The Salanter Challenge

לזכות שרה חאנטשה בת אהבה נחמה

"All changes even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves: we must die to one life before we can enter another."

The basis of all tshuva is change. The Alter of Slabodka explained that tshuva is not becoming better but becoming different. Rav Hutner [his talmid] explained in the Pachad Yitzchak [please listen to the shiurim - simply transformative!] that this idea is expressed in the Rambam when he instructs the Baal Tshuva to change his name, symbolizing the fact that he is not longer the same person he once was.

We are very connected ourselves and that includes our bad habits. We all have them and have trouble letting go. A person needs a high level of emotional awareness to understand what his or her faults are, why it is so scary to let go and to then find ways to in fact let go and become a different person.

To be honest - I can't say I know very many people who are different people in Cheshvan than they were before Elul. Most people just "go with the flow" and not much [or nothing at all] changes. As a follower of Rav Yisrael Salanter, I becry this phenomenon and wish the world would be a progressively better place as life moves on. But alas, people are people and creatures of habit.

Can you be an exception?

The Salanter Challenge!