There is an old joke about four criminals who were to be shot at a firing squad. The night before the execution they sat planning how to escape the clutches of imminent death. They came up with the plan that immediately before the firing squad would pull the triggers of their rifles they should scream out a natural catastrophe thereby causing alarm and distraction allowing them enough time to barely escape. As the first criminal was placed in front of the firing squad with his friends watching, the commanding officer yelled Ready Aim when he was suddenly interrupted by the criminal’s shriek with this hand pointing to the back of them Flood! Bewildered the soldiers looked around looking for the oncoming onslaught of water but didn’t see a thing. By the time they looked back the criminal had already disappeared from sight. It was now time for the second criminal to be shot. Ready! Aim! and again the commander was interrupted with the scream of the criminal pointing beyond Tornado! Whereupon they again turned around to see the approaching high winds which was enough to enable the prisoner with the sufficient time necessary to escape. As they fixed their rifles on the third prisoner Ready! Aim! he bellowed Earthquake. Frightened and distracted they stepped back quickly turning their bodies as if they were getting ready to be swallowed up but once more they realized that it was just a hoax and the third prisoner by the skin of his teeth fled away. By now the soldiers looked very agitated and frustrated after being duped three times. It wasn’t going to be easy to pull the wool over their eyes for a fourth scenario. The fourth prisoner had the most difficult challenge of them all to come up with a natural disaster which would be truly believable in order for him to escape. And then it happened. A huge smile appeared on his face signaling that he was as ready as can be for he had confidently arrived at the solution that would just do the trick. The soldiers picked up their rifles and the commander once again began Ready! Aim! when suddenly the prisoner yelled out at the top of his lungs pointing his hand up high FIRE!!
During the year this story might emit a chuckle or even a laugh. However, two weeks before Rosh Hashanah I believe that this story is only a mashal that should stir within us a very serious wake up call. Let me explain.
Man was created from four elements aish ruach mayim afar. They appear in the material world in the forms of fire, air, water, and earth. Yet is the spiritual worlds they take the form of middos, their strengths and weaknesses as they are composed from various combinations of these elements as Rav Chaim Vital explains in great detail. For example laziness and sadness have their basis in the element of earth which is the heaviest and the lowest of all the other elements. Anger and haughtiness lie in the element of fire. Water sustains passions and lusts and wind nurtures idle talk. The goal of Man is to refine his middos and make life changes to the point where he recreates and transforms himself into a new being. The Avos were called fathers not just because they transmitted the spiritual DNA to all their descendents but also because they recreated themselves to the degree that they gave birth to themselves and they were like their own fathers. The tzadikkim hint to this concept in the first passuk of Noach Aileh toldos Noach Noach eesh tzadik tamim haya bedorosov. These are the generations of Noach … Noach. The Torah doesn’t mention the names of his children but rather it mentions himself. This comes to teach us that because he was an eesh tzadik tamim it was deemed as if he gave birth to himself.
In two weeks we will be judged how much we recreated ourselves by refining our middos and the four elements. For on this very same day Adam Harishon was created and he sinned and was judged as well. If we have the merit to scream water which sends the message that we controlled our passions and inclinations and used the element of desire to further ourselves with ruchniyus, then we can distract the prosecutors and escape from the clutches of the harsh decree ch’v. If we can call out fire, that we worked on our anger and controlled our tongues from always putting people down, then we might be able to escape the heavenly “firing squad”. Maybe our plea of earth can prove that I improved my getting up to daven with a minyan, chapping in an extra learning seder, and that I was not lazy to think before I spoke those hurtful words to my spouse or child. This plea can have the power to free us from punishment. Elul is not over and we still have two weeks to think of a plan of escape from the harsh gezar din of shamayim.
Our Chazal command us (Rosh Hashanah 34b) Imru lefanei Malchuyos kedai shetamlicheini alaychem ubameh beshofar – say before me passages of kinship through which you will accept my kingship upon yourselves with the shofar. The question the mefashim ask is that first we are told “imru” which means to say and then immediately afterwards we are told with the shofar? I would suggest in derech derush that the interpretation is as follows. The karban of Rosh Hashanah is stated in the form of vaasisem you should make instead of the term used concerning the other karbanos of Yom Tov vehikravtem you should sacrifice. The Medrash explains that Hashem says to Am Yisrael since today you came to din it will be considered as if I created you anew. What is the meaning of this promise on Rosh Hashana?
