Some of My Favorites
Rabbi Moshe Taub
September, 2024
As neilah draws near, the kehilla is made up of those both tired and exhilarated, hopeful and hungry. A rav’s words leading into this moment will often be swift, to the point. His goal is to give an extra assist, one more dose of ruach and one more injection of energy so as to get the most out of the now-waning Day.
For those rabbanim with an audience of mixed backgrounds, the task becomes more challenging. Perhaps its a story, a lesson, or a quick-yet-powerful vort.
Rav Yisroel Salanter once said that it is worth hours of the rav’s time preparing a short devar hisorios, even if the only result will be that just one member davens but one single shemoneh esreh better. This is true even if that one member is the rav himself!
Indeed, the person I most seeking to enthuse is myself.
Below are a sampling of just a few most recent pre-neilah thoughts; perhaps they will inspire the reader as much as they dis this writer.
- Two Minutes
My first year as a rav, I was invited to speak at a 9/11 memorial. This was just a few years from that horrific day, and they excepted a crowd of about ten-thousand. I had an event prior, and by the time I arrived they needed a golfcart to assist me through a back alley and away from the crowd so I could quickly get to the dais. When I finally arrived to my seat, I noted the many leaders and politicians seated to my right and left, clearly indicating the many speaches to come or already missed. The organizer ran up to me, looked at his chart, and whisprered: “Ok, rabbi. You’re speaking…say, two minutes. Is that ok?”.
I panicked. “In ‘Two minutes’!I haven’t yet had the chance to gather my thoughts. Perhaps someone who arrived earlier can go before me?” I requested.
“You misunderstood,” he explained, “you are on in a half an hour. I only meant that you have two minutes allotted for you speech.”
When I did get up to speak, I shared this exchange with the audience. “What could I possibly say or accomplish in two minutes? How can one encapsulate the pain and suffering that this day wrought on individuals, families and the world in a mere one-hundred-and twenty seconds?!
“However, if 9/11 has imparted to us but one message, it should be just that:, In ‘Two Minutes’ we can witness the world we knew crumble before us, changed forever.‘Two Minutes’ was all it took to observe the worst of humanity, and in those same ‘Two Minutes’ we saw humanity at its best -such as the last ‘Two Minute’ heroics of Flight 93, or in witnessing emergency service men and women choosing to rush toward danger whilst all others ran from it.
“All it takes is ‘Two Minutes’.
Neilah, is our ‘Two Minutes’, our kinyan olam habah b’shah achas, acquisition of the World to Come in one moment. What can be accomplished now, in these sacred, waning moments of rachamim shall not be lost in hunger nor abandoned in weakness. Chizku V’imtzu!
- When To Scream
The Strikover rebbe shared the following story with Rav Shach, who would later often recount it to his students (source: Rav Schach on Chumash, p. 264-265).
A karliner chossid approached his rebbe and asked, “I will be in Vienna on business and will be davening with the Chorktover rebbe. Their minhag is to shout when they daven. Since I will be with them, should I daven in that same way?”
(The halachos of ‘makom shenohagu’-to not veer from local custom-is strict, and must be at least outwardly observed, unless, of course, it conflicts with more serious matters)
The Karlnier rebbe responded sharply: “This is no way to daven to the King of all kings! One should only have awe and speak with gentility when approaching Hashem! Such is our minhag, and so you should act even when among chorktover chasidim.
That Shabbos in Vienna, he arrived to the Chorktovor shul prepared to follow his rebbe’s direction, and although their davening was beautiful, this chossid still maintained his custom and softer method of davening. But then came the striking teffila of nishmas. Its lofty meaning fused with the loud voices surrounding him pierced his soul. Without thinking he began to cry-out along with them.
He was shocked at himself for disobeying his rebbe, and upon his return begged him forgiveness.
“Why are you apologizing? Don’t chazal share (see, e.g. Devarim Rabba, V’eschanan) that ‘tze’aka-crying out’ is one of the ten forms of teffila!”
The chossid was confused by these mixed messages. “But the rebbe told me when I initially approached him not to daven in such a way…”
The rebbe smiled and explained: “When a yid approaches me in the middle of the week sharing his ‘plan’ to cry to Hashem on Shabbos, I then share that this is not the most appropriate way to daven. However, it is when one is so cut-up in emotion, tefilah, ruach, and dveykus -when the damn of one’s heart naturally breaks on its own accord -when one can’t help but cry –that is when it is worthy!”
The nimshal to neilah is clear.
- Leaps and Bounds
On the morning of July 16, 1969, three astronauts sat atop Saturn V at Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, where 7.5 million pounds of thrust would soon propel them ‘upward’.
Four days later, at 10:56 p.m. EDT, Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon and says what may be the famous quote ever spoken in human history:
“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
While a well-known quote, it is also inaccurate!
The audio had cut out, and what he actually said became slightly altered:
“That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”
He was not talking about all of humanity his statement. Rather, he was declaring to the world that an action of but one person can influence all of society.
