Q:
What words of chizuk can you tell us today on the day after Yom Kippur?
A:
I recall the day after Yom Kippur in the Slabodka yeshiva, but first I’ll tell you an anecdote as an introduction. I remember on motzaei Yom Kippur I went to my stanzia to eat with my chavrusa; we were sitting together at the table, two chaveirim. We didn’t say one word the entire seudah we were eating together. The experience of Yom Kippur had made such a tremendous impression on us and no one was going to open their mouth and deflate that impression. We sat there eating in complete silence.
The next morning, after tefillas Shacharis, the Rosh Yeshiva, zichrono livracha, spoke to the bnei yeshiva. The bnei yeshiva were going to leave to their homes soon – some would remain for yomtiv but many were going home to their families – and so the Rosh Yeshiva spoke to us.
“You all labored on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur,” he said. “You put your hearts into your tefillah – you prayed with all your heart in the yeshiva and you were elevated and inspired. You accomplished a precious achievement because to pray in a good place these three days is equivalent to three months learning.
“But now you have to be on guard,” he said. “You have to be careful when you come home. When yomtov comes and then Simchas Torah, beware of leitzanus.” Leitzanus means lightheadedness, lack of thought, doing things that are silly.”
And he quoted to us the Mesillas Yesharim. It states in the Mesillas Yesharim that לֵיצָנוּת אַחַת דּוֹחָה מֵאָה תּוֹכָחוֹת – one leitzanus can overthrow a tower built up, a skyscraper, of over a hundred tochachos. Tochachos means lessons, lessons in daas, lessons in seichel, lessons in yiras Shomayim. Now one tochachah is more valuable than a diamond but a hundred tochachos that means you’re a very wealthy man! You have now a big skyscraper, a big skyscraper of daas. It can bring in a lot of income such a skyscraper! But one leitzanus can make the whole building topple and fall down. That’s the Mesillas Yesharim.
“You labored very much on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur” the Rosh Yeshivah said, “and you gained a lot of daas. But it is important now to be on guard because soon will begin the yomtov of Sukkos and all the way through Simchas Torah it’s going to be days of happiness. So it depends how you’ll celebrate. If it will be a thoughtful celebration, l’sheim Shomayim – of course you’ll dance, of course you’ll sing on yomtov, of course you’re happy. קוֹל רִנָּה וִישׁוּעָה בְּאָהֳלֵי צַדִּיקִים! Who should be happy if not those who learn and those who keep the Torah?! They’re the ones in whose houses should always be the sound of song and there they should always be dancing. But if it deteriorates into wildness, into hefkeirus and frivolity then all the achievements of Yom Kippur go lost.
That’s what we heard in the yeshiva the day after Yom Kippur. We were warned that what we gained on Yom Kippur, the mind we gained, is a very precious possession and we have to hold on to the effect of the day as long as possible.
(September 1971)
