“Redeem Your sheep from the shearers”
This explanation concurs magnificently with the interpretation of the Yearos Dvash (Part 1, first drush for the month of Elul) of a verse found in a piyut for Motza’ei Shabbas (Ayom V’Norah): "פדה עמך מעזים צאנך מיד גוזזים"—redeem Your people from the strong, Your sheep from the hand of the shearers. He says that we occasionally see a rasha repent and perform teshuvah; he fasts, cries, and performs other acts of penitence. Yet, a short time later, he resumes his negative behavior and acts corruptly. He compares this to sheep; people shear their wool to benefit from it; they give the sheep salt and the like that promote the growth of the wool. Then, when the wool is fully grown, they shear it off and repeat the cycle. In a similar fashion, the forces of evil feed off the plentiful kedushah within the sinners of Yisrael; it sustains them.
But when they have drained a Jew of every last drop of kedushah, Hashem has left him, and he is evil and sinful, the forces of evil encourage him to repent and return to Hashem. Once the Jew is saturated with the goodness of Hashem and full of Hashem’s berachah—due to his service of Hashem and performance of mitzvos—the forces of evil prevent him from abiding by Hashem’s mitzvos, just as they did previously. This enables them to nurture themselves from the replenished plenty of kedushah.
This is what we ask Hashem to save us from—to redeem Your sheep from the hand of the shearers—so that this process does not happen to us, and we do not nurture the forces of evil. Therefore, we need many preventive measures and safeguards to avoid resuming our prior foolishness and misbehavior, chas v’shalom. On the contrary, may we become stronger every day in Torah, knowledge, and reverence.
