Q:
It’s almost the end of the Yomim Noraim and we’re going into the new year now. How can I judge if I really accomplished anything during these past ten days?
A:
The question is, do we have as a residue, something that remains over with us from Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur.
If we utilized Rosh Hashanah properly and we were standing every minute in the presence of the Melech, and then there’s a mishpat and finally we’re yotzei zakaim badim, we gain the great relief of being released from responsibility any further. Hashem says I forgive you, salachti. So now what do you do? Now we rejoice in the chag ha’asif.
And the way you rejoice, that’s going to be the sign that you were successful on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. If you see on Simchas Torah people acting up, leitzanus, you should know that Yom Kippur was wasted on them. If people take wet towels and throw them at each other on Simchas Torah or they jump up and down, wild, not thinking, these people did not utilize Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur at all.
The Mesillas Yesharim says as follows: ליצנות אחת דוחה מאה תוכחות – One leitzanus can overthrow a hundred tochachos. It means this. A tochachah means you accomplished by learning mussar. You accomplished by criticizing yourself or hearing the words of the Torah and now you’re conscious about it. You’re serious. That’s a tower. Over Elul, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, you built up towers in various areas of life, a hundred towers of mussar over Elul. You studied a hundred different matters concerning your life, and you built up a tower in a matter of tefilah, a tower in a matter of brachos, a tower in matters of bein adam lechaveiro. You have towers and towers and towers. Along comes one leitzanus and it knocks down all the towers. That’s what the Mesillas Yesharim says.
So if Simchas Torah is going to ruin all that you accomplished then of course it’s a great tragedy. Not only that, it’s igalei milsah lemafriah, now it’s revealed that you never accomplished anything. You were singing tralala with the chazan. Maybe he was influenced by the nigunim. Very fine, very fine. I’m not saying it shouldn’t be. Nigunim are very kadosh; the nigunim of Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah are very holy, but if that’s all a person is going to do to enjoy the nigunim without making a big change in himself, that’s a tragedy of lost opportunity.
Now when a person did spend Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur properly and now comes Sukkos, zeman simchaseinu. That’s a time when a man can show that he knows how to utilize all the great principles that he learned previously and he is able to dance on Simchas Torah as if he is dancing lifnei haMelech. He’s dancing for avodas Hashem. Not for vildkeit, not for attention. For Hakadosh Baruch Hu. That’s passing the test.
September 1984
