Elul: Wake Up and Check Your Mezuzot (and Your Souls)

This Torah class is brought to you by torahanytime.com. I got an error of Rosh Chodesh. Now, there's one day on the calendar that I cannot forget. A very important day. Not only because it's my wife's birthday. Not only because it's my father-in-law's birthday. Not only because my son had his bris on that day. But Rosh Chodesh Elul is a very important day on the calendar. And and right? But um it's a very important time for every Yid. It's the time that Moshe Rabbeinu went up to Har Sinai the third time to be mekabel the Luchos Shniyos. And these are Yemei Rachamim, Yemei Ratzon. And the Sefer Mateh Efraim, we know Rav Efraim Zalman Margolies, who was a contemporary of the Chasam Sofer, um one of the great Acharonim, he wrote a sefer a sefer halacha from going all the way from the Me'el Elul to Rosh Hashanah, to Rosh Hashanah, Kippurim, to Rosh Hashanah, Sukkos. And this is the preeminent work on this time of the year. Mishnah Berurah quotes it kaseder. The Mateh Efraim writes, "Kvar beyarnu ki haChodesh Elul hu me'utad l'teshuva. We've already explained that the month of Elul is destined for teshuva. HaYere'im dvar Hashem, those who fear Hashem, yeish lahem l'fashpeish b'ma'asav, need to investigate their ways. V'yashiv mikodem sudasai. One should do teshuva before he eats. Lest you don't make it through the meal. V'koidem shinasai, before you go to sleep. V'yachshiv im nafshai, you need to think limtzo avoinos, to try to find whatever sins you could locate l'hischareit, to regret ul'hizdados alav, and to say vidui, v'shav v'raf'ei. And try to repair it. V'yoysef omes b'kiam amitsos, you need to strengthen yourself in the performance of mitzvahs. And he singles out one specific mitzvah. He says v'ye zariz b'yoysef b'chaydesh azeh b'kidush levana. You should be very careful this month in kidush levana. Because even though all mitzvahs you need to be careful on sh'mitzvah averas because it's a mitzvah that if you you miss it, you blew it. So in general during the month of Elul, it's a month of introspection and cheshbon hanefesh. And therefore from this general practice, and this is what we're getting at. V'yeish anshai maiseh, there are men of performance. Noy another words, people are careful in their actions. Noy again their custom is sh'b'chaydesh azeh this month m'fash b'shim b'diktukei mitzvahs. They investigate the details of mitzvahs. L'yois boydek to check, uvoychen and investigate t'fillin um'zuzahs sh'lahem. Their t'fillin and their m'zuzahs. It's minag Yisrael to check t'fillin and m'zuzahs. Now, halachically m'zuzahs you check twice every 7 years. T'fillin are not required to be checked assuming they were good when you got them. However, I will say that anybody who ever showed me their t'fillin needed to have their t'fillin checked. Because invariably their t'fillin get um rubbed out. And their t'fillin must be completely black. If you haven't changed your t'fillin since your bar mitzvah, you need new t'fillin. That's just the bottom line. You need new t'fillin. You need to replace t'fillin every so often. Unless you get the you know the now they have the complete black ones. And even I want for it, you know. Uh you have you get the new black t'fillin, they're good for life because they they can never not be black. Even the the other side is black. But you really need to check if you have regular with suois, you need to check that by the place of the knot, the ritsu remains wide because if it gets a little bit too narrow, they're not kosher anymore. You have to make sure that the place that is touching the tfillin is completely black. It often rubs out. Tfillin must be checked. Elul is a good time to check them. They should be uh definitely look if they haven't been checked in a number of years, then uh you don't necessarily have to open them up, but you want to make sure the ritsuois are in working order. And mezuzahs also, if uh they're due to be checked, Elul is a good time to check them. Now, the point is not, "Oh, Elul's here, let me check my mezuzahs." And then you're I'm patur. No, no, no. The point is not just, "Oh, it's Elul, it's almost Rosh Hashanah, let me check my mezuzahs. Let me check my tfillin." This needs to emanate from a general attitude that these are yemei bedika and yemei chibush. Everything needs to be checked. This has to be an expression of the need to check, but not the fulfillment of it. But nevertheless, there is a minhag Yisrael to check mezuzahs during