22nd ELLUL

Let me pose a question. We all know that Ellul is a time for introspection, coming up to Rosh Hashonah. Pashas Nitzovim which is this week’s sedra is particularly relevant as the parsha of teshuva, repentance, which starts off “Ata Soshuv” is actually in this sedra.

We also find that the Haftorah for each sedra has a relevance to the sedra leyned. However, there are exceptions to that rule.

You will recall that between Shiva’ Oser B’Tammuz and Tisha B’Av, we have, what is called shelosha of paranusa, three Haftorahs of warning of calamities, followed by shiva de nechemta, seven Haftorahs for the next seven weeks of nechoma, comfort. The first one starts off in fact, Nachamu, nachamu ami.

We all understand why we should have the three haftorahs of paranusa, during the three weeks, dealing with warnings about problems that will arise unless people improve. We can also understand why this should be followed by say three weeks of Haftorahs of comfort, nechamo, and we could readily understand that there should be even four of nechamo so that we are given a bigger antidote than the original blows. Why should there be seven haftorahs? In fact the whole of the month of Ellul has these Haftorahs of comfort culminating in this week’s sedra. Nitzovim is always read on the Shabbos prior to Rosh Hashonah.

I would have thought that the week before Rosh Hashonah is an ideal time to mention teshuvah in the Haftorah especially as Nitzovim itself, as I mentioned earlier on, has in it, the parsha of teshuva. Why was it that our Chazal when enacting which Haftorah should be read with each sedra, overrode the norm and chose a different Haftorah, one of comfort and encouragement? That is my question.

I think that the reason for this is bound up with the way we are supposed to approach Rosh Hashonah. There are people who, when looking back on last year, and for that matter earlier years, get very worried, they get depressed, concentrating on all the bad things and negative things that they had been involved in. This is, of course, a negative approach.

The other way of looking at the approaching Rosh Hashonah, is to look forward to the opportunity to be able to appear before Hashem Himself, the Melech Malchei Hamluchim Hakodesh Boruchu. If one appears before a normal judge in court, he looks up the law books and decides according to what is written in them. The only one who can decide otherwise is the judge who is also the lawmaker. He can decide to override what is in the law books.

Hashem is, of course, the ultimate judge and king. When a person appears before Him on Rosh Hashonah and sings praises to Hashem, and proclaims Him to be the one and only King and at the same time asks for forgiveness, Hashem is favourably disposed towards him and grants him a good year. That is a positive approach to Rosh Hashonah.

Now let us look at the Haftorah of this week’s sedra. It starts off “ שוש אשיש בה' ” I will rejoice and rejoice even more intensely with Hashem “ תגל נפשי באלקי ” my soul will exult with Hashem.

I believe that our chochomim were pointing us strongly in the direction of taking a positive attitude to our imminent appearance before Hashem. Parsha Nitzovim and this Haftorah always occur in the week before Rosh Hashonah and, therefore, we are enjoined to rejoice and to rejoice even more intensely with Hashem. If you look carefully it says בה' which is spelt Yod Kay Vav Kay the middo of rachamim, the merciful G-d. The next expression is תגל נפשי באלקי my soul will exult with Elokim, middus hadin. In other words the middo of rechamim should be mumtik, sweeten, middus hadin. We are asking Hashem to sweeten the pill, as I mentioned before, by singing praises to Hashem, proclaiming Him to be the King in a joyful manner. He will, therefore, even on a day of judgement, exercise mercy and look favourably upon us.

I would like to also add a further thought on the beginning of the Haftorah. If you take the word שוש which is written Shin Vov Shin, the gemmatria adds up to 606. I rejoice that Hashem gave us a further 606 mitzvos over and above the sheva mitzvos Bnei Noach, the seven mitzvos that were given to Noach. אשיש, is Alef Shin Yud Shin which adds up to 611, and we find the Gemora at the end of Makkos says that Torah Tzivo Lonu Moshe, Moshe Rabbenu gave us 611 mitzvos as the gemmatria of the word Torah is 611 and for that we are also most joyful; but the main thing is בה'. Bais, referring to the 2 mitzvos we had the privilege of hearing from Hashem Himself. The gemora there says אנכי ולא יהיה מפי הגבורה שמענום

We heard the first two of the ten commandments from Hashem himself

As you can see the whole emphasis is rejoicing with the fact that Hashem has given us Torah and mitzvos and we have the privilege to be able to appear before Him once a year.

I would mention that the first time I, myself, felt that Rosh Hashonah was not only a Yom Hadin but also a Yom Tov, was when I first went to Gur in Jerusalem to my unforgettable Rebbe the Bais Yisroel ז''ל. There was in the air this mixture of din and rachamim.

I would venture to suggest that somebody who gets to Rosh Hashonah in a positive frame of mind and remember, Rosh Hashonah is the first day of the ten days of repentance, asseres yomei teshuva, that person will do teshuva (because we all have to repent) in a different way than somebody who starts with a negative attitude. There is a difference between teshuva meyira and teshuva meahava. Repenting because one is fearful of the consequences if one does not, or repenting because one sees the goodness and greatness of Hashem and, therefore, one would like to please Him and are upset that sometimes, we have let Him down and not done the right thing. We all appreciate that teshuva meahava is much higher level.

Finally, on this particular subject, once Yom Kippur has gone by and the whole of Klal Yisroel has a kapora, an atonement, we get to Sukkos, that is a level of teshuva meahava that we can all appreciate. We go into the sukka, out of our comfortable houses, we use the esrog and lulav and we culminate everything by dancing on Simchas Torah with the Torah.

