By Rabbi Dovid Sapirman, Dean, Ani Maamin Foundation
No matter what is going on in the world, the summer marches on. Families are enjoying their cottages, bachurim are engrossed in bein hazmanim activities, Bais Yaakov girls are on vacation.
But Rosh Hashanah is a mere six weeks away—six weeks from the time that we all will stand in judgment before Hashem. The destiny of each person, community, nation, and indeed the whole world will be decided on Rosh Hashanah. Livelihood and health, tranquility and storm, life or death itself will all be decided on that day. How can we lose sight of what lies ahead?
Concerning the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah, Rabbeinu Yonah writes, “When a person knows that his judgment will be brought before a king of flesh and blood, will he not tremble greatly, seek plans to be acquitted, and not let himself be distracted by his other affairs” (Shaarei Teshuvah)?
A similar question was the basis for the mussar movement of Rav Yisrael Salanter, as explained by his great talmid Rav Itzele Peterburger. The ultimate goal of mussar was to awaken the emotions to what the intellect already knows.
Rav Yisrael Salanter suggested learning mussar sefarim aloud, in an emotional niggun. For practical reasons, he suggested that doing so in a separate beis hamussar that would not distract others from regular sedarim. The bais hamussar would have an atmosphere conducive to reflecting on the state of one’s service to Hashem and whether or not he is fulfilling his purpose in this world.
At the time, the Haskalah movement was making serious inroads to pull Jews away from observing and respecting the Torah. Mussar was only minimally successful among the baalei batim of the time, but the movement eventually found its home in many of the great Litvish yeshivos. Slobodka, Kelm, Novardok, Radin, Baranovitch, and Kletzk were among the yeshivos that followed the mussar derech. The Chofetz Chaim was a strong proponent as well. From these yeshivos would come many of the gedolim of the next generation. In America, almost all of our past gedolim were products of Slobodka: Rav Aharon Kotler, Rav Yaakov Kamenetzky, Rav Ruderman, Rav Hutner, and Rav Avigdor Miller, zy”a.
B’ezras Hashem, next week we will explore how Rabbeinu Yonah’s question, and Rav Yisrael Salanter’s answer, are fundamental to us in our daily lives.