Elul. And the question is, what is the specific connection between checking mezuzahs during Elul and the month of Elul specifically? It's interesting, as Rav Shmuel Wosner would point out would point out that in Lashon Hakodesh, how do you say to spy? To spy. Well, you have in Parshas Shlach, Shlach lecha anashim viyasuru, right? Viyasuru, so that's kind of spy out the land of Canaan. Tarim, viyasuru. If you look at Targum Unkelos on the words viyasuru, shlach lecha govrin vialelun. In Aramaic, the word for spy is vialelun. Elul. In words, the word Elul means to spy out, to scout out, to investigate. And in fact, in the Halacha Shleima, which is the recorded Piskei Halachos of Rav Zalman Auerbach, in the beginning of Rosh Hashanah, he they bring down the word Elul from Rabbeinu. It was frequent in the mouth of Rav Zalman Auerbach. He He frequently said, The name of the month of of a month reflects on its inner meaning. Even though there's an idea that the names of the months came out of Babel, and they may be even names of Babylonian gods, nevertheless, they do carry a symbolic meaning. And the word Elul of Lashon Aramis Mashma is he pos u'pishpush. In Aramaic, the word Elul means investigation and scouting out. The Asura Kanan, the Elul Yos Ara. This is the objective of Elul, that everyone should search out not just their mezuzahs, not just their tefillin, but their personalities and their middos, and all of the various nooks and crannies of their personality that need bedika, now's a good time to do it. But, very interesting, I found that this idea that the word Elul comes from Lashon of the Elul, actually is quoted in the name of Rav Chaim Vital. So, not just from Rav Zalman Auerbach, but it dates back 500 years. In the Piskei Teshuvos, you know, Piskei Teshuvos is it's like like somewhat of an encyclopedic work on Halacha, he brings down also that the word Elul comes from the Targum Vi'alelun. And in the footnote, he says this is from the Sefer Toldos Adam, Parshas Ki Savo, in the name of Rav Chaim Vital. Now, you know that I don't take anybody's word for it. So, I'm trying to I want to look up the Sefer Toldos Adam, which I happen to have. It's not in there because it's not on the parshiyos. It doesn't go by the parshiyos. There's no There's nothing on parshiyos Kisvei. So, I checked up five different seforim called Toldos Adam, and it's not in any of them. So, if anyone out there, and anytime I pose a challenge, I always usually someone out there is successful. If anyone out there knows which Sefer Toldos Adam the Piskei Teshuvos is referring to, or where in the writings of Reb Chaim Vital this could be found, I would be most appreciative. So, anyone out there listening, and you could find us the location, then we could put it in the the next edition. Okay? Um no reward being promised, but, you know, we'll see what we could work out. Okay. But, I'll send regards to I know David Callis is listening in Israel. We'll send him regards now. Um It's Rosh Chodesh there. So, um I borrowed a Sefer from him um maybe it was 2 years ago. And uh there's a very nice idea. I think this Sefer was from Reb Jurk. The name of the Sefer is Nidvoi's Pi. And I made a copy of it at the time, and baruch Hashem I remembered I had the copy yesterday. Another dimension of why it's important to check tefillin and mezuzahs dafka in the month of Elul. The Rambam in Hilchos Teshuvah perek gimmel halacha daled tells us a very important halacha. Says the Rambam, what is the reason for tekios shofar? Af al pi she'es tekios shofar Rosh Hashanah gzeiras hakasuv. You want to know why we blow shofar? Because we do. Because God said so. It's a heavenly decree. Nevertheless, it does carry meaning. Remez yesh bo. There's a remez. Kol aimar, uru uru yesheinim mishinasam. WAKE UP. WAKE UP, those who are sleeping. Behitzitsu and arise, nirdamim, the slumberers, mitera darmaschem, from your slumber. In other words, the message of the shofar is to wake up. And do what? Behitzitsu b'maaseichem, investigate your actions. Bechaziru b'tshuva, and repent in tshuva. V'zichru boreichem, and remember your creator. So you say, "What are you talking about? I'm not sleeping. I'm up." So what does the Rambam mean the shofar is an alarm clock? I'm not I'm up. I'm up. I'm up the whole night. Different different people crying. I'm up. So what's the shofar, uh, what's the shofar's message? No, no. Says the Rambam, you're not up, you're sleeping. Eilu hashochechim es haemes b'havlei hazman. Why are we asleep? Cuz