‘Parsha Growth Spurts’[1]
Rabbi Dani Staum
Yom Kippur 5774
“One with clean hands and a pure heart, who has not sworn in vain by My soul and has not sworn deceitfully.” (Tehillim 24:4; Ma’ariv –Yom Kippur)
Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv zt’l (Divrei Agada – Netzovim) notes that every Jew is obligated to fulfill the vow his neshama undertook before it was born, that “he should be a tzadik and not a rasha” (Niddah 30b).
What does Dovid Hamelech mean that one not have sworn in vain or deceitfully?
Rav Elyashiv explains with a mashal: A person lent his friend a hundred dollars for a week. When the week was over the borrower handed the lender back the exact bill he lent him a week earlier. The lender looked at the borrower in disbelief. “If you were not going to use it anyway, why did you bother me in the first place?”
Hashem imbued every person with life so that he could procure eternal reward. One who sins unquestionably abuses that gift of life. But even one simply does not toil to perform mitzvos, he too has lived a life of vanity.
Dovid Hamelech rhetorically asked “Who will ascend the Mountain of Hashem and will get up in His Holy Place?” He answered that it is merely one who not only has not sworn deceitfully, but even one who has not sworn in vain. Not only can’t he sin, but he also can’t waste the opportunities this world affords him to ascend the ladder of spirituality, by performing mitzvos and living a Torah life.
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“Return Yisroel to Hashem, your G-d, because you have stumbled in your sins.” (Hoshea 14:2; Haftorah for Shabbos Shuva)
The gemara (Yoma 86a) states “Rabbi Levi said: Great is teshuva for it reaches until Hashem, your G-d.”
Rav Shimshon MiOstropoli zy’a related that the following thought was revealed to him min hashamayim: If one adds the numerical value of the letters of the word “Kisei Hakavod” progressively (i.e. continually adding each new letter with the letter preceding it – chof (20) + chof, samech (80) + choef, samech, aleph (81) + chof, samech, aleph, hei (86) + chof, samech, aleph, hei, chof (106) + chof, samech, aleph, hei, chof, bais (108) + chof, samech, aleph, hei, chof, bais, vov (114) + chof, samech, aleph, hei, chof, bais, vov, daled (118)) it equals 713, which is the exact gematria of the word teshuva!
This is a hint to the navi’s message. Teshuva is great for it reaches all the way to the Kisei Hakavod, albeit only if one paces himself. If a person seeks to immediately achieve greatness and do complete teshuva without a plan for growth, he is doomed to failure. One must have patience and an understanding of himself – his strengths and his weaknesses, in order to know how to climb the ladder of greatness.
The power of teshuva is so great that – literally – even the sky isn’t the limit. However, that can only be achieved when one takes one step at a time, building and growing proactively and progressively every single day.
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“Return wayward sons, I will heal you from your waywardness.” (Yermiyah 3:22)
Once a button became loose on the rabbinic jacket of the Chasam Sofer, and he gave it to his daughter to mend. When she handed it back to him, he told her that she wasn’t the one who had sown the button. The daughter’s face turned red, and she admitted that she had asked the maid to do it. When she asked him how he knew, the Chasam Sofer showed her that there was also a tear in the corner of the jacket. He knew that if she fixed the button, she would have seen the rip and would’ve lovingly fixed it as well. When he saw that the rip was not mended, he understood that it was fixed by someone who was instructed to do so, but who felt no love in doing so.
Based on this story, Rav Gamliel Rabinowitz shlita (Tiv Hakehilla – Netzovim) explained that on Rosh Hashana we declare that we stand in judgment “If like sons or like servants”. The truth is that Hashem judges us depending how we serve Him. If we approach Avodas Hashem as a son serving his father with love, going beyond the letter of the law, then Hashem will in turn judge us as sons. But if we serve Him as servants, merely fulfilling the letter of the law, then He too will judge us as devoted servants, but not as sons.
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[1] This series was originally written for and published in Hamodia.