ELUL
“The hands of the witnesses shall be the first upon him to put him to death… you shall remove the evil from your midst” (17:7)
The wording of the possuk makes it clear that the purpose of the capital punishment is not to avenge the actions of the sinner, but rather to remove evil from amongst the nation, thereby increasing the forces of good.
Rav Yerusham Levovitz noted that, similarly, repentance has the power to annul evil decrees, because if a person repents on his own initiative there is no longer any need to punish him, since he has already removed the evil inside him by himself of his own accord.
However, in order to come close to and cleave to Hashem, prayers, supplications and dedication to avodas Hashem are required, and the month of Elul is the appropriate time to achieve these, and to come close to Hashem.
Although, on the one hand, Elul is a month of trepidation, like any other mitzvah, repentance has to be performed with joy.
Elul is the propitious month of mercy in which Hashem makes it much easier to repent. This month may be compared to an end-of-season sale. Hashem wishes to cleanse us of our sins accumulated during the year and “sells” the possibility of repentance for less effort than the rest of the year. Whatever can only be attained the rest of the year through fasting and abstinence, can be attained in Elul through prayer and repentance.
Our avoda during Elul should be different than the rest of the year, and we cannot perform mitzvos by rote then. Our Torah and prayers should be accompanied by thought and devotion. The admonition to “beware lest you forget Hashem” (Devorim 6:12) includes a warning not to observe mitzvos by rote, because someone who keeps mitzvos only out of habit is not thinking about Hashem, but ignoring Him.
Many people shirk their obligations in Elul, in the belief that during the year they are already fulfilling what Hashem expects of them. The baal habos argues that throughout the year he listens to a shiur on a daily basis and gives maaser kesofim from his earnings, and the ben Torah argues that he keeps to his sedorim with a chavrusa. In reality, our avodo during Elul consists of not performing actions merely by rote and habit, but with a sense of renewal and contemplation as to what Hashem expects of us, and how we can improve our avoda quantitatively (more time) and qualitatively (more effort, enthusiasm and joy).
Yemei rotzon means that during this period we enjoy special Divine assistance. However, without repentance on our part and efforts to come closer to Hashem, He will not come closer to us. On the other hand, through relatively little effort during Elul we can achieve things that are only possible through much greater effort during the rest of the year, and only a fool would waste the opportunity to utilize this time to the utmost.
Many people are under the delusion that just like Elul and the yomim noro’im the previous year elapsed without too many preparations and repentance, and nothing exceptionally unfortunate happened during the past year, this year too we can obtain a favorable judgement. The flaw with this logic is that there is a special treasure house of good deeds for which Hashem sets aside a reward in the afterlife, and if a person does not have the right to remain alive by virtue of his deeds, Hashem deducts from the reward set aside for him in the afterlife.
Therefore, the fact that a person remained alive may have been to his detriment, because it may have been at the expense of his future reward. Moreover, who knows how many merits, if any, remain from the mitzvos whose reward has been set aside for the future. Hence, it would be wiser to repent properly instead of relying on the experience of previous years.
Although an integral component of teshuva is regretting the past, during Elul one should initially forget the past and focus on the present. The mazal of the month of Elul is a besulah (maiden), because during this month of renewal and repentance we start a new “marriage” with Hashem, completely forgetting the past and focusing exclusively on the future. Only at a more advanced stage of the teshuva process should one focus on regretting the past.
Every morning, when one wakes up one should say to oneself. “Today I will be more careful be’ezras Hashem”. Everything is based on the current moment. If one perseveres with one’s resolutions, one will eventually witness miracles and wonders be”H.
The truth is that for most people the avoda of Elul has been forgotten, and if Rosh Hashono itself is still observed properly, that would already be a step in the right direction. In previous generations, people realized that if you repented, matters would turn out for the good, but if you did not, then one had to worry, and that one had to be in a constant state of chizuk. However, this awareness has become attenuated. Only bnei Torah still retain an impression of the real Elul. This is a great pity, because we are losing a great treasure of growth in our avodas Hashem.
In Shema Yisroel every Jew addresses his fellow Jew, because it is not sufficient to accept the yoke of heaven on ourselves, but we must also be concerned for all members of the nation and want them to accept this yoke on themselves too. On the other hand, in terms of everyone’s private avodas Hashem, a person should not compare himself to others, because Hashem’s expectations of him are based on his own specific capabilities. Sometimes a person thinks that so and so acts in a certain way, so why should I be more righteous than him. Instead, he should be thinking about what Hashem expects from him specifically. That is the avoda of Elul: to remember that we are avdei Hashem.
Everybody should endeavor during Elul to be mechadesh chiddushei Torah, because through chiddushim one merits special Divine love. Chiddushim are not necessarily completely novel ideas, but also explanations and comments on existing ideas. Rav Aharon Kotler writes that since in the month of Elul we are close to Hashem, it is a very propitious time for learning, understanding and being mechadesh genuine chiddushei Torah. Therefore, Rav Sternbuch tells the bochurim in his Yeshiva that they should endeavor to write down chiddushei Torah or summarize shiurim and explain them well. They will then enjoy special Divine assistance and will be considered to have been mechadesh chiddushei Torah.