we forget the truth in the vanities of the time. What does that mean? That means like this. When we're in the beit hamidrash, so then we remember our priorities. But the moment we exit, we're all of a sudden bombarded from all sides, from what we see, from what we hear, from what we look at, from what people are running after, and everything is screaming that this world is about making money and having pleasure, and it rubs off on every single human being, and we forget what we're here for. And the shofar, therefore, is a wake-up call. But the rest of the year, the Rambam says, "V'shogeim kol shnasam b'hevel." We are foolish the whole year in emptiness, v'reik and nothing, ash lo yoyil, that has no benefit, v'lo yatzil, and cannot save us. And the shofar says, "Habitu l'nafshoseichem." "Look into your soul. The habitu d'archeichem, look at your ways u'ma'aleichem, and your actions. V'yazvu kol achei'chem darkei hara, forsake your bad path." So, what is the message of the shofar according to the Rambam? Wake up! Wake up from what? Wake up from the emptiness of the time. The Rambam does not say about this idea by any other mitzvah that it's to wake you up from the general morose malaise, right? Everybody in this world is drugged. Drugged by the narcotic of society. And because of that narcotic, we all forget on some level what our mission is. And the purpose of the shofar is to wake us up. Okay, very nice. Maybe we knew that. Maybe we didn't know that. But maybe what we did not know is that this exact same idea that a mitzvah that the purpose of a mitzvah is to wake you up, the Rambam only says by one other mitzvah. Mezuzah. The Rambam at the end of Hilchos Tzitzis u'Mezuzois, Chai Adam l'hizaher b'Mezuzah, you have to be careful with the Mezuzah and Mezuzah u'nashim chayavos hakol, everyone's obligated. Man, woman, common, always. Day, night, Shabbos, Yom Tov, there's no human being and there's no there's no Yisrael and there's no time that you're exempt. U'v'chol ish sheyikaneis, whenever you enter. By the way, you don't have to kiss the Mezuzah, it doesn't say in the any halacha. It doesn't say in Shulchan Aruch you kiss the Mezuzah. But this it does say. V'yo, every moment you enter and you leave, yifga b'yichud shemo shel Hakadosh Baruch you encounter a document that says God is eternal and God is one. And now you suddenly remember love of God, not love of your money and love of your pleasures. And you wake up from your sleep. And your foolishness and the have lay as man in the emptiness of the time. When was the last time we did that when we entered a room and we encountered a mezuzah? Not this lifetime. The Rambam says that's the mitzvah say of mezuzah. Forget about your kissing the mezuzah. We're not you're not you're not up to that yet. That's the humra. That's our kabbalah. First let's do what it says in the halakha. Halakha is when you encounter a mezuzah, you need to say wake up. Why do I keep feeling my wallet every 3 seconds and calling the bank every day with how much interest I accrued in 3 seconds? It's the same. You didn't accrue any interest in 3 seconds. Maybe if the stocks really went up. Wake up. And you'll know ain't some ain't shame dollar home in the home of home in that there is nothing that is eternal Ella Yedioth only the knowledge of Hashem. And then you have to and then you will be restored to sanity. And you'll be able to go on the straight path. So it's quite interesting that there are only two mitzvahs that the Rambam says the purpose of the mitzvah is to wake you up from the narcotic of society. Krias Shema and mezuzah. So in the safer And that's the one scroll and also has the quaff and has the Shema Shem and all the same aspects of mezuzah. And yet actually it's closer to your heart. Right. You know, you're talking about being close to your body and your neshama. Tefillin is only during the day. Tefillin is only for men. Tefillin is only weekdays. Tefillin is only when you have a guf naki. Mezuzah is the most constant. But, you're right. Mezuzah Tefillin can wake you up, also. But, interestingly, the Rambam doesn't say it by its tefillin. So, in the sefer Nidvace P, I believe it's Rav Druk. Look in the third paragraph. Kasvu Ba'alei Halacha D'minhag Lud tefillin and mezuzahs b'chodesh Elul to see if they're kosher. Amnam Halacha m'chayevet mezuzahs l'yotzei l'yotzei l'yotzei l'yotzei l'yotzei l'yotzei The halacha requires checking mezuzahs twice every 7 years. But, the preparation for the Yom Hadin inspires a higher