(Many sefarim and Torah articles were published after the moon landing, discussing its many halachic, hashkafic, and kabbalastic ramifications. The interested reader should see, specifically, Rav Manecham Kasher’s ‘Adam al HaYareiach’)
Most of us will not become astronauts, not in the physical sense at least. Yet our sefarim so often talk about how those who struggle-and-nevertheless succeed in our present dor are as holy as was Avraham. We can pierce the heavens in one step.
And not just for that individual.
Each step, even one, and even if small, and even if only by one person, is a giant leap for Klal Yisroel.
Chazal share the mashal of the capsizing boat. The captain searches and finally discovers the source of the breach, coming from a passenger drilling a hole in his room. “What are you doing! You will sink us all!” the captain yells.
Perplexed, the guest responds, “What are you talking about? I paid for this room! What’s it your business what I do therein?”
Every step that each individual takes effects all of us. Let’s us make those steps, however small, toward sheleimus.
- Space and Time
The Chofetz Chaim once shared how life is akin to a post card.
He explained –and anyone who is have written a post card will relate –that when one begins to write on the back he opens with BIG LETTERS. “Hi! HOW ARE YOU! PARIS IS GREAT…” But as they go on, they realize they have more and more to say.
The letters therefore get smaller and smaller, until by the end one can hardly make-out the words, they are so tiny.
Such is life, explained the Chofetz Chaim. We often spend our youth thinking that we have all the time in the world. We may waste whole days, blocks of weeks, and even entire seasons of our lives – hitting the proverbial ‘snooze button’ over and over again. But then, in time, we will begin to feel the full weight of the sands of time lost, as well as the steady rush of its still-falling grains. We anxiously react by playing catchup, fitting in as much as we can in the short time left.
Perhaps the same concept is fitting for this time of year as well. We all know we have to improve our ways-to Gd, to people, to family. We push it off, getting to it ‘later’. Before we know it, elul rolls around and we realize how much time had been wasted how little time we have left to make up out lost learning, lost relationships. So, we begin to repent, change and plead to Hashem.
Time marches on, getting shorter and shorter still, and we still have so much to improve- after all, how much can we change in a month, or the week of aseres yimei teshuva?
Neila, then, is the last line we have left our post cards.
We have one line left, one hour, lets make the best of it!
- Sometimes. Maybe.
One of the most published talmidei chachamim today is Rav Zilberstein. A gaon, he is also most original with his sources and ideas. His talmidim have put together his shiurim in any number of sefarim.
A few years ago ago I was in Monsey for Shabbos when I decided after the morning seudah to go to an early mincha in someone’s home. On their table was Artscroll’s ‘Aleinu L’Shabeach’, a translated set of Rav Zilberstein’s ideas, arranged on each parsha. I opened to a random page and read the following short story:
When Rav Zilberstin was a little boy, he and all of his friends would marvel at all the tzadikim in Yerushalim (imagine growing up there, then!).
However, there was one tzadik in particular that he and his friends were particularly obsessed with: The great Rav Aryeh Levin, known as the tzadik of Yerushalim.
One day, he and his friends ran over to Rav Levin and bravely asked him. “Are you from the lamed vav tzadikim” (while the idea of thirty-six tzadikim in each generation is from chazal –the notion they are or must be hidden doesn’t not have a source known to me).
Most would assume that a tzadik like Rav Levin would shudder at just the mere suggestion of these children.
Instead, Rav Levin stopped in his tracks, looked at the children, closed his eyes, and thought for a long moment.
They waited with anticipation, until he looked up and replied to these youngsters:
“Maybe”.
Then he paused, thought some more and said:
“Sometimes”.
I was struck by this story.
‘Maybe. Sometimes’
This mix of modesty and honesty, of motivation and sincerity, is indeed what made him a tzadik, and the ingredients for which we must all strive.
He recognized that maybe, just maybe, he too was meant to be great! More, he knew that this does not mean had never fallen down, or will again.
For us to become tzadikim, to chap the power of neilah, we too need these two elements, of ‘Maybe. Sometimes’.
We CAN do it, and, that mistakes/slips do not negate that.
When I learn with bar mitzvah boys I always stress the importance of teffila. “Never miss the three teffilos a day”.
Always adding: “However, and more importantly, if you do miss a teffila, or even more than one, don’t let the yetzter hara tell you to throw it all away. Get back on track again, pick yourself off the ground.
We slip, we fall – sometimes.
But we get back up, because we are all meant to be great – maybe.
Maybe I can change.
Sometimes I will slip –but that does not change how special we can still become.
Austrian physicist Wolfgang Pauli, one of the pioneers of Quantum Physics, was famous for his lack of patience for any bad ideas.
Some students once approached Pauli with a paper written by a young physicist that was so awful that they was curious how the abrasive Pauli would respond.
Pauli read it and then looked up and said in his native German: “Das ist nicht nur nicht richtig; es ist nicht einmal falsch!“.
“That is not only not right; it is not even wrong”
That is not even wrong! Amazing!
When we think negatively about ourselves, when we consider we are not meant to be a gadol, even if just sometimes, or we consider ourselves unworthy of improving in awesome ways -we are so off the mark that we are not even wrong!
I will bl”n share some other pre-Neila drashos in a part 2, iy”H.
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