In the EBB yesterday, we included a link to the OU’s Project Resolve. This is an Elul initiative designed to spur reflection about the special challenges of the last year. No year is devoid of challenges, and therefore no Elul comes along without the need to reflect on what we can do to create a better version of ourselves. But this year, as we all know, has introduced another order of “new” in what confronted us.
The temptation throughout this last five months has been to dwell on what seems to be unprecedented. Surely it’s not something one who lives in an industrialized nation with a massive expert class expected. And while there were many specialists in virology and epidemiology who expected it, that itself is part of the surprise. That so many well-trained people could not prevent the infection from spreading and from clamping up the economy has roiled the public’s confidence.
But all of this does not make it unprecedented. Upheaval has always been part of the human condition. Jews with a sense of tradition should have a feeling that others have dealt with something like this before, and they would be right. How did people cope? They doubled down on that which barely changes. That is what allows one to stay oneself, and to even improve oneself, in the midst of personal and communal challenges.
R’ Moshe Amiel, ztz’l, the Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv before WWII used to point something out about a line we say everyday in Shul. We say that Hashem wanted to give us much merit and therefore He gave us many Mitzvot. Many people ask, does it not seem like the opposite? If Hashem wanted to give us merit, He would give us fewer Mitzvot. Then we could do them without worrying about all of the other ways we can fail and thereby lose merit.
R’ Amiel said that the line is not referring to individual Mitzvot, It is referring to the full framework of Mitzvot. Without so many Mitzvot, even a few Mitzvot would be lost. Without a constant sense of duty, without reminders at every turn that there are obligations, one never develops the sense of responsibility and commitment that is crucial to the performance of any Mitzva, no matter how central or obvious.
True, such a massive framework requires a lot of activity. But the main thing is to be resolute about the framework itself. If I embrace the framework, its many details will strengthen my muscle memory of obligation at every turn.
When one is called up to the Torah, the Shulchan Aruch says that one should take hold of the Etzei Chaim, the wooden handles, as one says the blessings. This is based on a passage in the book of Yehoshua,
“This book should not leave one’s mouth...I charge you: Be strong and resolute.”
The verses refer to a book which is apparently being held, and so we hold on to the Sefer. And from the same verses, it is the custom, at least in Sefardi Betei Knesset, to say to someone after his Aliya, “Chazak V’Ematz,” be strong and resolute.
This custom shows us that reading the Torah is not enough. We must hold on to it, an act which takes Chizuk, or strength, and resolve. And the encouragement we give to someone afterward acknowledges that. For someone to carry out what was just read, which is always the point of learning, needs strength.
A teacher of mine was asked recently whether this quality of resolve was the same thing as what many call today “grit.” He said it was close, but that the main difference was that grit requires conscientious activity but the “Chizuk” of the Torah is about applying joy to it. Grit is too much about the grind of it. If it’s part of a bigger framework, it has to have joy in it.
Let us go into Elul with joy, as we rededicate ourselves to push for our better selves.
Congregation Emek Beracha 4102 El Camino Real Palo Alto, CA 94306
