The twelve days that follow Simchas Torah are special. Reb Chaim Palagi (Sefer Chaim siman 36) writes, "It's the custom of chassidim to be cautious with their thoughts, speech, and deeds during these twelve days [following Simchas Torah], for they correspond to the twelve months of the year. The righteous stay home on these twelve days and review what they studied. This is a great segulah to receive Hashem's siyata dishmaya every day of the year – from the beginning of the year until the end. He will succeed with everything he does, whether in Torah, chassidus, or business."
In the Yom Tov tefillah we say, 'ה והנחילנו קדשיך מועדי...אלקינו, "Hashem gave us as an inheritance...the holy yomim tovim..." An inheritance, the Sfas Emes said, is something that remains forever. It isn't something that leaves after a few days. So too, the holidays should always stay with us, even after the holiday is over.
A chassid of the Beis Aharon of Karlin zt'l returned home after spending a yom tov with his Rebbe. People asked him, איז אזוי ווי טוב יום די אריבער, "How did the yom tov pass?" The chassid replied, די .אריבער נישט איז ט"יו די אריין איז ט"יו, "The yom tov didn’t pass. It entered." The yom tov became part of him.
Once, after yom tov, Rebbe Dovid of Tolna zy'a asked one of his chassidim how he planned to get home. The chassid replied, "The goy that drove me here will take me back."
The Rebbe said, "You're returning with the same goy?" We shouldn't go back after yom tov with "the same goy" that arrived. The yom tov should change us; we should become new people.
The Dubno Magid related the following mashal to explain why people cry by Neilah (and, as we will see, it is related to our topic):
A king had a beloved only daughter. When the time came for her to marry, a matchmaker proposed, "I have an ideal match for your daughter. He resides far away, but he is a prince, the son of a great king. He is wealthy and possesses all the qualities one could desire."
The king agreed to the match, and his daughter got married. Not long after the wedding, the groom expressed his desire to live in his homeland. His wife didn't want to move so far away from her father, but it meant a lot to her husband, so she consented.
Upon arriving in the foreign land, she discovered that the matchmaker had deceived them. Her husband was not a king's son, nor was he affluent. It was all a charade.
To make matters worse, her husband was cruel to her. He didn't conduct himself like a prince, raised with good manners. He behaved like the crudest, most unrefined individuals.
One day, they received a letter from the king. "I miss you dearly, and since you aren't visiting me, I've decided to undertake the long journey to visit you." The king wrote the day he expected to arrive.
The husband hired a crew of workers to clean and decorate his house to make it appear princely. He also began treating his wife kindly so the king wouldn't suspect anything was the matter.
The king was overjoyed with what he saw. He was pleased that he had selected the perfect husband for his daughter.
As the king prepared to return to his palace, his daughter realized that this was her last chance to reveal the truth to her father. When they were alone, with tears streaming down her face, she revealed to her father that her husband was not a king's son and had been treating her cruelly.
The Dubno Magid's mashal ends here, but some add in one more line:
The king told his daughter, "I will live in this city, close to you, and then your husband will always treat you well."
The Dubno Magid explains that the nimshal is that when Rosh Chodesh Elul arrives, keviyachol, Hashem announces that He will visit us during the days of judgment. Throughout Elul, people are busy cleaning up their deeds, so the King shouldn't realize anything is amiss. The body makes peace with the neshamah, to conceal from the King what really goes on throughout the year. But then we reach Ne'ilah, and the King is about to leave, the Yid cries to Hashem and says, "I suffer so much from my body. When You visit, the body acts nicely to me, but now that You're about to leave, I must tell You that the body is cruel to me and tries to draw me to sin..."
As we wrote above, some add to the mashal that the king found a solution for his daughter. He would live near his daughter, so his son-in-law would always be kind to her. For the nimshal, Hashem says, "Build a succah, and I will live together with you. In my presence, the body won't disturb you. And even after yom tov, you can take the atmosphere of the yom tov with you, and I will remain with you. In My presence, the body will not prevent you from serving Hashem."
