Today's class is dedicated Leiuli Nishmat Ovadia ben Adel, Mr. Barry Shiloach, by his family.
The High Holidays are called Yamim Noraim, The Awesome Days, the scary days and it’s quite common for people to get a little tense and stressed, but that's not a good thing.
Rav Wolbe tells a story that he was witness to. In the old days, in the Yeshivot in Europe, there were no dormitories. People were paid to feed and board the Talmidim in their homes.
Rav Wolbe had such a host. On Rosh Hodesh Elul, the man took all his Mezuzot to checked, and he took his Tefilin to be checked. Rav Wolbe thought to himself, ‘Wow, this man is more pious than I am. Look at his concern for
Yom HaDin! Right away on Rosh Hodesh Elul he is already checking his Mezuzot!’
That same day, the host’s wife came back from the marketplac with something she had bought. The husband felt it was a little overpriced and he started yelling at her for paying so much. She got a headache, went to sleep, and never woke up. It seems that she burst a blood vessel, which can come from extreme tension and pressure.
Rav Wolbe said, Here you have a case of somebody who's going into the days of awe, but really misusing these days of awe, turning it into internal pressure, stress, and anxiety, which is not what it's supposed to be.
Rav Wolbe writes in his sefer Alei Shur (vol 1 page 47 that we're supposed to work and prepare without despair. Don't give up hope. Where there is life, there is hope. Don't say, “I'll never change. I'll never fix this. I'm stuck in this situation. I'll never be able to get out of it. I'll never find the salvation for my challenges..”
Don't give up hope. Work and prepare without despair, without sadness, nerves or tension.
So, our job during these days is to work and prepare, but there's no room for despair. There's no room for sadness or depression. There's no room for anxiety.
That means despair, anxiety, and depression are all emotions that don't belong on the high holidays. He goes on and says, “Push away the panic and the tumult.”
Every person, he says, gets an attack of panic and tumult on Erev Rosh Hashanah.
We say, “Oh my gosh, Rosh Hashanah is here already! I’m going to be judged tomorrow! What's gonna be?!”
That's not the attitude to have.
Rather,he says, let's gird ourselves with happiness, to greet our God on His day. Rosh Hashanah is His day.
I once heard an explanation from Rav Leuchter, a student of Rav Wolbe’s, of why it is that people get anxious and stressed on the high holidays.
One reason, of course, is if you're a God fearing man, you're afraid of Yom HaDin. You're afraid of judgment, and that's why you're nervous and anxious. But he said there's a slightly different reason. He suggested it was because people want to feel the day. If they go into Rosh Hashanah and it just feels regular, they're not feeling the day. And therefore, the way they feel the day is by feeling the anxiety, the stress, and the tension. They say, “Oh wow, I felt Rosh Hashanah.!”
But that’s not the way to gauge and measure Rosh Hashanah- by feeling stressful and anxious.
So therefore this is a combination of daily bitachon and emotional wellness. Because the other thing that we're told to do, on Erev of Rosh Hashanah, is take a haircut, dress yourself properly, shave, and cut your nails.
Why? Because we're relying on Hashem that He is going to make a miracle for us. That means we need a miracle to get through judgment day! But with Bitachon, we rely on Hashem for a miracle. So yes, maybe you could start off with a little bit concern and nervous tension, but the response to that nervous tension has to be, “But I'm relying on Hashem, Who's my loving Father, Who's going to take care of me.”
So let us go into Rosh Hashana with Simha and Bitachon and push away the depression, despair, and anxiety, which are all negative emotions.
B’Ezrat Hashem, we will be zoche to a wonderful happy New Year.
Tizku Leshanim Rabot!