Yamim Nora'im

Elul is a month conducive to Teshuva. Sephardim say selichot, Ashkenazim blow the shofar, everything is geared towards doing Teshuva, even the month itself alludes to this fact.

At every turn there are opportunities to come closer to Hasem, we would be mad not to take advantage of them. As Rabbeinu Yona brings in his Shaarei Teshuva a story of a prisoner in his cell, all the other cellmates manage to make a hole in the cell wall and escape but he decides to stay put. When the guards find him they beat him for being stupid enough to stay when he had the opportunity to escape.

Our sages also use the story of Menasshe as a symbol of the possibility of teshuva even in cases that seem beyond hope. Menasshe was the wicked son of holy King Hizkiyahu. Menasshe worshiped Idols and used his power to force the whole nation to sin as well. One day he found himself in alot of trouble and at this crucial moment he remembered Hashem and repented.

His repentance wasn't easy but it was eventually accepted. Our sages tell us that this was in order to show future generations that with great effort the door of teshuva can always be opened, even for the worst sinners.

The parasha of Re'eh always falls near the beginning of Elul and it gives us the choice to choose the correct path.

This theme continues in Nitzavim, the last parasha read in Elul.

Our sages tell us that these verses teach us the principle of mans free will. The Torah doesn't simply inform us the choice exists it specifies the type of choice we should be making.

Where does our choice lie?

The Torah is life itself, as it says in Pirkei Avoth...

This is why our sages teach that the wicked even when they are alive are considered dead, and the tzaddikim, even after death, and still considered to be alive.

In this world the wicked have no connection to Torah, mitzvot or Hashem and therefore they are detached from the source of life. In contrast, the righteous live on in the world to come even after the death of their physical body.

In short, Elul is the time for us to choose life, Torah and mitzvot and in that way link ourselves to Hashem , the source of all life.

On Rosh Hashana, the day of judgement, the overriding theme is acceptance of Hashem as King who rules over all creation. This is seen throughout the Tefillot of Rosh Hashana.

We must internalize this idea and the idea that everything comes from Him.

Accepting the yoke of Hashems rule is the first stage of repentance. This is because the realization that there is a King who rules all of creation and who judges His creations is a powerful motivation for personal improvement, leading to teshuva.

This leads us nicely on to the Aseret Yemei Teshuva.

A Mans soul consists of five levels. Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, Yehida.

The Zohar teaches that a man doesnt receive all five levels at once, as we reach different stages of growth in Torah and mitzvot we gain increasingly higher levels of the soul.

Nefesh - at birth

Ruach - When we begin learning Torah

Neshama - When we fulfill the mitzvot with Kavana

Haya - When we start learning the deeper Kavanot and

Yehida - the highest level - when we perform the mitzvot with real joy.

When we sin we cause the soul to depart, the more sins, the more the soul departs, thats why the wicked are called dead even whilst alive.

The shofar sounds are to remind us of sobbing and crying over our neglect of the Torah and in between each set of shofar blasts we are supposed to silently confess our sins and reflect.

The idea is that the time of Rosh Hashana is when Hashem breathed life into Adam Ha Rishon on the sixth day of creation.

At that very moment Hashem is blowing back into us the parts of the soul we have lost due to our sins which are now returning because of our teshuva.

The Aseret Yemei Teshuva are a time to stregthen our commitment to Torah and Mitzvot as the Rashash explains we should try to take on one serious commitment that we are certain we can stick to. For example, the Shulchan Aruch writes...

And we should know that one mitzvah leads to another mitzvah.

Its important not to take on too much all at once or else we risk falling and losing everything we've worked towards.

As the gemara tells us, one who comes to purify himself will be helped and assisted.

The prophet Yeshaya tells us to seek out Hashem when He can be found and call out to Him when He is near by. This refers to the Aseret Yemei Teshuva, a time when Hashem is close to us.

The climax is Yom Kippur which is a day of complete spirituality, our physical needs are set aside which is reflected by the halachot of the day. No eating or drinking, bathing, using oils, wearing leather shoes, marital relations. By surpressing our physicality to the best of our ability we enhance our spirituality. These five afflictions correspond to the five prayers on Yom Kippur and this in turn corresponds to the five levels of the soul. The tefillot on Yom Kippur uplift us, stage by stage, to the level of angels allowing us to say Baruch shem kavod out loud just like the angels.

Our service of Hashem in Elul is to use our free will to make the right choices and to choose Torah and mitzvot, life and good - over death and bad.

On Rosh Hashana it is Malchut, acknowledging Hashem as the One King over all the exists.

The seven days of Teshuva between RH and YK is the time when we take practical steps towards real teshuva.

YK is the conclusion of this process, a day of pure spirituality, confession and forgiveness.

All of these stages of Teshuva relate to teshuva m'yirah, repentance through fear, however this is not the end of the process. On Sukkot, Hoshana Raba and Simchat Torah we go on to the highest level of Teshuva m'ahava, repentance through love.

Our sages teach that when our teshuva is inspired by love of Hashem even our intentional sins are transfomred into merits.

We find an allusion to this in the laws of the succah.

"The rubbish of the threshing floor and the vineyard" is uplifted when it is used for the s'chach, the roof of the succah, as our sages teach, the name of Hashem rests upon the succah, a referance to the s'chach.

The Hebrew word sukkah also has the same gematria as the two divine names of Hashem.

kaf vav = 26

samech hey = 65

Our simple leaves become the "shade of the divine presence."

Sukkot is the day when we begin the stage of repentance through love, transforming intentional sins into mitzvot. On Sukkot we take lowly, discarded greenery, symbolic of past sins, and turn it into the holiest part of the succah.

The same is true of every Jew, whilst we may sink very low because of our sins, through teshuva m'ahava we can lift ourselves up to become the most righteous.

Through all this may we merit a blessed new year with an unending wealth of blessings.