Let me pose another question, if we look at the leyning, the Krais Hatorah of Rosh Hashonah, we find that the first day starts off “ וה' פקד את שרה
That Soroh had finally given birth to a son Yitzchok and goes into the detail of what happened subsequent to that.

The second day we read the Akeidah, the famous story of the tenth nesoyon, the greatest test, which Avrohom Avinu was faced with. He took Yitzchok and was going to bring him as a sacrifice on the mizbeach on Har Hamariyah. The question is, Why do we read the two parshas in that particular order? Surely the Akeidah is relevant and more important to read on the first day of Rosh Hashonah which is normally the day that Hashem makes his decisions on the scales of justice. We say in our tefillos זכור ברית אברהם ועקדת יצחק we ask Hashem to remember the bris of Avrohom and the Akeidah of Yitzchok. In addition, the shofar itself came originally from the איל shel Yitzchok, the ram that was taken in place of Yitzchok when Hashem told Avrohom to take Yitzchok down from the altar. Avrohom looked for a substitute sacrifice and found a ram with its horns caught in the thicket. That horn is what we use as a shofar. Surely, we should be מעורר the zechusim, to try and wake up all the merits of the Akeidah of Avrohom and Yitzchok on the first day of Rosh Hashonah?

On a simple level one can answer, that the first parsha is written in Torah earlier than the Akeidas Yitzchok and furthermore, we are told that the conception of Yitzchok took place on Rosh Hashonah, but, nevertheless, I believe that my question is still very relevant.

I suggest that there is a deeper answer. The fact that Avrohom and Soroh who were respectively 100 and 90 years old and at that time had a child, was למעלה מן הטבע , a miraculous event, the Torah tells us.

The test of the Akeidah was a very, very severe test, Avrohom brought his son, who by then was 37 years of age onto the altar to be sacrificed. It was his beloved son Yitzchok and of course Yitzchok was also not a little child, he was 37 years of age a full grown man and yet both of them were willing to fulfil the rotzon of Hashem, the will of Hashem, without question. Indeed, a very great, unbelievable test, but nevertheless, still within the bounds of something natural. It was not supernatural.

Therein I think lies the answer as to why we read the leyning for the two days in the particular order.

Our chochomim decided that in future generations there were likely to be people in Klal Yisroel who might just give up, thinking, we have been so bad, there is so much trouble, so many problems, they would get so depressed that they would think that it is impossible to have a good year. Therefore we read וה' פקד את שרה , to impress on us that Hashem can make miracles in the same way as then, when Yitzchok was born, supernaturally Hashem can help us all supernaturally. The second day, we step down a level. Even in a natural way, if one puts 100% effort in and unquestionably follows what Hashem wants, Hashem will help as well. I believe that is a deeper lesson of the reason for the order of the krias Hatorah.

You may also recall Rashi’s comment on the first words of Nitzovim אתם נצבים היום כלכם לפני ה' Rashi comments after the Tochacho, people were very miserable and pessimistic, their faces were ashen, therefore Moshe Rabbenu comforted them and said “See, you are all standing here today, healthy and well” This ties in with the sentence in the Tochacho that it all came about תחת אשר לא עבדת את ה' אלקיך בשמחה ובטוב לבב מרב כל Because you did not serve Hashem with joy and a glad heart, because that is the way to serve Hashem, and all this underlines the necessity for a positive attitude at all times.

Let us just deal with one further thought today. Towards the end of the leyning on the first day, we read that Avimelech, the king of Garar, together with his commander in chief came to see Avrohom. You may recall that earlier on they had suggested to Avrohom that he leaves the territory and Avrohom did, but they came back and said to Avrohom, when they visited him that ה' עמך בכל אשר אתה עושה
G-d is with you whatever you do, and therefore, we would like to make a covenant with you. And Avrohom eventually did make a bris with Avimelech. Right at the end of that parsha, it says ויטע אשל בבאר שבע ויקרא שם בשם ה' קל עולם
Our Rabbis explain that Avrohom started virtually a guest house and people came and received free food and lodging, they thanked Avrohom. He in turn, said, don’t thank me thank the One and Only above and they did. Therefore he proclaimed ויקרא שם בשם ה' קל עולם The Name of Hashem being the one who is G-d of the whole universe, so creating a Kiddush Hashem.

What has that verse got to do with the previous parsha and to do with Avimelech’s visit. I would suggest that the key lies in the words used by Avimelech when he was trying to persuade Avrohom to make this covenant. Avimelech asked Avrohom to make a covenant with himself, his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren and continued כחסד אשר עשיתי עמך תעשה עמדי

Namely, in the same way as I was kind to you, when you were staying with me, you should be kind to me. It was a type of reciprocal kindness paying back one for the other.

Avrohom was not satisfied with that attitude. He decided to start an open house to everybody without an ulterior motive. For us the lesson is clear מעשי אבות סימן לבנים the deeds of our forefathers are a sign of how we should behave. That is the way a Yid should behave and always try to create a Kiddush Hashem. This is another lesson in the Krias Hatorah of the first day of Rosh Hashonah. By doing so and emulating Avrohom Avinu, we will, no doubt, all be zoche to a כתיבה וחתימה טובה and hasten the coming of Moshiach Tzidkainu bimhero veyemanu. Omein.

כ''ב אלול