”

A person may think that he is a fine Yid. He learns, he davens, and he observes the mitzvos, but when he goes to work, he forgets about Hashem. He’s cutthroat, slashes the other guy and seeks to rub out anyone who gets in his way or underbids him. His motto is that all is fair when it comes to making a buck.

In the business world, he’s considered tough and smart, won’t stop at anything, and won’t let anyone stop him. But in the world of Torah, he is viewed differently. A person must deal with others the way the Torah describes - the way you want to be treated, always being honest, not nibbling on the edges, and not going back on your word.

A person who knows that all he has is from Hashem is considerate and honest as he goes about accumulating his wealth of clients, customers and properties.

The winner is the one who the Torah considers the winner. The others may have more money, but they are essentially losers. They were given the choice and they failed the test.

That is the underlying meaning of the opening of this week’s parsha (Devorim 11:26-28), when Moshe Rabbeinu tells the Jewish people, including us, “Re’eh, I am setting before you today two courses of action, two ways you can live your life, es habrocha, the blessed path, asher tishmeun, when you will observe the laws of the Torah, and the cursed path, es haklolah, if you choose not to follow the Torah.”

There is no middle way. We can either live our lives suffused with emunah and bitachon, knowing that what happens to us is from Hashem, or we can deviate r”l and think that we are masters of our destiny, accomplishing everything on our own. Either you believe or you don’t. Either you choose the path of brocha or you are on the wrong path, feeling some joy and feelings of success, but overall you will end up feeling empty and dejected.

Life is all about choices.

We lain Parshas Re’eh during the period known as the Shivah Denechemta, the seven weeks of consolation, which follow the three weeks of mourning. The seven weeks, culminating with the Yomim Noraim, are a time of contemplation, as we review the choices we made over the past year and plan for the future.

Although the word nechomah means consolation, the state of consolation is not simply achieved. To arrive there, the mourner contemplates the loss, reviews the past, and determines how to carry on in the future. That is accomplished by coming to terms with what transpired, appreciating what is not here, and realizing that a new perspective is needed to be able to continue leading a successful life.

As we bentch Rosh Chodesh Elul this Shabbos, we need to consider that while the Shivah Denechemta were designated by Chazal to console for the loss of the Botei Mikdosh, the seven weeks of nechomah are also part of the teshuvah process that we will now undergo.

The relaxed pace that we enjoy over the summer represents a good time for introspection, considering the state of our lives and the choices we have made, which will lead us to nechomah as we make choices for the future.

Let’s go back and examine the pesukim that we previously discussed. They state, “See, I am giving you today blessings and curses. You will be blessed if you listen to what I command you today. The curse will befall you if you do not follow the mitzvos of Hashem and you veer from the path that I am commanding you today.”

The Medrash Rabbah (ibid.) quotes Rabi Elozor, who says that after Hashem revealed the mitzvos asei and mitzvos lo saasei at Har Sinai, He no longer delivered reward and punishment on a one-by-one basis. Rather, a person who sins is automatically punished and one who acts properly is automatically blessed. The nature of the world changed. It is now built into the briah that a sinner faces evil, while the good person can expect good in his life.

Thus, we understand that Hashem is advising us and reminding us of how to gain a blessed life. If you are busy with things that provide you with immediate gratification, know that the enjoyment is only temporary and that you’ve caused yourself to be subjected to curses and unfortunate happenings in the future.

However, if you are thoughtful, honest and proper, and suppress the urge to engage in activities that bring you what is viewed as physical success and enjoyment, you may forgo immediate pleasure, but you will have gained for yourself much long-lasting good and blessing.

Someone asked the Steipler Gaon how it is that people can merit salvation and blessing without asking for it. For example, a person was driving his car on an icy road when it slid and was about to roll down an embankment. Catastrophe seemed imminent, but the car miraculously stopped at the cliff’s edge. The driver didn’t have the time or presence of mind to ask for rachamei Shomayim. The questioner wondered where the hashpa’ah of chesed that saved the driver’s life came from.

