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Welcome to Emotional Wellness Daily, a project of SIMHA, the Sephardic Initiative for Mental Health Awareness.
One of our approaches is using our Torah and our religion to help us in our emotional wellness. One of the challenges after YomKippur is that we try and try, and yet quite often we fall after Yom Kippur. It’s not guaranteed, but some way or another we don't usually stay at that level forever. People often get down when that happens, as if all their hard work was for nothing. They think, I put all that effort in and what do I have to show for it? A person can get frustrated and down. We can answer with a beautiful story that took place in Shanghai during the war years. The Mirrer Yeshiva, which has a location a in Flatbush, and one in Yerushalayim- are both continuations of the original Mir Yeshiva, which started out in Europe but took a trip to Shanghai while escaping the Nazis, as the entire Yeshiva moved enmasse from place to place until they arrived at his safe haven in Shanghai.
There were many young men who were orphaned and alone without families, and their leader was Rav Yehezhkiel Levinstein, a very holy, very pious man. He prayed long and hard on Yom Kippur.
He was standing almost entirely from Shaharit through Musaf to Minha. When they finally finished Arbit, he was still praying. The students went and broke their fast, and after they ate whatever they had to eat, they saw that he was still praying. They wondered what they could do to make him happy, while he was busy praying for them. They decided to go back into the Bet Midrash, fill it up and start learning.
That way, when he walked back his three steps, he'd see them there learning. Sure enough, he walked back his three steps, turned around and saw the Bet Midrash full with them learning. He had a big smile on his face, and told them a story:
There was a man who’d built a beautiful palace, and he wanted that the last final part of the palace, should be put in by him. He wanted to do the finishing touch himself. Above the 18-foot archway, at the entrance into the house, there was supposed to be a certain stone, and he planned to slide that stone into place. So, they got a ladder for him, and he climbed up to put the stone in. But somehow, the ladder slipped, and he came tumbling down. He was alive, but he broke some bones, and he was lying on the floor groaning. Someone went over and to listen to him and heard him saying, “My palace fell! My palace fell!”
So the person next to him reassured him, “No, no, your palace didn't fall. Your palace is still standing. You fell. Your palace is okay. Don't worry.”
Rav Levenstein said the same thing was true for them.
“After the 40 days of hard work during the high holiday season, from Rosh Hodesh Elul until Yom Kippur, we put a lot of work in. We built a beautiful palace. And eventually we might fall. We might say what we shouldn't say, look where we shouldn't look, do what we shouldn't do.. We might feel like, “What happened to our palace, our palace fell!”
But no, the palace didn't fall. What you built in those 40 days, no one is ever going to take away. It’s going to last forever. You might fall, you might not live up to that, but your palace is still there.”
That's an important lesson that we have to realize.
Our efforts from the high holidays are intact. Our job is that we shouldn't fall, but our palace is always there. These are words of inspiration and consolation- don't feel like all your work was for nothing. You may fall, but you'll get back up again.
Have a wonderful day.