level of checking. So, yes, the chiyuv I do about the mezuzah you have to be shocheach guf and nefesh Adam b'dika. You know, there's no officially legislated minhag that during chodesh Elul you should check your kas. Of course, you should, but it's not specifically emphasized. Nowhere does it say, you know, during chodesh Elul you should make sure that the strings of your tzitzis are good. Or, you know, specific Make sure that when you're benching you're Specifically mezuzah's mentioned. So, he says what we just mentioned before, the efshar l'hazdir We could explain it b'tamlei v'rimzei sham mezuzah. The Rambam says the reason for mezuzah is yayer mishinasa v'shigiyosav b'havlei hazman. It's to arouse you, to awaken you from the emptiness of the time. And that very reason the Rambam gives by its kias shofar, and that is uru yesheinim mishinaschem. So, really, it should completely transform our attitude of a mezuzah. I mean, next time you see a mezuzah you should imagine do, you know, a powerful tekiah shofar. Mezuzah is a wake-up call. Okay. Now, with this idea that according to the Rambam, the purpose of the month of Elul and the purpose of the tekiah shofar is it's a wake-up. This could be another dimension of the minhag that that's brought down in the Torah that one should not sleep on Rosh Hashanah. It's not an issur. And Mishna Berurah brings down if after chatzois a person needs to close their eyes a little bit to have kavana it's permitted, but there's such an idea that you don't indulge in sleep on Rosh Hashanah. Why? And And one of the reasons given is siman l'saba, that what you do on Rosh Hashanah is ominous of what kind of year it's going to be. So, you know, if you sleep on Rosh Hashanah it's going to be uh reflective of a sleepy year, right? That's the simple interpretation. But the Bach offers another explanation based on this Rambam, where the whole purpose of the tekiah shofar is what? Wake up. Wake up. Rosh The message of Rosh Hashanah is wake up from the emptiness of the time, then going to sleep would be antithetical to the purpose of Rosh. Again, not an issur, but conceptually going to sleep says the Bach, but he he he says over here "Kuntres Safek Even Shevut b'shem ha-Rambam ki b'tekiah shofar is a remez of "Uru yesheinei mishnatchem." Which means that it's a time that requires ha'ara'ah. What does ha'ara'ah mean? Waking up. And that's why in the Yerushalmi, by the way, in our girsa Yerushalmi it does not say this, but in the Bach's girsa Yerushalmi it says "Asur l'adam lishon b'Rosh Hashanah." Like it says "B'nash t'damach Bar Ashata." So, one who sleeps in the new year will have a sleepy year. And that is another idea of the Menacham Masana. And by the way, in the safer Toldos Yaakov Yosef, the Talmud of the Baal Shem Tov, he also brings down this idea that sleeping on Rosh Hashanah would be antithetical to the message of of the Tekiah Shofar, which is "Uru Yesheinim Meishinaschem." Okay. Now, I I want to share with you a little secret. Um and maybe we could understand it better in the context of what we've learned so far. There is a Kabbalistic safer called Sefer Yetzirah, which is attributed to Avraham Avinu. And the Sefer Yetzirah, he talks about how the Rebono Shel Olam created the world with 10 Sefirot and the 22 letters of the Aleph-Bet, which compose the 32 Netivot HaChachmah, the 32 pathways of Chachmah. We've mentioned a number of times that in the first perek of Bereishit, it says Elokim 32 times. And there are certain letters of the Hebrew alphabet which are called Pshutot, the simple letters. What are they? Hey, Vav, Zayin, Chet, Tet, Yud, Lamed, Nun, Samech, Ayin, Tzadi, Kuf. These are the 12 simple letters of the Hebrew alphabet. With these letters, God created three things. He created Olam, he created Shana, and he created Nefesh. What does that mean? He created the world, 12 Mazalot in the Shamayim. Okay? With these 12 letters, the simple letters of the Hebrew alphabet, he created the 12 constellations, the 12 mazalot. That's oilam. He created that and that corresponds to oilam. He created shanah. Shanah is the 12 months of the year. And then he created nefesh. There are 12 main organs of the body. What are they? And this is the number 13 in uh the sefer Mishmeres David. Mishmeres David are the uh mamarim of Rav David Cohen, Rosh Yeshiva Chevron, which were written by my dear friend Rav Moshe Gruen, um who is a tremendous mechaber of many chashuve sefarim. He brings down there are 12 and this is what the Sefer