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.
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