Rosh Hashana - Parshas Ha'azinu 5785
- Torah Tavlin
- Oct 2, 2024
- 3 min read
כי פדה ה' את יעקב וגאלו מיד חזק ממנו... (ירמי' לא-י) - הפטרה ליום שני של ראש השנה
On the second day of Rosh Hashana, Yirmiyahu HaNavi talks about Hashem’s everlasting love for His people, the future ingathering of their exiles, and Rachel Imeinu’s heartfelt plea. In this prophecy, he describes Hashem’s promise to return His children to Eretz Yisroel - exclaiming: “For Hashem will ransom Yaakov and redeem him from one too strong for him.” The word "ממנו" seems redundant. Clearly, when Hashem redeems Klal Yisroel, He will take him (Yaakov) away from the one who is holding him captive.
It is possible to say that the reason the Navi uses the word "ממנו" is to signify that the Satan will stop at nothing to ensnare a Jew and convince him to sin. In fact, as Chazal often say, the Satan uses sly tactics - even convincing a person that doing a particular act is really a mitzvah. As such, when Hashem redeems us from our exile, the Almighty will also redeem us from our internal exile - the one raging against the evil of the Satan who studies and uses a person’s own strengths against him.
On Rosh Hashana, when we glorify the Malchus of Hashem and ask Him to grant us a good year, it is important to also ask for the ability to have that good year we crave. It is like a person who is given an airplane as a gift with no pilot. He has the plane, but he has no means with which to fly it.
May Hashem grant us all a sweet new year.
מי א-ל כמוך נשא עון ועבר על פשע ... (מיכה ז-יח) - הפטרה לפרשת האזינו
While we often focus on the famous words of Hoshea HaNavi when he calls out, “Shuva Yisroel,” the ending words of the Haftarah from Micha HaNavi underscores this when he says, “Who is like You [Hashem], Who forgives iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage?” Chazal say that from here we learn that the best way to foster an atmosphere of repentance and forgiveness, is by being מעביר על מידותיו - forgoing on revenge and enabling one’s inner peace to take over and forgive wrongdoings to a person. But how far does this go?
R’ Yisroel Salanter zt”l explains that in fact when a human being goes above his natural desire to exact revenge and instead chooses to forgive another person’s wrongdoing, a powerful rift is created in heaven. This is because the angels in heaven live in an extreme, exacting existence - there is no room for error and there is no room for improvement. As such, their existence, albeit on a high spiritual plateau, is an existence that is stationary - it is merely what it is - nothing more and nothing less.
A human, and in particular a Yiddish neshama, has the unique ability to either grow or falter - there is no standing still. He explains that when a person is motionless, he is in essence not moving forward - which is, in and of itself, a faltering phase. So, when a person is מעביר על מידותיו, he is displaying an unnatural phenomenon which has the potential for growth to heights unimaginable. May we all strive for such greatness and use the Aseres Yemei Teshuva as a stepping stone to great strides in Torah and Avodas Hashem.