One of our strengths is our ability to change. We often believe that we don't have this strength. We say, "This is the way I am. This is how I was born. I can't change it," but it isn't so.
The Torah tells us (Devarim 16:22), לך תקים ולא אלקיך 'ה שנא אשר מצבה, "You shall not erect for yourselves a matzeivah, which Hashem, your G-d, hates." The מצבה represents a person fixed in his ways (like a matzeivah that is set and fixed). The Torah says, אלקיך 'ה שנא אשר מצבה לך תקים ולא, "Don’t be set in your ways. Hashem loves those who are always ready to turn over a new leaf and improve their ways."
It states in this week's parashah (11:9) כל תאכלו אתם ...וקשקשת סנפיר לו אשר, "Anything in the water that has fins and scales, those you may eat..." The Yerushalmi (Taanis 4:5) states that if a fish can't swim against the current, it isn't a kosher species. This suggests that a "kosher" person is someone who can go against the current to change his ways and do what's right.
Before the parasha discusses rosh chodesh, the Torah emphasizes that Hashem told Moshe about this mitzvah in Mitzrayim, as it states (Shemos 12:1) אהרן ואל משה אל 'ה ויאמר חדשים ראש לכם הזה החדש לאמר מצרים בארץ. This tells us that even the people who were living in the impure land of Mitzrayim, at the forty-ninth level of tumah, they had the opportunity of לכם הזה החודש, of becoming new. It is never too late to improve.
There was a bachur who was thrown out of his yeshiva. The Klausenberger Rebbe zt'l spoke to the bachur, and he promised to improve his ways. The Klausenberger Rebbe immediately called for a meeting with the yeshiva's mashgiach. The Rebbe told the mashgiach that the bachur promised not to continue in his foolish ways anymore. The mashgiach responded, "He has promised this to me thousands of times, and then he goes back to his old ways." The Klausenberger Rebbe tugged his white beard and said, “I'm already old. During these years, I promised Hashem more than a thousand times that I would improve, and I haven't done so yet. According to what you're saying, should I give up? Absolutely not. As long as a Yid lives, he has the potential to improve his ways...”
The Birkas Avraham zt'l once traveled to Italy with his uncle, Reb Zelig Lider, an esrog merchant. They stopped at a hotel in Trieste and found a small sefer there. The sefer discussed what we say in Shacharis, בראשית מעשה תמיד יום בכל בטובו המחדש, that Hashem creates the world anew each day. The sefer asks, why does Hashem create the world anew? Hashem could have created the world once, and it would stand forever. He answers that the daily creation of the world is to remind man that just as the world becomes new, he can renew himself, too.
Friday night, in the zemiros, we say, מלך נופלים סומך, that Hashem gives support and encouragement to those who have fallen. How does Hashem encourage us? עושה מלך בראשית מעשה, each day, Hashem creates the world anew. And this is our reminder that we can also improve our ways and become new.
Reb Shimshon Pinkus zt'l told the following mashal:
A town was situated at the bottom of a mountain, and the supermarket was on top. The townspeople had to climb the hill to shop, which was very hard for them. A baal chesed in town bought a van to help people get to and from the supermarket. He advertised that he would go up and down the mountain three times a day and take whoever came, free of charge. The van filled up to capacity on each trip to the store. He drove them to the store and then back home again. But after a while, wear and tear took its toll on the van. The seats were ripped in several places, the air conditioner no longer worked, and the engine was weak. It got to the point that some passengers had to get out and push the van to get the motor started.
The town leaders met with the baal chesed and told him, "You did a great mitzvah for our city, but it is time to get you a new van. Everyone in the town will chip in and buy it for you." The baal chesed refused. He said he performed so many mitzvos with the van; how could he stop using it?
The town leaders convened and decided that if he didn’t want to change the van, at least they could change the interior of the van. The exterior will be the same, but it will have a new motor, air conditioner, etc. They came up with an excuse and borrowed the car keys for the night. In the middle of the night, they redid his van.
In the morning, people filled the van, and the baal chesed said, "Some people have to go outside to push the van," for that's what they did every morning. They told him, "No, we don’t. Put the key in the ignition and try." He tried, and the van worked! He said, "How did this happen? Yesterday, it was so different!" He turned on the air-conditioner, and it was working too, and they told him what had happened during the night. He said, "Externally, the van seems the same. But internally, everything is different."
The nimshal is that we go to sleep every night, and in the morning, we wake up like a new person. We appear the same, but we aren't the same. If we believe that we have become a new person, we can serve Hashem with renewed energy, and we might discover that things are really different. Even if we couldn’t daven with kavanah or learn well yesterday, things might have changed. Since we have become new people, new things can happen.
Purim has just passed, and we have become new people. We might appear to be the same externally, but we are new people internally. (Like the van that looked the same on the outside but was different inside.) If you don’t make an effort to recognize the changes that occurred and continue to act as you had previously, you will not realize how much potential is in you and how much has changed.
Similarly, Nisan is a time for change. We must believe in our potential and try to discover our true selves.
