Hi guys! The time of year that we find ourselves in now is a time in which Hashem is literally sitting at the gates of Heavens awaiting our prayers and repentance. As the verse in Shir Hashirim tells us, kol dodi dofek, upitchu li – the voice of my beloved knocks, open the door for me. Let us try to understand how the lessons of Parshat Shoftim help us to seize this opportunity to open the door to this calling and to connect with Hashem during the month of Elul and for the remainder of the year.
The parsha begins with the following words:
Shoftim ve’shotrim titen lecha be’kol shaarecha
Judges and officers shall you appoint for yourself in all of your gates
On this verse, many commentaries ask what is the purpose of the seemingly unnecessary word, lecha – what is the Torah trying to tell us by emphasizing that the judges are for our own sake? Moreover, why is the word lecha written in the singular when the command has just been given to the entire people?
In order to answer these questions, we must understand the deeper meaning of this verse.
Rav Moshe Feinstein explains that the word, lecha, comes to remind us that while we must appoint official judges to uphold and enforce the law, we must realize that every individual must accept responsibility over him/herself to follow the right path and not rely on others alone to push them in the right direction.
Rav Frand suggests that this understanding of the text explains why the guidelines for the judges listed in the verses that follow seem to be addressed to every Jewish individual and not only the appointed judges. Rather than writing they, the judges, should judge fairly and honorably, the Torah tells us: you shall not pervert justice, you shall not show favoritism, you shall not take a bribe (Devarim 16:19).
Ultimately, we must all be our own judges – of our own characters, thoughts, and actions. During this time of introspection and repentance, the Torah reminds us that we have the ability to look inside of ourselves and to make changes in our lives.
The Netivot Shalom develops this idea further - based on a beautiful idea found in the Sefer Yetzeira that says the human body is likened to a small city with seven gates to the outside world: two eyes, two ears, two nostrils and the mouth. Based on this, the Netivot Shalom explains that the gates that we are commanded to guard in the beginning of our parsha are these 7 gates of our bodies.
In essence, these gates, our senses, are what allow us to interact with our surrounding world. They allow us to take in sights, scents, and sounds, while also enabling us to reveal our thoughts and feelings into reality with the power speech.
So what does the Torah mean exactly when it tells us to guard these gates, these portals that allow us to perceive reality and to channel our internal thoughts into the external world? Perhaps in answering this question we can understand a valuable lesson about what our mindset and our goals should be during the month of Elul.
Often in the month of Elul we are suddenly moved to make drastic and dramatic changes upon ourselves – promising to transform ourselves in various ways for the upcoming year. Unfortunately, after several days the inspiration and the enthusiasm of Elul fade away. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur come and go, and we find ourselves at the end of it all unchanged and discouraged by our failures.
The key to maintaining this motivation after Elul is to make a connection between our thoughts and our actions, between our head and our body. In the moments of our inspiration we must set our resolutions for growth and determination for change into motion. We must make our thoughts into a reality.
The Sfat Emet explains that the need to actualize our thoughts into action is precisely why we need to appoint both the shofet (judge) and the soter (officer) over ourselves. An individual must employ his personal “judge” to decide what is right and good to do, but then that person needs a personal “officer” to ensure that he follows through on his thoughts. It is not enough to make a judgment about oneself that they want to change; one must follow through on those thoughts to actually make those necessary changes come into fruition!
From the opening verse of Parshat Shoftim, we learn that every Jewish individual must be his/her own judge. The parsha concludes with the command – ki taaseh hayashar beyenei Hashem – for you shall do what is straight in the eyes of Hashem (Devarim 21:9). We each have the ability to perceive and judge what is proper in the eyes of Hashem – we must therefore resolve to do what is right and then put these thoughts into words and deeds that will elevate us and bring us closer to Hashem.
Throughout the month of Elul, we recite Perek 27 of Tehilim, in which we say the following words: I ask of Hashem one thing, that I would dwell in the house of Hashem all the days of my life. Ultimately what we all want is to feel that we are in the presence of Hashem - not only in the month of Elul, but all year-round, all the days of our lives.
It is essential that we act now during this time in which Hashem is literally knocking on our doors – eagerly waiting for us to come closer to Him – to establish this closeness with our Creator. If we want the inspiration of Elul to last and the closeness we feel with Hashem during this time to endure long after the "holiday season," we cannot make lofty resolutions that are too difficult and unrealistic to live up to. The Midrash explains based on the words, kol dodi dofek, that when one does even a tiny amount of true teshuva, he creates an opening the size of a pinhole - and Hashem then expands the tiny opening that allows us to enter his palace through the opened gates of Heaven.
Likewise, Rav Pinchas explains that the 613 mitzvot are 613 gates that allow us to enter Hashem’s palace. If we can just focus on one mitzvah, one action – if we can just channel one thought we have to change our ways over the next few weeks – then we have opened the door upon which Hashem is knocking. Once we allow Hashem to enter, Hashem will bless us and help us with all of the other things you want to work on for the rest of the year and for the rest of our lives.
I hope that over the next few weeks we can use the ability that Hashem gave us to be our own judges - to make our own assessments of what we can and should be working on to improve ourselves and our connection to Hashem. May we use our judgement to choose just one small mitzvah to work on over the next few weeks - be it saying one bracha, refraining from loshon hara for just 5 minutes a day, or anything else that comes to mind - we must be our own judges because only we know what is truly in our minds, only we can ensure that those thoughts become a reality. As we prepare for the ultimate Day of Judgment, let us be our own judges to determines what actions we can take - and may Hashem help us in being able to make that small change that can open the gateway to a lifetime of character development and closeness to Hashem.
SHABBAT SHALOM,
Taly
