Familiarity probably with the acronym of Roshei Tevot of אני לדודי ודודי לי. The various Remazim that are identified for Chodesh Elul are not Stam Remazim, they're not just, they're not sharp ways of finding Asmachta's for Chodesh Elul, but they provide insight into the Avoda of Chodesh Elul. So let's try to understand a little bit the insight which the Roshei Tevot Elul אני לדודי ודודי לי provides into the Avoda of the month. In Sha'ar Sheni of Sha'arei Teshuva, Rabbeinu Yonah identifies six דרכי הסיבות שיתעורר האדם בהם לשוב מדרכיו הרעות, six causes which prompt a person to do Teshuva. The first he lists is Rachmana Litzlan a person is visited by Tzarot. Talks about Yimei Zikna and the infirmities of old age, Rachmana Litzlan. Hearing, if a person hears Divrei Musar, if a person is learning the Musar, the Divrei Musar Nevi'im. And then the fifth one is Aseret Yimei Teshuva. The fifth of the, again, those six Sibot, those six causes which prompt, which spur a person to do Teshuva is Aseret Yimei Teshuva. Rabbeinu Yonah writes: הדרך החמישי בעשרת ימי תשובה הירא את דבר השם לבו יחיל בקרבו בדעתו כי כל מעשיו בספר נכתבים ובעת ההיא האלוקים יביא במשפט את כל מעשה על כל נעלם אם טוב ואם רע.
One who has Yirat Hashem will tremble when he recognizes because of the awareness that his fate hangs in the balance, that his fate is being decided upon in these days. Why doesn't Rabbeinu Yonah extend this also to Chodesh Elul? And if a person tells him on Kaf-Chet or Kaf-Tet Elul that another day or two is Rosh Hashana, it's the same, it's the same, no? And yet Rabbeinu Yonah is very, very clear that this fifth of the six causes that he identifies is limited to Aseret Yimei Teshuva. But Lichora the proximity of Rosh Hashana, the impending Yom Hadin should elicit the same Libo Yachil Bekirbo. So on one level, Ein Hachi Nami, it's true, and yet on another level, there's a crucial difference. And that is again what Rabbeinu Yonah is identifying here in Sha'ar Sheni are not ways for a person to arouse himself, to awaken himself. He's talking about external sources, even the sixth one which is a little bit more subtle to recognize. He's talking about external sources which awaken the person, which arouse the person. Aseret Yimei Teshuva are a Chalot. There's a Metzi'ut of Aseret Yimei Teshuva. דרשו השם בהמצאו קראהו בהיותו קרוב אלו עשרת ימים שבין ראש השנה ליום הכיפורים.
Remember the last time we read the Lashon of the Geonim when the Geonim were justifying fasting on Rosh Hashana and Shabbat Shuva, עשרה יומיא אינון משונים. There is something external, there's a chalos. It's not that the person is awakening himself by contemplating Aseret Yemei Teshuva. The Aseret Yemei Teshuva themselves, again, the Aseret Yemei Teshuva themselves, they are an external, objective metzius. The same way Rachmana litzlan tzoros that can visit a person. That the same way yemei zikna, it's not just something that a person can ponder, but there's an external stimulus, there's an external prompt to teshuva. So in that respect, that only exists in Aseret Yemei Teshuva. Ain hachinami, during Chodesh Elul a person can and should take the initiative to reflect on the fact that Rosh Hashanah is pending, that the Yom Hadin is pending. But bedafka, bedafka, there is no chalos in the days. There is no chalos in the days. Like we saw last time the Gaon, we don't say Selichos these days. There's no chalos in the days. There's nothing, there's no external prompt, there's no external, again, something which is awakening, which is pushing us in the direction of teshuva. There is during Aseret Yemei Teshuva. There isn't during Chodesh Elul. That's the remez אני לדודי ודודי לי. So the pshat is that it begins with Ani L'dodi. That the avoda of Elul is that the initiative should come from us. It should begin with Ani L'dodi and then Hakadosh Baruch Hu responds, Hakadosh Baruch Hu reciprocates. Like the Nefesh Hachaim says a Midrash, he explains, the Baal Shem Tov says the same, it's a Midrash Chazal that ה' צלך על יד ימינך. What does it mean Hakadosh Baruch Hu is compared to one's tzel, to one's shadow? So one's shadow mimics. Right? If you extend your arm, so then your shadow extends its arm. You smile, so then the shadow smiles back at you. You frown, you have a sad countenance, so that's the same thing that you're going to see on your shadow. And that's what the Chazal say, Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh, כשם שהם הוים עמי אני הוה עמהם. So the avoda of Elul is Ani L'dodi. Ani L'dodi. And that's the gadlus of Chodesh Elul. That's the gadlus of Chodesh Elul. When the teshuva happens only in Aseret Yemei Teshuva, only in quotation marks, so then there, there again it's Hakadosh Baruch Hu is pushing, Hakadosh Baruch Hu is stimulating. And the gadlus of Chodesh Elul again is in the remez אני לדודי ודודי לי. Because there are these two modes of teshuva. There is a maybe we'll try to use this and again both to add a little bit to our understanding of this as well as to try to decipher a famous but cryptic Midrash at the end of Eicha Rabbah. השיבנו ה' אליך ונשובה. אמרה כנסת ישראל לפני הקדוש ברוך הוא,
Ribono Shel Olam, shelach hu, Hashivenu. אמר להם שלכם הוא, שנאמר שובו אלי ואשובה אליכם נאם ה',
a pasuk in Zechariah. אמרו לפניו רבונו של עולם שלך הוא שנאמר השיבנו אלקי ישענו. לכך נאמר השיבנו ה' אליך ונשובה.