Yetzirah writes, there are 12 main organs of the body. Two hands, okay? Two feet, two two legs, I mean. The two klayos. What are the klayos? Two kidneys. Kidneys. Two kidneys. Marah. You know what the marah is? The liver. The spleen. Dakin. The intestine. consider a main organ of the so. Marah the Well, that's where the the marah the gall the gall the gallbladder. They take people's spleens out all the time without There are a lot of important things that people are missing. You know? Um Dakin. The intestines. Kaved, the liver. Korkuvan. In He- In English you got the crop. Now, keivah, part of the stomach. Utz'oil. That's the spleen. That's the t'z'oil the spleen. So, the marah is the the gallbladder. Yeah, the marah is the gallbladder. Lungs are And what's korkuvan? They're not mentioned before. They're In English it's called the crop. Corresponding to these 12 parts of the body are 12 main functions of man. What are they? Speech, sicha. Herher is thought. Hiluch, walking. Re'iyah, sight. Shmi'ah, listening. Ma'aseh, action. Tashmish. Feel. Re'ach, smell. Sheinah, sleep. Some people are very good at that. Rogez, anger. Le'itah, swallowing. Schok, laughter. So, there are four things in this world that are 12. Actually, there are five things. There are 12 simple letters of the aleph-bet. With those 12 letters, God created 12 constellations, oilam. 12 months of the year. 12 main eivarim. 12 faculties. Now, important to know, that means every month of the year has a designated letter of the alphabet. Has a designated constellation. Has a corresponding part of the body. And has a corresponding faculty of man. So, you should know, every month of the year is a different ois. So, what's the month of Elul? So, in the Sefer Yetzirah, he brings it out like this. Look at number 12. Well, by the way, in the in the beginning of perek K, he says the 12 faculties. Sichah. It's number 11. Herher. Hiluch. Re'iyah. Shmi'ah. Ma'aseh. Tashmish. Re'ach. Sheinah. Rogez. Le'itah. Schok. So, says the Sefer Yetzirah, by the way, in the Swaram of um of Gedar Yishar, he often elaborates and expounds on the meaning of the connection of a letter to the month of the year, or a constellation to a month of the year, or the Bnei Yissachar also. This These are the types of Swaram that I about this. So he says like this, the month of Elul himluch ois yud. God gave malchus to the letter yud the ma'aseh in action. So in other words, like this. The letter hey is Nissan. The letter vav is Iyar. Letter zayin is Sivan. Letter ches is Tammuz. Letter tes is Av. Yud is Elul. If yud is Elul, then that corresponds right? What month of the year is Elul? September. Six. Sixth month of the year. So it's not talking. It's not thought. It's not walking. It's not sight. It's not listening. Ma'aseh. Corresponds to action. So um the Sefer Yetzirah says, the month of Elul Hashem was mamlech ois yud with ma'aseh. V'kashar lo keser. He made a crown for it. V'tzaraf pan zab v'zah. He attached them. V'tzar bahem b'sul ba'olam. He made it basul in the world. What does that mean? Well, we said in the realm of olam, there are 12 constellations. What's the constellation of Elul? Basulah, the virgin. Right? The the constellation of Elul is basulah. For example, Tishrei is Moznaim, the scales. Right? Um Sivan is uh the twins, Te'omim. The constellation, right? The constellation of Av is the lion. What is it? Aryeh? Aryeh. Elul is basulah. The Elul b'shanah. And what is the what is the ever that corresponds to Elul? So, he says the Yad smell beneficial. The left arm. Elul is the left arm. The bottom line is which faculty of man is connected to Elul? It's not listening, it's not seeing, it's not thought, it's it's action. Sure, there are many meanings, but one of them is if you have a guy who's farshlufen, you have a guy who's half asleep. And we want to How do we tell him TO WAKE UP? THE DO SOMETHING, MA'ASIM TOVIM. That was going to wake him up. He's going to sit there and start meditating? He's going to fall deeper asleep. The month of Elul is a month of ma'asim ma'asim tovim. And we should utilize the message of the shofar, which is the message of uru yesheinu mishnaschem, and the message of the mezuzahs, which are elevated in the month of Elul, which is also according to Rambam, uru yesheinu mishnaschem. We should utilize the month for improvement in ma'asim tovim, and everyone should be zocheh to l'ksiva l'ksiva tova and a gbentched year. You've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by torahanytime.com.