The foundation of the whole Torah is emunah: faith in Hashem, faith in the Torah, faith in chachmei Yisrael. A Jew is obligated to believe even in matters that are above his understanding and far beyond the reach of his feelings.
One of the things we need to believe is that the month of Elul is a tremendous and awesome time. We know that our rabbis and teachers, Gedolei Yisrael, made a big deal of Elul. They were ardent about it. R. Yisrael Salanter remarked that all the days of the year need to be like Elul — and Elul itself is surely “Elul”!
People recount that R. Yisrael Salanter was enwrapped in great fear from Rosh Chodesh Elul on. Once somebody asked him, “What are you so afraid of? Is Elul a bear?” R. Yisrael answered him, “Elul is more terrifying than a bear. David Hamelech declared ‘Your servant has smitten the lion and the bear.’1 David did not fear these animals. But he nevertheless said about himself ‘My flesh stood on end from Your dread, and I feared Your judgments.’2 David was seized by terrible fear of Hashem’s judgment on Rosh Hashanah!”
It is hard for us to understand this. People wonder to themselves, “What is all the panic about? I have been living for twenty, forty, even fifty years already. I am still alive... Why should I think that I will die right now?” And if so, how are we to understand the plea composed by Chazal for the tefilos of these days: “Zochreinu l’chaim, Melech chafetz bachaim — Remember us for life, O King Who desires life”?
For this we need emunah.
And in fact that is what the Rambam so wonderfully states:
We were commanded to believe in His fear, and to be afraid of Him. Not to be like those who deny Hashem and go along the way they see fit for themselves, according to chance. Rather, we should fear His punishment at all times. This is the meaning of ‘You shall fear Hashem your G-d.’
Here we see that fear of punishment — the very fact that Hashem punishes people who transgress His will — is one of those things that the human mind does not truly grasp. We are commanded to have faith in it!
Furthermore, the yirah that Elul requires of us is something even more profound and unfathomable. A person’s whole life is full of chesed from Hashem. Our eyes see, our ears hear, our hands and feet function. We have food, water — it is all chesed of Hashem. Millions of acts of chesed. “Though our mouths were filled with song as the sea, and our tongues with singing praise as the swell of its waves... we still would be unable to thank You... for one out of the thousand, thousands of thousands and myriad myriads”5 of kindnesses that Hashem does for us.
It is very hard for a person who is used to a life of chesed and rachamim to live in fear and dread of Hashem. He can’t grasp that now, on Rosh Hashanah, he is facing a judgment that will decide his whole future for better or for worse, and that now he can change things through his deeds. He can change things for himself, for his family around him, and for the entire Jewish people! Although he may have a hard time grasping this, he is obligated to believe that it is so. To know that Hashem is true and His Torah is true. And it is a truth of Torah that these are “days of awe.”
