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Wednesday, September 28, 2011

ראש השנה

ראש השנה
                 ראש השנהone of the most intense, scariest, and happiest times of the Jewish year.  It is during this time of the year where we are all judged, based on the things we have and done over the past year. As we all know if we are found to be a צדיק we are immediately written and sealed in the Book of Life. If we are found to be רשאים we are immediately written and sealed in the Book of Death. What about those of us who don’t really fit into either of those categories? Not all of us are great sages, and not all of us are evil people.  What happens to us?
                The גמרא in ראש השנה (ד' טז:, ע' ב) says that there is a third book which is left open until יום כיפור. This is called the Book of בינונים. When a person is written in ספר בינונים, they have ten days, the אשרת ימי תשובה to prove to ה' which Book they belong to. The גמרא says "זכו נכתבין לחיים לא זכו נכתבין למיתה" “If they merit life they are written for life, if they do not merit they are written for death. The רמב''ם translates the word זכו (Merits) to mean does “תשובה”. What does he mean by this? Wouldn’t it be just as good for the person to do a whole bunch of מצות in order to tip the scale in his favor?
                The answer to this question is a very meaningful one. What is the definition of a צדיק? Usually when we think of צדיקים as people with long white beards who sit and learn תורה all day, and we think, I can never be like that… We are being taught something different here. Yes, those people are definitely צדיקים, but it isn’t just because they sit and learn תורה all day, they are צדיקים because they define themselves as צדיקים. A צדיק is a person who defines himself by doing good in the eyes of ה', yes he may do עבירות sometimes, but those are accidents. They don’t make him who he is, therefore he is able to do תשובה for the wrong things that he may have done. A real רשה is the opposite. It is a person who is completely controlled by his want to do bad. He is so caught up in his evil ways that תשובה doesn’t even cross his mind. He doesn’t care. A בינוני is the middle ground. He is a person without a specific definition of himself. He does good things, and he does bad things, he doesn’t define himself as anything.
                זכו here means that we have the opportunity in the אשרת ימי תשובה to do תשובה and re-define ourselves for the next year. We get to make changes in ourselves, whether for the good or for the bad and make the choice whether we are going to be like צדיקים or רשאים.
                It is my ברכה that we all choose to make the good choices so that we can all live a happy, healthy, wealthy new year.
Have a כתיבה וכתימא טובה
Yoni Spigelman
                

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