BS’D
Today’s daily dose is dedicated L’iluy nishmat Hinda (Hedi) bat Gavriel a’h. May her neshama bask in the Divine radiance amongst all of the righteous souls who have departed from this world, Amen.
The ‘work’ of Elul is to strive for perfection. The goal should be to refine our ‘natural tendencies’ and go beyond that which comes easy. With each effort we make to elevate our behavior we ‘remind’ ourselves that the ‘day’ is rapidly approaching. Measure for measure as we are ‘concerned’ and desire to merit a favorable judgment, so too Hashem ‘worries’ that all decrees be sweetened, B’H.
Yet at the same time, if we struggle to develop our middot (attributes) we must then believe that we will merit a good year, B’H. Rabbi Yerucham Halevi Levovitz ztk’l of Mir Yeshiva brings down a beautiful teaching that demonstrates how ‘believing’ in Hashem’s compassion essentially brings about a compassionate outcome.
R’ Levovitz explains in order for Hashem’s ‘promise’s’ to actualize it must undergo a two-step process. The first step is for us to recognize the promise and the second step is to have emuna that the promise will be fulfilled. In the most simplistic terms: in order to ‘enable’ Hashem to fulfill His promise we must first have ‘emuna’ that He will fulfill it.
We give our ‘all’ this month to create lasting change in our lives. We yearn to achieve perfection and complete our soul’s mission in this world. However, it is no less vital for us to have emuna that Hashem will accept our tefillot and genuine effort towards self-improvement and grant us with a sweet New Year, Amen.
