מן הטובות אשר היטיב הש"י עם ברואיו כי הכין להם הדרך לעלות מתוך פחת מעשיהם. ולנוס מפח פשעיהם. לחשוך נפשם מני שחת ולהשיב מעליהם אפו. ולמדם והזהירם לשוב אליו כי יחטאו לו לרוב טובו וישרו כי הוא ידע יצרם שנאמר - (תהילים כ״ה:ח׳) טוב וישר ה' על כן יורה חטאים בדרך. ואם הרבו לפשוע ולמרוד ובגד בוגדים בגדו לא סגר בעדם דלתי תשובה שנאמר (ישעיהו ל״א:ו׳) שובו לאשר העמיקו סרה. ונאמר (ירמיהו ג׳:כ״ב) שובו בנים שובבים ארפא משובותיכם. והוזהרנו על התשובה בכמה מקומות בתורה. והתבאר כי התשובה מקובלת גם כי ישוב החוטא מרוב צרותיו. כל שכן אם ישוב מיראת השם ואהבתו שנאמר (דברים ד׳:ל׳) בצר לך מצאוך כל הדברים האלה באחרית הימים ושבת עד ה' אלהיך ושמעת בקולו. והתבאר בתורה כי יעזור השם לשבים כאשר אין יד טבעם משגת. ויחדש בקרבם רוח טהור להשיג מעלות אהבתו שנאמר - (שם ל':ב') ושבת עד ה' אלהיך ושמעת בקולו ככל אשר אנכי מצוך היום אתה ובניך בכל לבבך ובכל נפשך. ואומר בגוף הענין (שם שם:ו') ומל ה' אלהיך את לבבך ואת לבב זרעך להשיג אהבתו. והנביאים והכתובים דברו תמיד על דבר התשובה עד כי באו עקרי התשובה כולם מפורשים בדבריהם כאשר יתבאר:
Among the good things which God, may He be blessed, has bestowed upon His creations is the path which He prepared for them to ascend from the baseness of their actions, to escape the trap of their inequities, to hold their souls back from destruction and to remove His anger from upon them. Because of His goodness and uprightness, He has taught them and warned them to return to Him when they sin against Him - for He understands their nature, as it is stated (Psalms 25:8), "Good and upright is the Lord; therefore He shows sinners the way." [Even] if they greatly sin and rebel and act like treacherous betrayers - He does not close the doors of repentance to them, as it is stated (Isaiah 31:6), "Return, to Him to whom they have been so shamefully false." It is [also] stated (Jeremiah 3:22), "Turn back, O rebellious children, I will heal your afflictions." We are warned about repentance in several places in the Torah. It is explained that repentance is accepted even when the sinner repents because of his many troubles - how much more so [will it be accepted] if he returns because of fear or love of God - as it is stated (Deuteronomy 4:30), "When you are in distress because all these things have befallen you and, in the end, return to the Lord your God and obey Him." It is explained in the Torah that God will help those who repent beyond what their natural ability would allow; and that He renews a pure spirit within them, to reach great heights in His love - as it is stated (Deuteronomy 30:2), "And you return to the Lord your God, and you and your children heed His command with all your heart and soul, just as I enjoin upon you this day." Further, it is stated about the body of the matter (Deuteronomy 30:6), "Then the Lord, your God, will circumcise your heart and the hearts of your offspring," to acquire love for Him. And the Prophets and Writings constantly speak on the subject of repentance, such that the principles of repentance are all explained in their words, as will be explained.
ודע כי החוטא כאשר יתאחר לשוב מחטאתו יכבד עליו מאוד ענשו בכל יום. כי הוא יודע כי יצא הקצף עליו ויש לו מנוס שמה. והמנוס הוא התשובה. והוא עומד במרדו והנו ברעתו. ובידו לצאת מתוך ההפכה. ולא יגור מפני האף והחמה. ע"כ רעתו רבה (ועין במדרש קהלת משל על זה):
Know that the punishment for the sinner who delays repenting of his sin will grow much heavier for him every day. For he knows that [God's] wrath has gone forth against him and that he has an escape route from it - that escape being repentance - yet he still remains rebellious and stays within his evil. Even though it is within his power to leave from within the disorder, he does not fear the anger nor the rage. Thus, his evil is great.
There is a magnificent parable in Koheles Rabbah 7:32 that Rabbeinu Yonah cites at the beginning of his classic Shaarei Teshuvah.
One dark night, all the prisoners of a certain dungeon escaped through a tunnel they had been digging for months. In the morning, the officer in charge was stunned to find all the cells empty , except for one single inmate who had remained behind.
“Why did you not run with the others?” asked the officer.
“Because I like it here,” he replied. “There was no point in running away from a place I like.”
The officer was enraged, and sentenced the prisoner to 20 lashes.
Question: Why should this lone prisoner be punished? Should he not instead have been rewarded for being a good citizen? The answer is that his refusal to run away showed that he never felt imprisoned. Which meant that he never experienced any punishment for the crime he had committed. Since he had not felt the pain of imprisonment, he never felt remorse, and the incarceration was wasted on him. It was as if he had not been punished. Therefore, reasoned the officer, he deserves to be punished even more severely now, so that he should feel remorse for his original transgression.
In a real way we are all prisoners. But we dwell in a strange prison: no guards, no walls, no barbed wire. We are free to enter the prison, and we are free to leave when we so choose. And who is the master of our prison? Who is the warden, the officer in charge? Its master is none other than we ourselves.
We are, each one of us, imprisoned in various ways: by our ingrained habits, our stubbornness, our all too human instincts. But every year, by means of the Yamim Noraim, these Days of Awe, our ultimate Master in Heaven reminds us that our prison is of our own making, and if we really want to escape, we can do so.
He even offers us a road map to freedom: choose one mitzvah, one holy behavior, and deepen it. Nothing dramatic, just little adjustments here and there — such as, for example, the way we say Baruch or Ashrei, or Shema, or the way we bentsh; or a small increase in our tzedakah; or committing to less irregular Torah study; or more tolerance and understanding of the foibles of others.
You name it — the list is infinite. Each new commitment, no matter how small it may seem, is a step out of the dungeon.
These are Days of Awe not only because of the awe-inducing summons to stand before the Heavenly Court, but also because of the awe-filled opportunity that the Court grants us to escape our self-imprisonment and to start afresh.
But if we refuse the opportunity to escape and instead we declare I am in a spiritual rut and am quite comfortable in the rut, then the true Master Above can rightfully wonder: What was the point in all that beating of the breast, and all the al cheits and the ashamnus, and the crying out of teshuvah, tefillah, u’tzedakah? Even if we found the chazzan inspiring, and were moved by the age-old melodies, and were touched by the shofar — but nevertheless emerged from these days exactly as we were when we entered, then what was achieved by the Days of Awe? If anything, the Master might well be in awe of our callousness.
Fortunately, our heavenly Master is a gomel chasadim, and understands the obstinacy of His creatures, and so He waits patiently for us to make the move. For He knows that the key to the Yamim Noraim is found not just in the holiness of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but primarily in the days following these holy days.
For Klal Yisrael and the entire world, may this be a shnat chayim v’shalom; and for each one of us, may this be the year when we finally break out of that dark dungeon. [Rabbi Emanuel Feldman]
