Skip to main content

Thought for the Day: Importance of Chumros During Aseres Y'mei T'shuva

They say there was a chasid who felt he couldn't have a beard in his line of work.  Every year when he went to see the rebbi at Sukkos was a new opportunity for embarrassment.  He wouldn't shave after Rosh HaShana so at least he would have some kind of beard for Sukkos.  One year, though, he decided, "Who am I kidding?  The rebbi can tell I am not shaving!"  So he decided that year that he would stop being a fraud and at least save himself the embarrassment of being a fraud in front of the rebbi.  When he arrived, however, he was told that the rebbi would not see him.  Plead and beg as much as he could, there was no budging.  Finally, as he was preparing to return home after simchas torah (which had not been much of a simcha for him), the rebbi sent for him.

The rebbi explained:
I want to you understand, my dear chasid, what happened this year.  Of course I know that you have been shaving for years.  You have a yeitzer hara, business is challenging; I can accept that.  None the less, you were a Jew with a beard.  This year, though, you became a Jew without a beard; that I cannot accept.
The Shulchan Aruch (OC 603:1) says that we should take on extra chumros during the Aseres Y'mei T'shuva.  (My wife and I, for example, keep kosher also outside the house; that is, chalav yisrael.) The poskim even discuss how to take on these chumros without becoming bound by them be force of neder.  What are we doing?  Playing games?  HaShem knows very well that we don't keep those stringencies all year.  How much of an impression is one week going to make?

A big impression, actually.  We have parnassa issues, kavod issues, issues issues; we have a yeitzer hara.  HaShem knows that (He even created it, actually).  Once a year, for 10 days, HaShem asks us to show how we'd like to be living.  He even, as the Chayei Adam, explains, starts the ball rolling by offering us extra opportunities for closeness during these days.  Since HaShem operates this world mida k'neged mida, we are actually working within the system!  HaShem is offering extra chesed, we are responding by offering extra dedication.

Perhaps on a drop deeper level, we can even say that our response of adding chumros during this time is an expression of "b'chol d'rachecha dei'eihu"/Know (emulate) HaShem in all of your ways.  That itself is an amazing elevation.  All for just giving up Ritz crackers and Yoplait.  Nice!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thought for the Day: אוושא מילתא Debases Yours Shabbos

My granddaughter came home with a list the girls and phone numbers in her first grade class.  It was cute because they had made it an arts and crafts project by pasting the list to piece of construction paper cut out to look like an old desk phone and a receiver attached by a pipe cleaner.  I realized, though, that the cuteness was entirely lost on her.  She, of course, has never seen a desk phone with a receiver.  When they pretend to talk on the phone, it is on any relatively flat, rectangular object they find.  (In fact, her 18 month old brother turns every  relatively flat, rectangular object into a phone and walks around babbling into it.  Not much different than the rest of us, except his train of thought is not interrupted by someone else babbling into his ear.) I was reminded of that when my chavrusa (who has children my grandchildrens age) and I were learning about אוושא מילתא.  It came up because of a quote from the Shulchan Aruch HaRav that referred to the noise of תקתוק
Post a Comment
Read more

Thought for the Day: Love in the Time of Corona Virus/Anxiously Awaiting the Mashiach

Two scenarios: Scenario I: A young boy awakened in the middle of the night, placed in the back of vehicle, told not to make any noise, and the vehicle speeds off down the highway. Scenario II: Young boy playing in park goes to see firetruck, turns around to see scary man in angry pursuit, poised to attack. I experienced and lived through both of those scenarios. Terrifying, no? Actually, no; and my picture was never on a milk carton. Here's the context: Scenario I: We addressed both set of our grandparents as "grandma" and "grandpa". How did we distinguish? One set lived less than a half hour's drive; those were there "close grandma and grandpa". The other set lived five hour drive away; they were the "way far away grandma and grandpa". To make the trip the most pleasant for all of us, Dad would wake up my brother and I at 4:00AM, we'd groggily -- but with excitement! -- wander out and down to the garage where we'd crawl
Post a Comment
Read more

Thought for the Day: What Category of Muktzeh are Our Candles?

As discussed in a recent TftD , a p'sak halacha quite surprising to many, that one may -- even לכתחילה -- decorate a birthday cake with (unlit, obviously) birthday candles on Shabbos. That p'sak is predicated on another p'sak halacha; namely, that our candles are muktzeh because they are a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור and not  מוקצה מחמת גופו/intrinsically set aside from any use on Shabbos. They point there was that using the candle as a decoration qualifies as a need that allows one to utilize a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור. Today we will discuss the issue of concluding that our candles are , in fact, a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור and not מוקצה מחמת גופו. Along the way we'll also (again) how important it is to have personal relationship with your rav/posek, the importance of precision in vocabulary, and how to interpret the Mishna Brura.  Buckle up. After reviewing siman 308 and the Mishna Brura there, I concluded that it should be permissible to use birthday candles to decorate a cake on Shabbo
Post a Comment
Read more