If one understands the awesomeness of Rosh Hashanah and what avodah is expected from him during this holy day, then he would also understand that this undertaking is accomplished by nullifying his middos and the four elements to serve Hashem. This day of vaasisem has the power to help one recreate himself by accepting the yoke of Hashem’s malchus by dedicating to Him the usage of these four elements the source of all our middos. But how do we even start this process? The gemarah gives us the insight and know how by answering “with the shofar”. For the sounds of the shofar tekiah shevarim and teruah represent the three avos. They planted this spiritual component of “Avos” the power to recreate oneself by tikkun hamidos, in every single Yid. By blowing the sounds of the shofar we arouse within ourselves this power of creativity of the avos stirring us to dedicate our middos to Hashem as they did. If we come to din realizing that this is our mission on this day to crown Hashem with our santification of these four elements, then it will be deemed as if we were created anew.
Hence the gemarra reads as follows: Imru lefanei malchiyos say before Me pesukim of Malchiyos. The term imru hints to the four elements which one must dedicate to Hashem’s kingdom and service. The aleph of imru symbolizes the element of aish, mem –mayim water, raish-ruach air, and the vov of imru is veafar and earth. Our Chazal hint here that it is not enough just to recite or even sing the pesukim. Rather one must say these pesukim by accepting Hashem’s kingdom upon himself and the promise to serve Him with one’s middos and four elements. One might ask with what do we start? The answer is with the shofar by arousing the characteristic of avos of self creation which lies deep within every Yid.
The shofar of a ram is blown on Rosh Hashanah in order to awaken the merit of the Akaidah which also occurred on that very same day. A ram was sacrificed in place of Yitzchak after having its horns entangled in the bushes. During the test of the Akaida we also have see Avraham’s ultimate dedication of Man’s four elements. The Medrash tells us that the Satan took the shape of the form of a river attempting to threaten to drown Avraham in order to restrain him from fulfilling this incredible test but it was to no avail. Avraham had already dedicated to Hashem the element of water within himself so not worldly water would have any effect to deter his ultimate sacrifice. Avraham had already prepared the fire before he left so he would not be allowed to look for any excuse not to sacrifice Yitzchak or delay it in any way. His inner fire towards Hashem was steadfast and could not be compromised in any form. Even after Hashem freed him from the test it was not met with relief for Avraham desired so much to demonstrate his sacrifice to Hashem that he sacrificed the ram as if it was Yitzchak himself. His intentions at that moment, was so pure that Chazal say that the ashes of Yitzhcak are piled up on the mizbaiach in front of Hashem. By lighting the fire and sacrificing Yitzchak he subjugated the element of fire and air (fire does not burn without air) till there remained Yitzchak’s ashes which saluted the elevation of the element of earth. There was no laziness on the part of Avraham nor Yitzchak as Chazal teach that even Yitzchak demanded from his father to bind him tightly lest he might flinch and pasul the human korban. The dedication of Avraham’s element of earth is further testified by the fact that Har Hamoriya only became an elevated mountain that very same day and not before as the passuk itself states it will be said “today” on the mountain of Hashem He will appear.
The Akaidah means the binding. It alludes also to the binding of Avraham’s four elements in dedication for his ultimate test of self sacrifice to Hashem. When we recited the Shemah we are supposed to be ready to surrender our lives to sanctify Hashem’s name. The enlarged letter Dalis in the word echad relays the message to us that part of this mitzvah is also sacrificing the four elements to Hashem’s sanctification. On the day of judgment we are expected to lock them on behalf of Hashem.
One of today’s greatest societal problems is that we have let and even encouraged our four human elements to run wild with no intention of harnessing or restraining them. “Just do it” is the slogan for Nike. “obey your thirst” is the commercial seduction for a popular soda drink. Have we lost the human quality and dignity to say No and to have self control? A Yid has a Shulchan Aruch that binds him from the moment he awakes until the moment he sleeps whether he is in the privacy of his home, at work, at a vacation, in times of simcha or mourning. What happened to everyone else’s sanity? I thought we all graduated from “elementary” school. Wasn’t that supposed to teach us all about the morals of life and the four elements, how to perfect our middos and how to bring out the tzelem elokim instead of the animal within. This Rosh Hashanah let us strive to dedicate ourselves to be the model tzelem elokim that Hashem intended us to be amongst the nations of the world.