So what's the give and take? And why is the Shivenu Elokei yishenu? Knesset Yisrael says to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, you take the initiative, you awaken us, you prompt us. Not to the exclusion of our exercising bechira, but you take the initiative, you awaken us, Hashiveinu. That's how we should return from the Galus. Hakadosh Baruch Hu says no, I want it should be again a bechina of אני לדודי ודודי לי. It should be שובו אלי ואשובה אליכם. What does Knesset Yisrael answer? Shuveinu. And from the Midrash you see that's the final word. So the pshat is like this. We said that unlike Aseres Yemei Teshuva, Chodesh Elul there's no chalos in the days, no chalos in the days, there's nothing, there's no external prompt, there's no external wake up. But on the other hand, it's obviously true that בחסדו הקדוש ברוך הוא gives us a Yom Hadin that we can take the initiative to reflect upon, to bestir ourselves to Teshuva. It's not that our Shuvu Eilai is a yesh me'ayin. It's not that our Shuvu Eilai, even when the initiative comes from us, even when it's אני לדודי ודודי לי, when it's שובו אלי ואשובה אליכם, it's because Hakadosh Baruch Hu, whether it's an impending Yom Hadin, whether it's a dissatisfaction that Hakadosh Baruch Hu implanted within us that a person feels if he's not living properly, he senses the void, he senses the lack of meaning in his life, he senses the lack of sipuk hanefesh. It comes in different forms and in different guises, but even if it's not going to be the overt Hashiveinu of an Aseres Yemei Teshuva, of tzaros rachmana litzlan, of ימי זקנה ככלות כחו רחמנא ליצלן, but there's always something, even if it's that we're taking the initiative to reflect, but Hakadosh Baruch Hu is giving us what to reflect upon. Yitachein, yitachein, I think it's the Ibn Ezra comments again Shuveinu Elokei Yisheinu is in Tehillim. So he says that even though it's bilashon kal, it really has a hif'il meaning. So you have that sometimes, sometimes you have even though it's bilashon kal, so it has a hif'il meaning, right? According to some pshatim, arami oved avi is like we say in the Haggadah, right? That לבן ביקש לעקור את הכל. So we're translating oved, even though it's bilashon kal as a transitive, not as an intransitive, but as a transitive, a po'al yotzei. So on the one hand it's written Shuveinu, our going back, on the other hand if you look in context of the pasuk and that's what the Ibn Ezra points out, it clearly means that it's transitive, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is doing it. No, so heim heim hadvarim. That's why Knesset Yisrael's answering Hakadosh Baruch Hu, but Ribbono Shel Olam, even when you ask us for the אני לדודי ודודי לי, for שובו אלי ואשובה אליכם, you also helping, albeit covertly, rather than the overt form that it takes in an Aseres Yemei Teshuva. If we recognize the opportunity of Chodesh Elul, on a certain level the Teshuva of Chodesh Elul is greater than the Teshuva of Aseres Yemei Teshuva or a Teshuva of Yom Kippur because it's a Teshuva of Ani Ledodi. Perhaps the the the second best known remez, both of them, neither of them begin with the Bach, but both of them the Bach quotes, is ומל ה' אלקיך את לבבך ואת לבב. So isn't that, isn't that just the opposite of what we're talking about? That remez of את לבבך ואת לבב. So if you take a look in the Ramban al haTorah, so the Ramban says what's pshat in את לבבך ואת ומל ה' אלקיך את לבבך ואת לבב זרעך?
He says that earlier in the parshah it says ושבת עד ה' אלקיך, that you're gonna do teshuvah, and then a couple of psukim later the Torah says ומל ה' אלקיך את לבבך ואת לבב זרעך, says the Ramban על דרך שאמרו חז"ל הבא לטהר מסייעין אותו. So the את לבבך ואת לבב זרעך is also a reaction. It's a reaction, but the את לבבך ואת לבב זרעך began with a ושבת עד ה' אלקיך, it began with a אני לדודי ודודי לי.