WHAT IS REALLY IMPORTANT TO US? - ROSH HASHANA

We all know that the main Avoda of Rosh Hashana is to mamlich Hashem - to accept Him as King over us. But what does this mean? On one level it means to recognise that He is all-powerful and has total control over the world. But there is another very important aspect to being Mamlich Hashem. The Gra notes that with reference to non-Jews Hashem is called a Moshel, whereas with regard to Jews He is called a Melech. A Moshel is a dictator who has complete power but is not loved by his subjects because they perceive that he is not the source of good for them. The goyim see Hashem as a ruler who may be powerful but they would prefer that He not interfere with their lives.

In contrast, a Melech is a ruler who we accept with love over us because we recognise that He is the source of all goodness - the Jewish people are supposed to have this attitude to Hashem’s kingship. In order to properly mamlich Hashem we must recognise that He and He alone is the ONLY source of meaning and happiness. The antithesis of this is the negative mitzvo of not following after other gods. This is not limited to not worshipping idols, it also requires that we acknowledge that there is no other source of our well-being other than Hashem. If a person believes that there is any other factor in his life that is independently significant to his happiness then he transgresses the mitzvo of not following other gods. There are numerous possible ‘alternative’ sources to attributing our well-being, including money, physical pleasure, material attainment, honour, or even ourselves . A person can say he believes in G-d but if he acts as though any of these factors provide him with any happiness to the exclusion of Hashem, then he cannot properly make Hashem King .

The extent to which we recognise that doing ratson Hashem is the only key to success has a great effect on our shemiras hamitzvos, both avoidance of lavim and performance of positive mitzvos. With regards to lavim, my Rebbe, Rav Yitzchak Berkovits Shlita suggests that the shoresh of many aveiros is a belief that there are other ways of succeeding in life apart from keeping the Torah. For example, a person may be faced with the opportunity to gain financially by doing something which is halachically highly questionable; The outcome of his decision whether to do the issur or not may well be based on his emuna - if he really believes that Hashem is the only key to goodness then he will refrain from doing something that Hashem tells him not to do. But, if, deep down, he feels that there is another way, apart from shemiras hamitzvos, in which a person can succeed, such as cheating in financial areas, then he will likely succumb to the temptation. Another example is when a person is put in a situation where he could speak lashon hara, if he has a clear realisation that doing so, will, ultimately cause him only pain, then he will not do so. But if, b’shaas maaseh he feels that telling over this piece of gossip will give him pleasure, then he will do so. Of course, a person may not be consciously making such cheshbonos, but deep down they are probably the shoresh of the rationalisations that a person makes when he sins. The more a person can mamlich Hashem, that is, to recognise that He is the ONLY source of happiness, then he will be more successful in his avoidance of doing aveiros because he will recognise that doing them would ultimately not provide him with any real happiness.

The same concept applies for performance of positive mitzvos: it is discussed by Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz zt”l . He asks; the Gemara states that there is no reward for mitzvos in Olam Hazeh - this means that a spiritual act such as a mitzvo cannot be sufficiently rewarded by anything in Olam Hazeh. Yet, Chazal also teach us that reshaim receive the reward for their mitzvos in Olam Hazeh - how can they be satisfactorily rewarded by this-worldly pleasures? He answers that the reward a person receives for a mitzvo is no more than the value he himself attributes to that mitzvo. Therefore, a rasha, who sees physical pleasures as the source of his fulfillment will be rewarded with just that for his mitzvos. When the Gemara says that there is no reward in this world, it means that a mitzvo done by a person who has an appreciation of the spiritual pleasures cannot be rewarded with the transitory pleasures of this world.

