The Tur א"תקפ states, רחמים לבקש המוסיף וכל לו הוא זכות, "The more you ask from Hashem [in Elul, and the more you invest in tefillah] it is to your benefit." One only gains from tefillah in Elul.
A religious Yid, who has a chain of grocery stores in Eretz Yisrael, sometimes does things that are, let's call it "unusual." Like a couple of years ago, before Chanukah, he sold olive oil for one shekel a bottle. Last year, close to Pesach, he came up with another "unusual" idea. He came to one of his stores and announced loudly to all the consumers, "Whatever you have in your shopping carts at this moment, you can take home for free."
He wanted the people to pass by the cashiers to record what was taken from the store, but they didn't have to pay for it. As people stood in line by the cashiers, one person said to his friend, "I saw an expensive wine that I wanted for the seder, but I decided against it. Now I regret that I didn't take it."
His friend said, "I took one box of kosher l'Pesach cereal. If I had known that everything would be free, I would have taken three boxes. I wish I knew beforehand."
A similar story occurs when two friends go out to eat a meal in a restaurant. One of them is wealthy, and he buys the foods he enjoys. The other one is poor, so he keeps his eyes on the prices and buys within his means. When it is time to pay, the wealthy friend takes out his credit card and says, "It is on me." The poor friend thinks, “If I had known beforehand that you would pay for everything, I would have ordered what I really wanted."
The lesson for us is, as the Tur writes, "The more you ask from Hashem [in Elul], it is your benefit." We know beforehand how much we can gain with our tefillos in Elul, so we should take advantage of this great opportunity.
The Rebbe Reshab zt'l said, "Elul is the season for Tehillim." Soon, we will say Selichos. All tefillos are worthwhile this time of year. Say techinos, say tefillos in your own words. We were told beforehand how much we could gain from it.
Opportunities for Teffilah
It is possible to turn every situation, and everything one studies, into a tefillah. Here are a few examples:
It states in parashas Mishpatim (Shemos 23:5) לו מעזב וחדלת משאו תחת רבץ שנאך חמור תראה כי עמו תעזב עזב, "If you see the donkey of someone you hate crouching under its burden, would you refrain from helping him? – you shall help him repeatedly." This mitzvah is called perikah, unloading because you help unload the donkey. Chazal (Pesachim 113:) ask why the Torah discusses שונאך, someone you hate. Is it permissible to hate one's fellow man? The Gemara answers that if he saw the owner of the donkey perform severe aveiros, he has a mitzvah to hate him. Even so, he must overcome his hatred and help him unload the donkey.
We add that in Elul, Hashem is always near, as it states (Yeshayah 55:6) קרוב בהיותו קראהו בהמצאו 'ה דרשו, "Seek Hashem when He can be found; call upon Him when He is near." The pasuk uses two terms, בהיותו ...בהמצאו קרוב, "When He can be found... when He is near." The Gemara (Rosh Hashanah 18.) translates בהמצאו that Hashem is found during the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah. The Gemara doesn't tell us when Hashem is near (קרוב בהיותו), but the Meiri tells us that this is in Elul. And since Hashem is near, He will certainly perform the mitzvah of perikah and save us.
Among the thirteen attributes of mercy are (Shemos 34:6) ואמת חסד רב, "Abundant in loving kindness and truth." The Arizal said that חסד רב is Elul and אמת is Tishrei. In the tefillah of Unesaneh Tokef (from the Rosh Hashanah/Yom Kippur tefillah), it states באמת עליו ותשב כסאך בחסד ויכון, "He prepares his throne with chesed and sits on it with truth." This can be translated to mean that if we prepare ourselves בחסד, during Elul, then on Rosh Hashanah, Hashem will sit on the throne with אמת, and will perform kindness for the Jewish nation.
Chazal say that the mitzvah of perikah is solely when he meets up with the donkey collapsing under its load. If one is very far away (like on another mountain) and sees the owner struggling with his crouched donkey, he isn't obligated to go there to help him.
Reb Yehudah Assad zt'l spoke about these halachos and turned them into a tefillah. He said to Hashem, "Ribono Shel Olam! You keep the entire Torah. This means you keep this mitzvah of perikah as well. So why don't you unload our burden and bundles, when you find us crouching under the weight of our tzaros? You should perform the mitzvah of perikah and save us. If You will say that You don't want to help us because we sinned, behold the mitzvah of perikah is even when the owner has sinned. It seems that You aren't performing this mitzvah of perikah because You see us from far away, and then the mitzvah doesn't apply. So, our solution is to come near You, because then You will be obligated to save us. We come near to You with tefillah, as it states (Tehillim 145:18) קוראיו לכל 'ה קרוב, 'Hashem is close to all those who call upon Him...'"
The chasid Reb Yaakov Shalom Freund zt'l said in a tefillah to Hashem, "I am not asking You for what You don't have; I am asking You what You do have. And I am not asking for something that is hard; I am asking for something easy. Give us a good year."
A poor man would go to the local butcher at the end of the day, and the butcher would kindly give him the leftover meats. Generally, it was the hearts and brains of the animals, the parts that most people don't want to buy. One evening, the butcher told him that no hearts or brains were left. They were sold out that day. The poor man said to Hashem, "Ribono Shel Olam! What do I ask from you? Just for a drop of heart. Just for a drop of brains!"
In the Rosh Hashanah machzor, on the second day, after Zichronos, there's a tefillah that begins with these words, אדאג במעשי אפחד לזכרון בבואו דין ביום אירא עת בכל, "I am afraid because of my bad deeds, I am worried all the time. I am afraid when my deeds will be reviewed before Hashem on the day of judgment."
In Elul, the Belzer Rav zt'l would often repeat these words, and he would say them in a haunting, yamim nora'im tune. And then he would say (in the same tune), "The Rambam paskens that we must do teshuvah, and the Raavad doesn't disagree. What will be the תכלית, what will be the סוף?"
These are examples of how we can arouse ourselves to tefillah. We should invest in Tehillim and the Selichos, and it is good to find time to invest in tefillah in our own words, as well. It is the season for tefillah, and we should utilize this powerful tool to its fullest.
