The Chiddushei Harim asks that the gemarrah says that each day a Bas Kol goes out from shamayim relaying a communication that declares Return and repent my wayward children. If this is true what then is all the raucous of doing teshuva during the month of Elul more than the rest of the year? His explanation is that during the year it is the calling from heaven that can inspire a Yid to return to his creator. During the month of Elul it is the days themselves that scream out 24/7 that we should do teshuva. This was Moshe Rabbeinu’s accomplishment during his 40 day ascent to plead for Am Yisrael’s atonement after worshipping the Golden Calf. His tefillos carved out these days of Elul and Aseres Yemai Teshuva to be saturated in their fiber supplications beckoning for Yidden to do tehsuva. Up until now the call for tehsuva occurred during a few moments of each day. Now during the month of Elul this call for teshuva emerges not from an external place but rather from an internal embodiment in each day itself.
Let us take this a step futher. We just bentched the coming of the new moon. In the tefillah of Yehi ratzon we ask Hashem for various types of chayim, chayim of peace chayim of blessing chayim of sustenance. Then we say chayim sheyaish behem yiras shamayim veyiras chait. We ceased saying chayim shel but rather chayim sheyaish bahem. When it comes to beseeching Hashem for spirituality we want it more than just a mere superficiality and a part of our surroundings. This distinction is found in the berachos of nairos Shabbos and Chanukah. The nusach for lighting Shabbos candles is lehadlik ner shel shabbos. The nusach for lighting Chanukah candles according to some is lehadlik ner Chanukah without adding the word shel. The explanation given for Chanuka’s omission of shel is that the mitzvah of Shhabbos includes various aspects and applications. There is Kiddush, oneg and kavod Shabbos, and the 39 melachos all besides the haklakas nairos. Therefore lighting candles is “beracharized” as shel - of. It is only one of the manifestations of the kedushas Shabbos. In contrast, Chanukah has only one and only mitzvah and that is the lighting of the Menorah. That is the reason that the nusach of the lighting beracha does not contain the word shel.
Now back to the Yehi ratzon. When we daven for chayim - life, we use the word shel. All the requests such as shel shalom and shel parnassah are expressions of life but not the inner core of life itself. However when we come closer to ruchniyis, then the subject matter is life’s essence. For this, we start requesting chayim that has in them “bahem” and not just merely chayim “shel”. But it goes even deeper. Towards the end of the tefillah we ask for chayim sheyiheyeh banu ahavas Torah and Yiras shamayim. Here when we mention love and not merely fear as previously, we do not merely say chayim shel and not even chayim sheyeish bahem. We stress and say chayim sheyeish banu , that the love of Torah and yiras shamayim should become our essential life and not just one of the various aspects of our lives.
Elul is the month when the daily bas kol which the whole year is a manifestation of chayim shell, becomes now chayim sheyaish bahem and banu. Every second of our day screams to us it is time for reckoning and teshuva. Elul is the month when we are not allowed the luxury to say oh I am so sorry I just missed that call of the bas kol because I was occupied and distracted by something else. In Elul our phone never stops ringing even after we pick it up. During the year a bas kol could be a little annoying and bothersome if it catches you in the wrong time as you were doing the wrong thing. In Elul the bas kol is a nudnik and as internal as your heartbeat. Well why not for during this month it has become the essence of your life and days.
The goal of Elul is to change from being Shell people to a Bawnu nation. I was waiting in the post office yesterday and the small line took over an hour because one clerk decided to talk on a personal call for quite some time. One lady suddenly became hysterical waving her hands in the air demonstrating against the clerk’s lack of sensitivity and selfishness while everybody was waiting. Another lady turns to me and asks how do you say in America C’est Lavi. I said that’s Life and she repeated it at loud to the already annoyed protesters. Immediately I said to myself this is how we talk about life when things around us goes kaput or not our way and are out of our control? The Torah commands Uvacharta bachayim that one must choose life. The Rabbeinu Yonah learns that every mitzvah we fulfill brings with it this added mitzvah of choose life. Life has been cheapened to be named a magazine and cereal. Don’t let us cheapen it more. Life must be internalized and essential and not be left up to expressions of outside mishaps alone.
Parshas Shoftim always intiates Elul. It commences with the command of placing judges and policeman in all your gates. The sefarim explain that on a person’s head one has seven gates, two eyes two ears two nostrils and a mouth. One is commanded to put judges and policeman on these seven gateways of the world to screen and ascertain that appropriate stimuli come in and out of the gates. We know what that is like entering security buildings and airports. This is the way to transfer from a shell person to a bawnu person. When we daven on the Aseres Yemai Teshuva for Zacreinu Lechayim melech chaftetz bachayim vechasvainu beserer hachayim lemaanchah elokim chayim for which chayim are we davening for? Of course we are davenning for spiritual ascent but for which type? Do we want ruchniyas is the Shell form of life the behem form of life or the banu form of life. The choice is ours. The torah says uvacharta bachayim. Not just peripheral chayim but rather ba- chayim choose the inner life. We all want to live long. We must remember always that live spelled backwards is EVIL. Life has an inner core from which nature was created. Starting from nature is backwards and the source of EVIL in the world. Frontwards is starting from the inner nucleus of G-dliness found in nature. From this starting point life is GOOD.
Gut Shabbos
Rav Brazil
