A FEW THOUGHTS ON ELUL, AND A STORY
By Rabbi Yaakov Israel
Chaver Kollel
During Elul a few years ago, one of the respected members of our Kehilla told me, “You know, I look forward to this time of year.” He went on to explain how exhilarating it is to deal with the challenge of renewing ourselves and reassessing our priorities. I was impressed and at the same time ashamed that I honestly had not come to such a feeling.
Rav Meilich Biderman mentioned that Rav Avigdor Miller was once asked by someone, “What should I do to prepare for Rosh Hashana?”
Rav Miller responded, “You should smile!”
The man asked, “That’s a fine thing, but what does smiling have to do with Rosh Hashana?”
Rav Miller explained with a mashal. “There was someone who owned a large supermarket chain. At the end of every year there was an assessment of gains and losses and subsequent changes. Some workers are “extra” and have to be laid off ch”v, and others are moved to different stores. There was one worker who was deemed unnecessary. The owner was told if you lay him off then you might as well close the store! Why? Because he always greets every customer with a smile and a nice word; we need him. A similar reckoning takes place on Rosh Hashana. Who is needed in the world, and who, ch”v is not? Don’t you want to be considered indispensable?“
The following moving story can inspire us as we embark upon the first week of Selichos. [Excerpted from ”Yamim Noraim with the Maggid” by Rabbi Paysach Krohn, Mesorah Pub., pp. 33-37]. It was the summer of 1964 and a young Rabbi Krohn was a bachur visiting Eretz Yisroel. He writes:
“....Near the end of my trip my father wrote me that he once heard that someone was walking through the narrow streets of Yerushalayim very early in the morning, singing a beautiful tune to wake people for selichos. My father asked if I would record it for him.
“I inquired if the man still did it, where he did it, and at what hour he did it. Although no one knew anything definitive, I was told that, if anything, he would walk among the Bucharian houses near the Mandelbaum Gate, which at the time was the dividing line between Israel and Jordan.
“I realized from my father's letter how much this meant to him, so I resolved to find the man and record his tune. I convinced a friend to come with me. Thus, at 3:30 one morning, we started the trek....No one (!) was in the streets, the street lights were blinking on and off...
“As we made our way, we could see a short figure standing in the distance. He was facing the windows of a two-story home and was calling out something, although we could not discern what he was saying. As we approached, I could hear him call out in Yiddish, 'Shteit oif tzu Selichos, Shteit oif tzu Selichos, Get up For Selichos, get up for Selichos.'...”
After clarifying that this was indeed the man he was seeking (Rav Yidel Cohen), Rabbi Krohn pleaded with him to sing his tune onto the recorder so that he could play it back for his father. ”He nodded, cleared his throat, and then in the middle of the street, with the well-lit Jordanian Mount Scopus Hotel in the distance and the simple darkened Bucharian houses surrounding us, he began the most touching, stirring, beautiful melody I had ever heard.
'ישראל עם קדוש שטייט אויף לעבודת הבורא!
Yisrael, the Holy Nation! Get up to perform the service of the creator!
רץ כצבי וגבול כארי לעשות רצון אביך שבשמים!
Be swift as a deer and strong as a lion to accomplish the will of your Father in Heaven!
He stopped, took a breath, and asked, 'Okay?'.
“Up to that point of my life, it was probably the most “okay” thing that ever happened to me!
What a preparation it must have been for those saying Selichos, what a preface to Elul it was for me...
”...My father listened to that recording dozens of times. It was the greatest gift I could have ever given to him. My mother played it over the intercom in our house...”. [When Rav Shalom Schwadron heard the recording, tears rolled down his cheeks (as he remembered the melody from when he was young...].
May we all “Shteit oif”, be awakened during these precious days of Elul and Selichos.
