As we are on the cusp of Rosh Chodesh Elul - it is time for me to do Teshuva. Yes, sweet friends, I am an EXPERT at messing up, being inadequate, saying or doing the wrong thing, wanting things I am not supposed to have, have pent up resentment and anger, unresolved guilt and the list goes onnnnnn. So Teshuva is most certainly the order of the day. If I am writing this and you are reading this that is a clear indication that the "light" [נר ה' נשמת אדם] is still burning, so we can yet fix EVERYTHING!!!!
LOVE IT!
One thing I would like to do a PUBLIC Teshuva for is for mocking, satirizing and parodying the "woke" movement. Forgive me father for I have sinned. WOOPS - wrong religion!! THANK GOD [the real One] that I can erase stuff.
Being "woke" is actually the order of the day. I present an idea written on these pages many moons ago:
Three Rambams:
Rambam [Teshuva 3/4]:
אע"פ שתקיעת שופר בראש השנה גזירת הכתוב, רמז יש בו, כלומר עורו ישנים משנתכם ונרדמים הקיצו מתרדמתכם וחפשו במעשיכם וחזרו בתשובה וזכרו בוראכם. אלו השוכחים את האמת בהבלי הזמן, ושוגים כל שנתם בהבל וריק אשר לא יועיל ולא יציל, הביטו לנפשותיכם והטיבו דרכיכם ומעלליכם. ויעזוב כל אחד מכם דרכו הרעה, ומחשבתו אשר לא טובה.
Even though the sounding of the shofar on Rosh HaShanah is a decree, it contains an allusion. It is as if [the shofar's call] is saying:
Wake up you sleepy ones from your sleep and you who slumber, arise. Inspect your deeds, repent, remember your Creator. Those who forget the truth in the vanities of time and throughout the entire year, devote their energies to vanity and emptiness which will not benefit or save: Look to your souls. Improve your ways and your deeds and let every one of you abandon his evil path and thoughts.
[Note: This Rambam is in Hilchos Teshuva and not in Hilchos Shofar where you might think it belongs]
Rambam Mezuza [6/13]:
חייב אדם להזהר במזוזה מפני שהיא חובת הכל תמיד וכל זמן שיכנס ויצא יפגע ביחוד השם שמו של הקדוש ב"ה ויזכור אהבתו ויעור משנתו ושגיותיו בהבלי הזמן וידע שאין דבר העומד לעולם ולעולמי עולמים אלא ידיעת צור העולם ומיד הוא חוזר לדעתו והולך בדרכי מישרים אמרו חכמים הראשונים כל מי שיש לו תפילין בראשו ובזרועו וציצית בבגדו ומזוזה בפתחו מוחזק הוא שלא יחטא שהרי יש לו מזכירין רבים והן הם המלאכים שמצילין אותו מלחטוא שנאמר חונה מלאך ה' סביב ליראיו ויחלצם.
A person must show great care in [the observance of the mitzvah of] mezuzah, because it is an obligation which is constantly incumbent upon everyone.
[Through its observance,] whenever a person enters or leaves [the house], he will encounter the unity of the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, and remember his love for Him. Thus, he will awake from his sleep and his obsession with the vanities of time, and recognize that there is nothing which lasts for eternity except the knowledge of the Creator of the world. This will motivate him to regain full awareness and follow the paths of the upright.
Whoever wears tefillin on his head and arm, wears tzitzit on his garment, and has a mezuzah on his entrance, can be assured that he will not sin, because he has many who will remind him. These are the angels, who will prevent him from sinning, as [Psalms 34:8] states: "The angel of God camps around those who fear Him and protects them."
Rambam [Avel 13/12]:
כל מי שאינו מתאבל כמו שצוו חכמים הרי זה אכזרי אלא יפחד וידאג ויפשפש במעשיו ויחזור בתשובה ואחד מבני חבורה שמת תדאג כל החבורה כולה כל שלשה ימים הראשונים יראה את עצמו כאילו חרב מונחת לו על צוארו ומשלשה ועד שבעה [כאילו היא] מונחת בקרן זוית מכאן ואילך [כאילו] עוברת כנגדו בשוק כל זה להכין עצמו ויחזור ויעור משנתו והרי הוא אומר הכיתה אותם ולא חלו מכלל שצריך להקיץ ולחול.
Whoever does not mourn over his dead in the manner which our Sages commanded is cruel. Instead, one should be fearful, worry, examine his deeds and repent.
If one member of a group dies, the entire group should worry. For the first three days, one should see himself as if a sword is drawn over his neck. From the third day until the seventh, he should consider it as if it is in the corner. From that time onward, as if it passing before him in the market place. All of this is so that a person should prepare himself and repent and awake from his sleep. Behold it is written Jeremiah 5:3: "You have stricken them, but they have not trembled." Implied is that one should awake and tremble.
Three wake up calls
One wake up call is shofar. At the beginning of the year we are exhorted to wake up from our sleep and immersion in the "vanities of time" - הבלי הזמן. That is a great way to start off the year and we know that everything follows the beginning [that is the secret of Bikkurim and other mitzvos and the secret of Modeh Ani and the entire morning routine mandated by halacha].
That is not enough. We need a daily reminder. For that we have mezuza to wake us up from our slumber and obsession with the vanities of time.
But c'mon - who really wakes up from the mezuza [our fault- not the mezuza's....] That is not sufficient. We sometimes REALLY need something to shake us up. That is deftly accomplished by death and mourning. Nothing shocks a person to the core of his soul like death - especially a sudden tragic type of death [see previous post]. After such extreme "treatment", the sound of the shofar and even the mezuza [for those who know the Rambam and don't just look at the mezuza like part of the furniture רח"ל] can have the desired effect. [See the wonderful article of HaRav Aharon Kahn Shlita, Ra"m in Yeshivas RYE, in the Beis Yosef Shaul Vol. 4 5754 על הזיקה ההדדית בן רב לתלמיד from page 357. And for pil-ei plaos haflei va-feleh see Pachad Yitzchak Rosh Hashana Maamar 27].
Example of "הבלי הזמן": One "religious" website linked an article PROMOTING INTERMARRIAGE written by a female reform rabbi who is "married" to a non-jewish woman. ה' ישמור ויציל. Why link to such heretical-bumbling-nonsensical-blasphemous-garbage?! There are hundreds of millions of better ways to spend one's time. [This website - possibly the most popular among Orthodox Jews - links daily to articles that promote values that are completely contrary to everything we believe in. And nobody says a word of protest! Why not? It is forbidden to read such articles - more on that I hope in a future post]. Those same three minutes could be used to learn a few paragraphs in the Nesivos Shalom or Rav Moshe Wolfson's delicious Emunas Etecha. Or to say a couple of pirkei tehillim. Or to call your bubby and ask how she is [the answer might take longer than three minutes...:-)]. Or almost ANYTHING!!
Life is so precious and what is life if not the time of which it is composed. Let us not get caught up in the vanities of our times. We are all here with a limited visa and as the gemara says - this world is like a wedding hall, חטוף ואכול חטוף ואכול, eat what you can while it is plentiful and free because after the wedding is over and we are lying motionless in a peaceful cemetery, it will be too late.