The Steipler explained that the person or the parent of someone who merits a miracle rose above a particular nisayon. Overcoming a nisayon is a means of meriting a miracle and placing it in reserve, so to speak, for when it will be needed.

A person rises above his/her nature by recognizing Hashem’s dominion over the world and acceding to His wishes. When the person does that, he creates a corresponding effect in Shomayim, and Hashem will block nature for that person to show that He is in control of the world.

The choice is ours. Mitzvos create a life of blessings. By accepting Hashem’s rule, people earn nissim, which sit in their account until Hashem decides it is the proper time for them to be redeemed.

Parshas Re’eh is read every year at the onset of Elul, the month of introspection, when we seek to achieve blessings and good lives for ourselves and our loved ones. The parsha reminds us that the way we think and act affects us. Just as we can expect to become ill if we were to ingest poison or eat foods that are unhealthy, so does engaging in acts that the Torah frowns upon.

It is interesting that each of the three pesukim quoted above add the word hayom, today. There is clearly a lesson here for us. Perhaps the pesukim are cryptically telling us that we should feel as if we are being taught this lesson each day anew. We should view each day as if it is the day Hashem commanded us what to do and what not to do. We should understand the lesson that the observance of mitzvos enhances our lives and their negation causes grief and pain for those who ignore them.

Hayom. It is new. It is fresh. Every day, we think about it. We do not grow apathetic or view the lessons as something from the past. We mustn’t allow the lesson to grow tarnished and rusty. Every day, we are rejuvenated and act with vigor and joy as we realize that we have been granted life and the ability to sustain and improve our lives.

Every day, we are confronted by choices, and although we may have made the wrong choice yesterday, today is a new day and we can recover from what we have done by making the correct choices.

Refreshed from the summer, with regained vitality, buoyant with energy, we can be excited about every new day. Hayom, today, is the day we are going to be back on track. Today is the day we are going to get it right. Today is the day lethargy ends and spirit returns. Today is the day we will begin piling up brachos. Today is the day we will concentrate on choosing life.

Before we do something, we should think about whether it will keep us on the blessed path, or if it will cause us to be thrown off it. Just as before we decide on a course of action, we consider whether it will bring profit or loss, grief and aggravation or success, so must we think about whether it is in keeping with Moshe’s admonition of “asher tishmeu,” following the halachos and spirit of the Torah, or if it is “asher lo sishmeu.”

The middah of maximizing life, living with cheshbon hanefesh, and maintaining a drive for spiritual accomplishment should define every Torah person.

Somewhere along the line, someone in the chain of our elevator friend made a series of wrong choices. They may have seemed prudent at the time, but they led the family off the blessed path and to the path that caused them to be lost to the Jewish people.

Rav Yitzchok Feigelstock was in his late teens in Uruguay when he made the choice to go learn in yeshiva in the United States. He arrived here not knowing much and never having learned Gemara. When he arrived in the Lakewood yeshiva of Rav Aharon Kotler, he was just beginning to swim in the sea of the Talmud, but he made a series of correct choices. He began the rise that continued until his passing, becoming a close talmid of the gadol hador and heading the highly respected Long Beach yeshiva, where he nurtured hundreds of talmidim. He became a revered leader and rosh yeshiva because he constantly chose to be on the path of brocha.

As Elul approaches and the fickleness of our existence and our journey comes into focus, we need to clear our minds, take a deep breath, and prepare for the intense days that await us. Nechomah.

Those who came before us discovered how temporal this world and its successes are. They devoted their lives to internalizing the Malchus Hashem, following His mitzvos and embodying His middos. They knew what was consequential and what was trivial. Their lives centered around creating blessings and miracles for themselves. We still live off of the accounts of the avos, the imahos, and our parents and grandparents throughout the ages.

Like them, we can also be great. If we regularly contemplate why our neshamos made the journey here from beneath the Kisei Hakavod, we can achieve nechomah. “Re’eh,” look, see, and think about what you are doing. Will it make you a better, more blessed person? If so, go ahead. If you think that Moshe Rabbeinu wouldn’t approve of what you are doing, then don’t do it.

May we all merit lives of brocha and be blessed with much nachas, achievement, success and good health.