Some Advice for Elul: How to Fight to Win
Part I: The War
According to the Rambam this week’s parsha has 72 mitzvot, making it the parsha with the most mitzvot in the Torah. The mitzvah it begins with is one that talks about war, and the Ohr HaChaim teaches us that this is not just any war. The parsha begins, “when you go out la-milchama,” to the war, the known war. This is the war against the Yetzer Hara.
War is a big theme in Devarim. Last week’s parsha also spoke about war, and Rav Shapiro draws our attention to one pasuk in particular (Devarim 20:3). In this pasuk the kohen, speaking to the nation just before they are about to go to war, tells them not to be afraid four times. Rashi tells us that these four separate warnings relate to four separate battle strategies of the enemy: striking their shields loudly, stamping the ground, beating the horses’ hoofs, and blowing horns.
Why do we need four separate warnings not to be afraid? Because there is a very important message in the number four. There are also four separate warnings against avodah zara in the ten commandments (see Shemot 20:3-5). The Maharal explains that the number four represents externality. Any center point can expand in four directions. The expansion is the external aspect that revolves around the center point.
There are two ways that we can look at this four-fold expansion to externality. As each side expands in its own direction, it can only express a piece of reality. If it remains connected to the center, then the individual piece of reality it expresses is an expression of truth. But if it cuts itself off from the center and claims to represent all of reality while only representing part of reality, it is falsehood. This, says Rav Moshe Shapiro, is the essence of avodah zarah. It is external reality cut off from its source. It is one side of the scene, claiming to express the whole picture.
This is the pattern that is built into the creation of the world. In the beginning, Hashem created the world. This is the center. The world then continuously expanded in four separate directions. “The earth was desolate and empty with darkness over the face of the abyss.” (Bereisheit 1:2) These four elements expand and separate themselves from the center. Our Chachamim identify them as the root of the four kingdoms under which we were exiled.
The war that we fight in life, the war against the yetzer hara, is always a war of four. The message from Hashem is that we are not supposed to be afraid. The four strategies of the enemy are all just noise. The chapter begins, “when you go to war against your enemies.” The Ohr HaChayim points out that ‘your enemies’ is written so that it can also be read as ‘your enemy’. “The true battle is against the one enemy who deflects us from the essence. Everything else is merely the natural consequence of this war.”
Our parsha is also replete with mitzvot. They are our secret weapon. Rav Schorr describes how, in the same way that the neshama lights up and vitalizes our body, the mitzvot are the inner light of the world. The Midrash in Bamidbar Rabbah (17) describes how Hashem planted the light of the Torah throughout our physical world by means of the mitzvot. There is nothing in this world left without a mitzvah. Wherever we go, whatever we do, there is a mitzvah to accompany us. We harvest grain and have the mitzvah to give to the poor. We kneed dough, and have the mitzvah of challah.
Rav Schorr explains some of the depth behind this. The light of the Torah was apportioned by Hashem into 613 mitzvot. Each mitzvah was put into the places where we are most likely to forget Hashem. Specifically, each time we change the form of this world, we find ourselves potentially further from our source. We become part of the expansion. The mitzvot return us to our center. And so, with every change of form, we find another mitzvah. For example, when we harvest the wheat and change its form from plant stalk to wheat, we may find ourselves further away from our source. We may presume that it is our actions that create our food. The mitzvah to leave the corner of the field for the poor person returns us to reality.
Part II: The War in Elul
From one perspective, Elul is an interesting month in that it is the last month of the year, the farthest month from the beginning. We feel this in Elul when we say to ourselves, “I’m no where near ready for Rosh Hashana to come.” On the other hand, the year is a circle, which means that Elul is also the month right before Rosh Hashana. We feel this when we remember that ‘the King is in the field.’ Hashem is close to us, and teshuva is available at any moment.
The Chidushei HaRim brings our attention to Tehillim 110:3, which speaks about Hashem as our shepherd. According to tradition this pasuk is read in two ways. It is written with the word lo, spelled lamed-aleph, which means ‘not’ and expresses that Hashem created us and we are ‘not’ self-made. It is read with the word lo as if it were spelled lamed-vav, which means his and expresses that we belong to Hashem. When you put these two spellings of the world “lo” together, you have the letters of Elul.
Our avodah in Elul is to combine these two readings of “lo.” On the one hand, we experience how far we are from where we want to be. We are ‘not.’ On the other hand, that recognition is meant to bring us to an awareness that we are ‘His.’ We are always close to Hashem. In this way we are all we need to be and we have everything we need.
Rav Shapiro tells us that Elul, the last month, is also parallel to the end of the Torah and to the end of days. Elul is the month that embodies the nature of the time we are living in. It is a time when the external world is making a lot of noise. There are many forces screaming at us from every direction. The message from Hashem is that we do not have to be afraid. It is only noise. It has no independent reality. It is the expansion of the world, separated from its source. The secret to winning the war in the month of Elul is to ignore all the noise and keep connecting ourselves back to center.