Beginning of Hilchos Rosh Hashana following in the footsteps of the Rosh and the Ran and Masechet Rosh Hashana cite the basis for the minhag bnei Ashkenaz to blow shofar during Chodesh Elul. תניא בפרקי דרבי אליעזר בראש חודש אלול אמר הקדוש ברוך הוא למשה עלה אלי ההרה
the third 40 day period began on Rosh Chodesh Elul שאז עלה לקבל לוחות אחרונות והעבירו שופר במחנה שמשה עלה להר שלא יטעו עוד אחר עבודה זרה. הקדוש ברוך הוא נתעלה באותו יום באותו שופר שנאמר עלה אלהים בתרועה, לכן התקינו חכמינו ז"ל שיתקעו בראש חודש אלול בכל שנה ושנה וכל החודש כדי להזהיר ישראל שיעשו תשובה.
We extend based on the precedent of having blown shofar on Rosh Chodesh Elul so we then take that and extend it throughout Chodesh Elul to admonish people, to give advance notice that we should be doing teshuva, שנאמר אם יתקע שופר בעיר ועם לא יחרדו, and that's the minhag Ashkenaz. The Tur goes on to cite as did the Yerushalmi that the Geonim already speak, some of the Geonim speak of the minhag which has been accepted by bnei Sefard to say selichos throughout Chodesh Elul. On a very simple level, the minhag of saying selichos, we understand how that transforms the month into an Elul. You know every morning b'ashmoret haboker for an hour, an hour and a half you say selichos, it's an avoda, it focuses us. Then the tekiat shofar takes 10 seconds. How's that supposed to set the tone for Elul? How's that supposed to make the month into an Elul? So the pshat is simple. Imagine someone having been in Eretz Yisrael this summer who wasn't clued in to what the sirens represented. So everyone else when the siren would sound, Rachmana litzlan, so it would strike fear into their hearts. If they were in the south they had 15 seconds to get to a miklat, 15 seconds. If you had someone who was uninitiated into what the siren was intended to communicate, so it would have had no effect on him. He would have continued about his business, maybe wondering what's the noise and what's all the commotion about, but it wouldn't have triggered any reaction. Well when the Rishonim tell us about the minhag of tekiat shofar, so they quote the pasuk here in Amos, שנאמר אם יתקע שופר בעיר ועם לא יחרדו. Meforshim explain the pasuk that the shofar was the equivalent of the air raid siren. The shofar is the sentry who was positioned either on top of the wall if it was a walled city, or if it wasn't a walled city on the outskirts, and it was his job to do shemira to see whether or not there was any advancing army, and if there were, if he detected some... Some adversaries, if he detected an impending attack, an impending danger Rachmana litzlan, so then he would blow the shofar and that's what the Novi says, it's unimaginable אם יתקע שופר בעיר ועם לא יחרדו that people wouldn't tremble, but the key is that everyone understood what the tekiah shofar represented. To take advantage of the minhag of Bnei Ashkenaz that we have of tekiah shofar in Chodesh Elul, so we need to have a mindset where the tekiah shofar that we hear every morning, the same way Rachmana litzlan everyone in Eretz Yisrael had the mindset of what the Azaka represented and what the Azaka Rachmana litzlan communicated, so we have to understand what the tekiah shofar is announcing. Tekiah shofar is announcing an impending Yom Hadin. It's announcing an impending eis tzara. If that's what we hear every morning after davening, so that takkeh can create a Chodesh Elul. It's not just the sort of something that echoes as we run out of the beis medrash in the morning. אם יתקע שופר בעיר ועם לא יחרדו. It's certainly not the case that Yahadus, that the Torah can be reduced to a religion of fear, but it's equally not the case that Yahadus, the Torah can't be distilled to a religion which is devoid of fear either. Both of those are equally true and equally necessary to understand how the Torah guides us to approach Hakadosh Baruch Hu. We don't approach avodas Hashem only with yira. Religious experience is not only one of fear and trembling and the sense of awe, but genuine religious experience is impossible unless part of it is a sense of fear and trembling and awe. The balancing complementary