Page 36 - HaMizrachi # 22 Rosh HahHana - Yom Kippur 2020 USA

YAMIM NORA’IM READING

Rabbi Shalom Rosner

Step by Step

av Sa’adia Gaon says there are brother Aharon. Pirkei DeRabbi poor man riding on a donkey (Zecha-
10 thoughts, 10 messages we are Eliezer (39) explains it differently. It’s riah 9:9). Why a donkey? Shouldn’t it
Rsupposed to be thinking about not referring to Aharon HaKohen but be something more glamorous and
as we hear the shofar. For example, someone else later on in history. Not majestic?
malchuyot – how we’re coronating he whom You have been accustomed
G-d with our shofar blows and our to sending, but he whom You will A donkey doesn’t walk on a straight
tefilot, the shofar of Har Sinai, the send. Who is that? “Eliyahu HaNavi,” path. It moves forward, stops and sits
shofar of Akeidat Yitzchak, and finally says Moshe and G-d answers that this down. Then it goes backwards. Side-
ה ָ בּו ׁש ְּ ת ר ֵ רֹוע ְ ל – to arouse us to teshuva. is not His plan. “You go to Pharaoh. ways. That’s us too, Am Yisrael. As we
The Rambam says in Hilchot Teshuva That man you’re referring to, he’ll have hear the shofar, we recognize it hasn’t
(3:4) “Even though ultimately we blow his time.” been a smooth process. We’ve come
the shofar because G-d commanded and gone and come and gone. And
us, there is a remez, a hint: wake up The commentaries explain that even now, when we have been zocheh
you who are sleepwalking through redemption is not smooth. You cannot to return to Eretz Yisrael as a nation,
life, review your actions, do teshuva simply climb up the ladder step by the process continues to be rough.
and recognize G-d.” One final motif step. There are ups and downs, aliyot There are difficulties and challenges
but they are an essential part of the
Rav Sa’adia Gaon mentions is focus- and yeridot. Forwards and backwards.
ing on the geula haAtidit – the future Take Yosef for example. He was sold geula process.
redemption, the time when we will all when he was 17, thrown into jail in Thus through our shofar, we pray that
hear the Shofar Gadol. Egypt and as a result, Bnei Yisrael were G-d takes us to the end of this process
forced to slave away in back-breaking – where there are only aliyot, and yeri-
What exactly is geula? What should labor for hundreds of years. Was this dot are a thing of the past.
we be focusing on as we hear the
shofar? How would we define geula, all part of the geula? Yehi ratzon that this Rosh Hashanah,
past, present and future? Yes, because geula is not a smooth as we blow the shofar, let us remind
process. ourselves that we’re almost there. G-d
The first national geula was Yetziat should take away all the yeridot so we
Mitzrayim. To start that process, Moshe saw all of history open in front reach the end of the geula, the final
G-d came to Moshe at the burning of him. He didn’t only see the galut stage, when we will be able to enjoy
bush, and they have a back and forth in Mitzrayim, but the entire process. the blessings and abundance of Mashi-
in which G-d implores Moshe to go He saw there would be crusades, ach Tzidkanu, ּוני ֵ מָי ְּ ב ה ָ ר ֵ ה ְ מ ִּ ב.
to Mitzrayim and lead Am Yisrael pogroms, massacres, a Holocaust. He
to freedom and Moshe continually saw everything and he said, “G-d, I
refuses, until G-d finally becomes don’t want to be part of it. Let some-
angry. Doesn’t Moshe want to take body else do this. Let Eliyahu HaNavi
Bnei Yisrael out of Mitzrayim? Why all do it, skip straight to the final stage.”
the excuses? Why is he so against the Moshe argued with G-d and repeat-
idea? edly refused Him because he loved Am
Yisrael. Not because he was insensitive
Moshe finally says, “send with whom to their plight.
you shall send.” What does that
mean? Rashi says this is referring to Geula has ups and downs. That’s life Rabbi Shalom Rosner is a Rebbe at
Aharon HaKohen – send the person – both personal and national. Even Yeshivat Kerem B’Yavneh and Rabbi of the
You would normally send, my older the symbol of geula – Mashiach – is a Nofei HaShemesh community.

36 |