Following Tisha b’Av we enter the “second half” of the summer, which is dominated by the approach of Chodesh Elul, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the Season of Teshuva.
What kind of year will 5787 be? The world is a dangerous place, filled with high tempers and angry voices directed at Am Yisroel. Sensitive people feel the imminence of the Geulah Shelemah, but we want to see it!
With that in mind, how should we approach the Season of Teshuva?
“Rabbi Yehuda expounded: In the future days, Hakadosh Baruch Hu will bring the yetzer ha ra and slaughter it in the presence of the righteous and the presence of the wicked ….” (Sukkah 52a) The Ramban writes that, in the Days of Moshiach, when “Hashem will circumcise [our] hearts,” (Dvarim 30:6), there will be no more yetzer ha ra; mankind will naturally do good. Thus, he says, there will be “no more credit or obligation, because the desire for evil will have been eliminated.”
But who would want to live in such a world, where there is apparently no reward for doing good? Will we be like robots?
I believe that the answer sheds light on our avoda for the Season of Teshuva.
Adam and Chava unleashed a catastrophe when they violated the one mitzvah of Gan Eden. They were expelled from that perfect garden and cast into a world of suffering and death. But how could it be that Adam, who lived in a perfect environment, would willingly deviate from Hashem’s command?
Rav Eliahu Eliezer Dessler zt”l writes that Adam was actually trying to accomplish a mitzvah by doing the aveira. In other words, he thought he could ascend to a higher level of ruchnius by confronting an evil which had hitherto been foreign to him. But he was unprepared for the power of the yetzer ha ra with its infinite depths of darkness.
For almost six thousand years, the children of Adam and Chava have been trying to undo the tragic sin of our first parents. The Nation of Israel was created to accomplish this, to overcome the Yetzer ha Ra and reopen the Gates of Gan Eden.
At Har Sinai we actually regained that perfect state. We lost it soon again when our ancestors sinned with the aigel, but the Children of Israel never give up! “For, although the righteous man may fall seven times, he will arise! (Mishlei 24:16)
What is blocking our way? Rabbi Samson Rafael Hirsch zt”l, writes that the cruvim, who stand with their “ever-turning” swords at the entrance to Gan Eden, can be understood in one of two ways. “Either [they BLOCK] the way to the tree of life, so that man will NOT be able to [return] or [they PRESERVE] the way … so that … man SHOULD [be able to] return some day.” (Rav Hirsch on Beraishis 3:24)
Perhaps, when Hashem slaughters the yetzer ha ra in the days of Moshiach, this will represent the culmination of thousands of years of unending avoda on the part of the Children of Israel, who have labored “b’chol levavchem uv’chol nafshechem” to bring us back to Gan Eden. This will have been our historic mission throughout history.
Please listen to this letter written by the Chazon Ish to one of his students: “Strengthen yourself, my dear one … and envelop yourself … in Torah. It is for this purpose that you were created. With just a little more [effort] you will be able to come to grips with your evil inclination. Then his defeat will be total, and he will no longer bother you. Just overcome him today and he will be your faithful servant for all time.” (From the book, “In Their Shadow” by Rabbi Shlomo Lorincz zt”l)
Several times I was privileged to daven by the minyan of Rav Chaim Kanievsky zt”l. When one entered his daled amos, it was as if there were a sign at the doorway, “No entry allowed for the Evil Inclination.” You felt as if you were entering Gan Eden.
Rabbi Hirsch says further, “the … purpose of [our spiritual struggles throughout the millennia has been] to guide man toward moral perfection, which will pave the way for his return to Paradise.” (Hirsch Chumash, Beraishis 3:19)
May we see it soon in our days!
The Perfect Garden
GLOSSARY
5787: Next year in the Jewish calendar
Adam & Chava: Adam and Eve
Aigel: the Golden Calf
Am Yisroel: the Jewish People
Aveira: an act prohibited by the Torah
B’chol levavchem …. with all our heart and soul
Chodesh Elul: the Jewish month before Rosh Hashanah
Cruvim: the two sword-bearing angels who stand at the entrance to Gan Eden
Daled amos: immediate presence
Gan Eden: the Garden of Eden
Geulah Shelemah: the Final Redemption of the Jewish People
Hakadosh Baruch Hu: G-d
Har Sinai: Mount Sinai
Teshuva: repentance
Yetzer ha ra: the Evil Inclination
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