Erev Rosh Hashanah - Simple Gedolim | Rabbi Daniel Osher Kleinman

We're entering the ימי הדין, ימי הרחמים והרצון, Rosh Hashanah, Aseres Yemei Teshuva and Yom Hakippurim. Chazal say in a Medrash, it’s brought in the Tur, that although Rosh Hashanah helps to be מכפר, and so does Yom Kippur, Erev Rosh Hashanah has the ability to be מכפר a third of the Aveiros that we have. Erev Rosh Hashanah. And for that reason, Chazal say in a Medrash, Klal Yisroel has a Minhag שהגדולים מתענין, that the leaders of Klal Yisroel, the Tzaddikim of Klal Yisroel, they fast on Erev Rosh Hashanah. And in fact, this is paskened in Shulchan Aruch, הגדולים מתענין בערב ראש השנה. The Magen Avraham, however, writes that everybody fasts on Erev Rosh Hashanah. אפילו תינוקות מתענין the Magen Avraham says. Even young children. It means a child who’s Bar Mitzvah, a girl who’s Bas Mitzvah, they fast Erev Rosh Hashanah. And the Chasam Sofer asks on the Magen Avraham, he says: Why would there be a Minhag that תינוקות are מתענין בערב ראש השנה? It's only הגדולים מתענין. Why would simple people fast? And the Chasam Sofer says an incredible thing. We think that Gedolim, that leaders are people who spend their day steeped in Torah, in the Beis Medrash, sitting and learning. They don't say a word of Lashon Hara, they don't look anywhere, they're not engaged in any mundane activities. Those are the Gedolim. Us, simple people, who are we? He says: But the truth is Nobody really knows. You see, somebody who works in the city, you get on the train, you walk the streets, you go into an office, you're confronted from all sides, you're bombarded, in fact, by an incredible array of Nisyonos. I have to look away here, I have to look away there. I can't look here, I can't look there. I have to... How is it possible? It's like Yosef Hatzaddik in Mitzrayim. It takes Herculean efforts to overcome. Someone sitting in a Beis Medrash, who's in the mode of learning, someone who's sitting by a Sefer, someone who has a position in Klei Kodesh, in a certain sense, could be easier. אין אנחנו יודעים מי הם הגדולים we don't know who those Gedolim are, the Chasam Sofer writes. And because of that, everybody fasts Erev Rosh Hashanah. אפילו התינוקות. That small 13-year-old boy, who thinks he's so insignificant, he does one thing that's more difficult for him than that person, who's sitting and learning ten hours a day, he could be a Gadol. He could be the one, who's carrying Klal Yisroel on his back. When we have Nisyonos, when we're confronted, when we walk the streets, when we walk into a Simcha, and we have a burning desire, and nobody would know the difference, and we look away, just for the sake of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, you never know. You may be that Gadol that's carrying Klal Yisroel on your back.