Something Remains

Rabbi Yisrael Salanter would customarily visit Jewish towns and deliver words of inspiration. He was especially devoted to this during the month of Elul and the Ten Days of Repentance—days that are especially conducive to teshuvah (repentance).

Once, he gave a sermon in a community where there were many who had cast off the yoke of Heaven and were frivolous in spirit. After the sermon, one of the listeners said to him:

“I looked around at the audience and saw that your words went in one ear and out the other.”

Rabbi Yisrael replied:

“You have put my mind at ease. I was afraid the words had not entered their ears at all. If they went in one ear and out the other—then surely something remained in between the ears...”