component is a sense of simcha, of תחת אשר לא עבדת את ה' אלקיך בשמחה, and simcha conjoined with some sense of ahava, of ahavas Hashem. And just as to eat a mashal l'ma de'omeh, to eat a balanced diet doesn't necessarily mean that in every spoonful a person eats, so there's a little bit of vegetables, a little bit of fruit, a little bit of protein, and a little bit of, doesn't have to be compressed into every spoonful. For that matter doesn't have to be compressed into every meal. It means that on the whole a person's diet balances out and he has the pyramid the way he's supposed to. So the same thing is true in avodas Hashem. Avodas Hashem has to have both components, but there are times when one component is more prominent than the other, but on the whole they balance out. Both are omnipresent but not necessarily in the same proportions and the same ratios. In Chodesh Elul and the aseres yemei teshuvah Why is yira an indispensable part of again the broader experience which is avodas Hashem? First of all, because yira creates very healthy inhibitions. Some inhibitions are very healthy, very healthy. A person's cholesterol level is too high, rachmana litzlan, let's say. So the doctor tells him what the consequences can be, rachmana litzlan, if he doesn't address it. And if that doesn't register with him, if he suffers some chest pains and gets a warning signal, so it in a very healthy way creates an inhibition. Yiras ha'onesh is a healthy inhibition, again as part of broader avodas Hashem, and that's one reason for the desired effect of ha'am yecheradu. On another level, the Rambam writes at the beginning of Perek Beis of Yesodei HaTorah, והאל הנכבד והנורא הזה מצוה לאהבו וליראה אותו וליראה ממנו.
It's clear that the two adjectives of nichbad and nora are parallel to the mitzvos of ahava and yira respectively. Being in the presence of Hakadosh Baruch Hu because of who, what Hakadosh Baruch Hu is, is something that a person is supposed to react to appropriately. A person's in a beis hamishteh, he's supposed to react appropriately, he's supposed to be mesame'ach with the ba'alei simcha. A person's rachmana litzlan in a beis avel, he's supposed to cry with the aveil. A person is supposed to react to what's in front of him. A person's lifnei Hashem, Hakadosh Baruch Hu is Keil nichbad, extraordinary, marvelous, which engenders a sense of simcha and ahava. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is also nora, he's also awesome, which simultaneously engenders a sense of pachad mehadar ge'ono. But the relationship, and I just want to leave you with this thought and something to maybe ponder a little bit, the relationship between yira and ahava is not only that they balance each other and that they create a healthy and honest and appropriate balance within avodas Hashem, that's all true, but the relationship is also on another and deeper level. Let's just read a couple of lines, first in Yesodei HaTorah and then from an equally famous Rambam at the end of Hilchos Lulav and try to notice something. וכשמחשב בדברים האלו עצמם. Meaning the ma'asav u'bru'av hanifla'im of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, וחכמה שאין לה ערך ולא קץ, miyad hu nirta leachorav and a person recoils ויפחד וידע שהוא בריה קטנה שפלה אפלה עומדת בדעת קלה מעוטה לפני תמים דעות.
So the sense of Yiras Hashem that a person has, here the Rambam is talking about yiras haromemus, but it's true also of yiras ha'onesh, engenders a sense of shiflus. It's humbling. Yiras Hashem is humbling. Again, whether Yiras Hashem in the sense of being aware of accountability, or whether Yiras Hashem in the sense of being in the presence of the Ribbono Shel Olam, עומד בדעת קלה מעוטה לפני תמים דעות, is something which is tremendously, tremendously, tremendously humbling. And a person recognizes his own how puny he is, how insignificant he is. ויודע שהוא בריה קטנה שפלה אפלה. It vanquishes the absurdity of ga'avah. Keep the word shfeilah in mind. At the end of Hilchos Lulav, where the Rambam has has his beautiful halacha about simcha in avodas Hashem. השמחה שישמח אדם בעשיית המצוה ובאהבת האל שצוה בהן עבודה גדולה היא.
