This is the first class we will be having on the Aseret Yeme Teshuva/Ten Days of
Repentance, although it’s the third day. (Rosh Hashana was days 1 and 2)
The Gemarah uses a pasuk to describe the Ten days of Teshuva:
“Search for Hashem when He is to be
found, call out to Him when He is close.
That is our job during these days: to “Search for Hashem when He is
to be found.”
What does
that mean?
Rav Yerucham Levovitz says that people think that on the Aseret Yeme Teshuva, G-d
is here. However, while He is
more accessible and available, you still have to search to find Him.
A beautiful mashal illustrates this point:
There was a great rabbi who was sitting with his students when his
young daughter walked in crying. He asked her why she was crying. She answered
that she had been playing hide-and-seek with her friends. She went to hide, and
found a great spot, but no one was able to find her, so they gave up and
stopped playing. She sat there waiting
in her hiding spot and no one came to look for her.
When the rebbe
heard the story, he burst out crying. His
students were surprised. They
thought it was nice that he was so
empathetic to his daughter, but they didn’t see a reason to cry over it. He saw their perturbed looks and
explained that he wasn’t crying over his daughter’s game. He was crying because Hashem is also
playing a game of hide-and-seek. This world is called Olam,
and root of the world is Ne’elam, which means hidden. G-d hid Himself from the world. The game of Life is
to find G-d: Find Him in creation, find Him in His Torah, and find Him in His
daily interactions with us.
Those are three areas in which we can find G-d, and they’re actually Malchuyot, Zichronot, and
Shofarot, one of our Rosh Hashana messages, and
the three principles of our faith. G-d created the world, and we can
find Him there- in the apple and the orange, in
my eyes, in my ears and in everything else about me. Abraham Avinu found
G-d in creation; in the sun and the moon, and from his own flesh.
You can also find G-d in how He deals with you-in the stories of
Hashgacha in your life.
And you can find G-d when you learn His Torah. But He’s hiding. He’s hiding in the apple
and orange; He’s hiding when you find your parking spot; He’s hiding in the Gemarah.
You have to look for Him in
order to find Him.
Sometimes, it’s harder to find G-d, and sometimes it’s easier.
In Hide-and-Seek, sometimes you can see a person’s foot sticking
out of their hiding spot, so it’s easier. Of course, you have to go look- you can’t just
stay in one spot and hope to find everyone, but sometimes is easier. So too, during
Aseret Yeme Teshuva,
G-d is easier to find. We can look and find Him.
But why do we have to look for Him?
Isn’t Aseret Yeme Teshuva about Teshuva?
The answer
is that “Teshuva” means “return ( to G-d).”
We have to be able to find G-d, in order to be able to return to
Him.
So we have to be aware of G-d in our lives, in creation and in His
Torah.
Hashem makes Himself more accessible during these days, so that we can return to Him.
Of course, we have to figure out what our sins are, but the
backdrop is that we want to find Hashem, and come back to Him. We have to know that He’s
there to return to.
This is our job during these
very special days.
These are not regular days. We have to take advantage of them.
The rabbis tell us that Teshuva is a mitzvah of the heart. It’s not like a mezuzah where it’s
delineated: You buy a mezuzah and put it up. It is a clear-cut action. We can even have
someone else buy the mezuza for us, and even put it up for us. We don’t have to
do it ourselves.
But when it comes to teshuva, no one can do it for us. We have to
do it on our own, and we have to know what we’re doing. Therefore, it behooves us to take out time to be alone and
think.
What in my life needs to change?
I’ve sinned. I’ve distanced myself from G-d. I want to come close
to Him.
It’s not good to be far from G-d.
It is better to be closer to Him.
These are the thoughts we have to have during these special days of
Teshuva. Be’ezrat Hashem, we will take advantage of these days, and come closer
to G-d, because when
we come closer to G-d, there’s only good things.
That is the job of these days. Look for Hashem, for He is to be
found.
