Once, on his travels from city to city, Reb Yerucham Levovitz was requested to deliver some words before a particular community. Word got out that the great Mashgiach would be speaking, and at the affixed time, everyone in the town — men, women and children — piled into the main shul to absorb the words of the Mashgiach.
Silence filled the room as the famed Mashgiach made way to the podium. However, as the Mashgiach spoke, the crowd started to thin out. Even as the Mashgiach continued, more and more left the room. By the time the speech came to its end, whole sections of the crowd had already returned home, going about their daily routine.
Many years passed, and the Mashgiach recalled that episode, asking himself why the townspeople didn’t behave the same way that his yeshivah students do. “The moment a shmuez is announced, my students come flocking in and drink up every word. In that community, though, as soon as they heard words of mussar, they ran for the hills.”
Before answering his question, the Mashgiach shared what happened when Columbus first came to America. The Indians who first met him and his crew were startled over this very different breed of human they were meeting. Among the many new things Columbus introduced to them, they were fascinated by the animal they brought along: from halfway down, it was a four-legged creature, but its top was that of a human.
It was only after the rider got off the horse did they realized that they were two independent entities — a horse and its rider. They’d never before seen a horse, so, in their imagination, the rider must have been part of the horse — like nothing they’d ever seen!
“So is the difference between my students and the aforementioned community,” said Reb Yerucham. “My talmidim understand that while they obtain a guf that gravitates to chumriyus, they contain a neshamah that is sparkling clean. The shmuzen that I offer just elevates the guf to the level of the neshamah. Not only is that not degrading, but it proves how special their neshamah is.
“Those simpletons, on the other hand, don’t understand this. They identify themselves as a guf, and so by rebuking them, they take the rebuke as a personal affront. And that’s hurtful. Had they understood that their essence is instead made up of a neshamah, then changing the patterns of their guf would hurt in no way.
“The yeshivah students are joyful when they hear me elevating their guf. That shows how much I hold their essence to be. Only based on that do I demand their elevation.”
During the month of Tishrei, we reawaken this awareness. We remind ourselves who we are and what we contain. By reflecting on our core, we more easily upgrade our behavior. The conduct that’s asked of us is only in sync with who we really are. This eases our mindset while upgrading our quality of life.