It's a great avodah, maybe gedolah also in the sense of challenging. וכל המונע עצמו משמחה זו ראוי לו להפרע ממנו. If a person holds himself back, what will he be, he's deserving to be held accountable for that, שנאמר תחת אשר לא עבדת את ה' אלוהיך בשמחה ובטוב לבב.
Again, now let's focus carefully on these next line or two. V'chol hamagis da'ato. A person stirs himself up in the sense of arrogance, of ga'avah, of self-pride. וכל החולק כבוד לעצמו ומתכבד בעיניו במקומות אלו חוטא ושוטה.
The absurdity of ga'avah, not just a chotei, it's a shoteh, it's a shoteh. ועל זה הזהיר שלמה ואמר אל תתהדר לפני מלך. And notice especially this line rabosai, וכל המשפיל עצמו ומיקל גופו במקומות אלו הוא הגדול המכובד העובד מאהבה. וכן דוד מלך ישראל
when when he explains to Michal what he was doing dancing in front of the aron, what does Dovid HaMelech say? וכן דוד מלך ישראל אמר ונקלותי עוד מזאת והייתי שפל בעיני.
So that shiflus which is engendered by mora shamayim. Hear this, rabosai. That shiflus which is engendered by mora shamayim is the key to experiencing genuine simcha in avodas Hashem and is the key to ahavas Hashem. It's not only that the yirah and the ahava are necessary to have the proper balance and honest reaction to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, that is all very, very fundamentally true. But it's even more than that. The yirah, the shiflus engendered by the yirah is necessary to have a sense of simcha in avodas Hashem, to be an ohev Hashem. Puk chazei. Puk chazei, the happiest people you'll see, puk chazei, puk chazei, you can test this empirically. The happiest people you'll see are the most selfless people. It's a fact. It's a fact. Think think to the people you know who are genuinely the happiest people. The happiest people you'll know and you'll see are the people who are the most selfless. Kol zman that a person is focused upon himself it's a tapuach hayosom. Number one, kol zman that a person is focused on himself is אוהב כסף לא ישבע כסף. It can't ever be satisfied, can't ever be satisfied. My my my spouse, my parents, my children, my friends, no one no one does enough for me, no one appreciates me enough, kol zman a person is focused on himself אוהב כסף לא ישבע כסף. Not going to be satisfied, not going to be can't not going to be satisfied. אין אדם מת וחצי תאוותו בידו. Zos ve-od, to the degree that a person is focused on himself, he can't be focused on Hakadosh Baruch Hu. משל למה הדבר דומה. Right, so you go you go bein hazmanim or you go you go to Niagara Falls. To the degree that that you're worried about getting splashed and getting wet, so it detracts from the fascination and appreciation that you can get from from the wonders of of the beriah. And and the hispa'alus and the simcha is being is losing oneself in the experience. And that's true, that's what the Rambam is telling us here, that hamashpil atzmo, a person has to lose himself, and and let's understand what what what those words mean in this context, I'll say that don't let's not take them the wrong way. A person loses himself in in in in in Talmud Torah, a person loses himself in in misbonen b'chochmas haborei, and the shiflus is what allows him to do that. Hamashpil atzmo, so he can be oved me-ahava. ונקלותי עוד מזאת והייתי שפל בעיני because that's the key, not only to the necessary sense of yirah, but it's equally the key, equally the key for the for the simcha and ahavas Hashem. And and that's part of what when when we talk about and and we think about the the cycle of Yomim Noraim and Succos, with the yemei yirah u-pachad followed by by the yemei simcha, this is part of of that progression and it's part of of that escalation.