Based on this, we can gain a greater understanding of the importance on Rosh Hashana of recognising that Hashem is the only source of true happiness: We are judged on this day according to how many mitzvos we have fulfilled against the number of aveiros that we have committed. However, the Rambam in Hilchos Teshuva writes that each mitzvo has a different potency based on a number of factors, one of the most important being the intentions behind the mitzvo. If a person’s sheifos are largely for this-worldly pleasures then this will surely effect his shemiras hamitzvos; There will be occassions where he will refrain from performing a mitzvo in order to satisfy his desires. Rav Shmuelevitz gives the example of a ben Torah stopping learning in order to earn some money. He is demonstrating that the mitzvo of Talmud Torah is worth less than the amount of money he could gain. Thus, even when he does perform the mitzvo, it is tainted by his underlying attitude that it is worth less than other forms of pleasure such as gaining money. The alarming consequence of this is that the reward he will receive for his mitzvos will only be equal to the value that he himself ascribed to the mitzvo. Thus, it is also apparent in our performance of positive mitzvos, that the extent to which we acknowledge that only Hashem is the source of goodness and that doing His ratson is the only way to succeed in life, bears a great effect on how we emerge from the din of Rosh Hashana.

Rav Yissochor Frand Shlita tells a frightening story that adds another dimension to the idea that a the reward a person receives is directly related to what is important to him. The Chiddushei Harim zt”l once travelled with a man on his carriage that was pulled by two horses. After a few miles, one of the horses died, causing great distress to its owner. A few miles later, the other horse also died. The owner was so distressed at the loss of his horses that meant so much to him that he sat crying for a long time until he cried so much that he died. That night, the Chiddushei Harim had a dream; in that dream he saw that the man who had died, received Olam Haba. But what was his Olam Haba? A lovely carriage with two beautiful horses. This story teaches us that our Olam Haba is created by what we value in Olam Hazeh - for this man, the most important thing in his life was his horses and carriage, so that was what he got for eternity.

One may ask, it does not seem to be so bad for a person to receive in Olam Haba that which a person cherishes so much in Olam Hazeh. Rav Frand answers this question. He says that when he was a young child he always wanted a slingshot with which to play with but his parents refused. Imagine if, at the time of his wedding, his parents would come to him and say, “here is the slingshot that you always wanted!” As a child, the slingshot was valuable to him, but now he has grown out of it. So too, we may strive to acquire various pleasures in Olam hazeh, such as money or kavod, believing that they will provide us with contentment. But when we arrive in Olam Haba we will see the truth of the words of Mesillas Yesharim: “everything else [apart from closeness to Hashem] that people believe are good is nothing but emptiness. ” In the Olam Haemes, we will see with perfect clarity, how meaningless are those things that we put so much energy into acquiring in this world.

We spend much of Rosh Hashana in tefilla - those tefillas repeatedly emphasise how Hashem is our King. When we say these words again and again on the day, let us remember what they mean: that Hashem is a loving King who is the source of all good, if we can internalise that then we can emerge from Rosh Hashana triumphant.
Kesiva v’chasima tova.

DEFINING EVIL - PARSHAS ZACHOR

In the end of Parshas Ki Seitsei, the Torah commands us to remember the attack of Amalek against the Jewish people, when we were leaving Mitzrayim. This mitzvo is fulfilled by reading the portion that commands us with regard to this remembrance. Towards the end of the portion we are also commanded to wipe out the memory of Amalek - this means we must destroy any Amalek adult, child and animal. A person may find the command to destroy a whole nation difficult to understand.

Indeed this mitzvo troubled the righteous King, Shaul HaMelech when he was commanded to destroy the whole nation of Amalek. Understanding the underlying mistake in this episode will help us answer the question above. The Prophet tells us that, on Hashem's command, Shmuel HaNavi instructed Shaul to wipe out the whole nation, including the women, children, and animals. Shaul defeated the Amalekim in the subsequent battle, and did kill everyone with the exception of the Amalekite King, Agag, and a few animals. The gemara offers an explanation as to Shaul's reluctance to kill all the Amalekim. It tells us that Shaul made a kal v'chomer ; he noted the mitzvo of egla arufa - this is a solemn ceremony that takes place upon the murder of a person in between two cities. It demonstrates the Torah's concern with regard to a single death, and its emphasis on the value of human life. Shaul reasoned that if a single human life had so much value, all the more so that is the case with regard to a whole nation. The gemara further tells us that in reaction to Shaul's 'merciful' reasoning, a Bas kol (Heavenly voice) came out, and said, "do not be overly righteous". A short time later, Shaul was pursuing David HaMelech as he felt David threatened Shaul's kingship. David took refuge with a group of Kohanim who lived in the city of Nov. Unaware of Shaul's enmity to David, they fed David and provided him with a sword. When Shaul heard about this, he ordered the murder of the whole city. At that time, another Bas Kol came out, saying, "do not be overly evil."

The Medrash makes a puzzling observation connecting these two incidents: "Anyone who is merciful in a situation where he should be cruel, eventually, he will be cruel in a situation where he should be merciful. The Medrash states clearly that it is inevitable that one who is inappropriately merciful will come to be cruel in an unsuitable manner. Why is this course of events so certain? My Rebbe, Rav Yitzchak Berkovits shlita explains that Shaul's underlying mistake was that he put his own natural emotions before the Torah's commands. Accordingly, in a situation where his natural sense of justice contradicted with a command to kill children, he chose his emotions ahead of detaching himself from his emotions in order to fulfill Hashem's word. However, in another situation, his emotions communicated to him a very different message; he perceived that David was a threat to his whole family, therefore he felt that anyone helping David was also a threat to his family and must be killed. Again, he placed his emotions before the Torah's instructions and ordered the ruthless murder of innocent people. Now we can understand the inexorable connection between Shaul's misplaced mercy and his inappropriate cruelty. A person who follows his emotions to the side of 'mercy' is nonetheless at the whim of his emotions and not morality as defined by the Torah. Therefore it is inevitable that on a separate occasion his emotions will pull him in a different direction and cause him to be overly cruel.

The account of Shaul’s failure to wipe out Amalek ended when Shmuel HaNavi personally struck down King Agag. The Ralbag brings out a remarkable point in this incident. Shmuel had Agag brought in front of him in chains. When Agag saw the righteous Shmuel, he exclaimed: “sar mar hamaves”. The Ralbag understands that Agag was saying that the bitterness of death had now gone away. This is because when he saw Shmuel he recognized his attributes of kindness and mercy, and thus he presumed that Shmuel would show mercy upon him. However, Shmuel quickly corrected Agag, telling him that he deserved to die, and he subsequently killed him. Shmuel was a merciful person because, in general, the Torah encourages the trait of mercy. However, on this occasion, Shmuel knew that mercy was inappropriate and, in this instance, the seemingly ‘cruel’ act of killing was the moral course of action because that was HaShem‘s will.

These incidents help us recognize that one cannot define morality according to his own subjective feelings and beliefs. When a person acts in such a way, he can begin to justify all kinds of evil actions. Indeed this is a common trend in secular society. People that do not believe in an objective morality feel free to define what constitutes ‘murder‘, for example. Thus, they judge that killing unborn fetuses or terminally ill people are valid courses of action. The Torah Jew recognizes that all human attempts to define morality are subject to terrible misuse. The only valid way of defining morality is by following the Torah's guidelines. Indeed morality, like everything else in the universe, was created and defined by HaShem. Accordingly, when a person finds it difficult to understand the moral nature of a Mitzvo in the Torah, this does not mean that the Mtizvo is immoral chas v’Shalom. Rather, it means that the person is following his own natural emotions and inclinations. The Torah encourages emotional expression, but only after a person has channeled his emotions through the prism of Torah. Then, he can shift his emotions to be in line with Torah morality.

With such an understanding, we realize that if HaShem commands us to destroy an entire nation, then that is the moral course of action. Indeed it is commendable to try to understand why the Torah makes such a command, and with some contemplation as to what Amalek represent, it is not difficult to understand. Nonetheless, the foundation is to recognize that the Torah conception of morality is the only valid one.