There was a Sheikh in a small village. He was like a king in his home. His wives were his maids, his kids servants and had them working for him in his fields and farms.
One day the governor of the village sent a message that the king's taxes were due in a few weeks.
Most of the villagers paid but the Sheikh just laughed and said, “the king lives in the capital where he is the king, here I am the king. I rule in my house and estates. The king can keep his money and I will keep mine.
His neighbors warned him that he would get into trouble, but he just laughed at them.
The date passed, everyone paid their taxes in full besides the Sheikh.
Time passed and nothing happened. The Sheikh told his neighbors, “see how I was right. Nothing happened that I never paid and you all wasted your money for nothing.”
They were confused. Maybe the Sheikh was right.
A few weeks later a group of soldiers came to town. They had the list that everyone had paid besides the Sheikh. They came to his house, they beat him, ridiculed him and shamed him in front of his whole family. They made him prepare them a dinner with meat from his farm. They made him feed and drink their horses. They rampaged around his house drunk smashing and breaking whatever got in their way. Before they left they made him pay his taxes in full plus a hefty fine.
Now everyone laughed at the Sheikh. What did he gain by not paying on time? He still had to pay plus a fine, his house was damaged and he was put to shame in front of his whole family and friends.
For sure next year the Sheikh ended up paying his taxes on time.
With this story Rabbi Shimon Agasi from Bagdad would explain these days.
Hashem wants us to have Yiras Shamayim, to fear Hashem and fulfill his Mitzvos. We have sinned so we have the opportunity to do Teshuva. The smart people, the Tzaddikim do Teshuva straight away and have paid up their debts by Rosh Hashana or Yom Kippur and are written in the book for a good and sweet new year.
But there are people who ignore these days and say, Hashem is King in Heaven and I am the king in my home.
But then Hashem sends His messengers and soldiers, the troubles we suffer to open our eyes and awaken us to get back on the right path.
But what would happen if the next year and the Sheikh didn't pay at all? If he doesn't have the sense after what he went through what can he expect?
And what about us, looking back at the year we have just finished? Are we happy with everything that happened to us? Aren't there so many things that we would be so happy if they went better this year? So what are we going to do about it?
The Baalei Mussur explain that a person should try and take one small point and that they should try and rectify to a completion and be consistant.
It is obvious that we cannot do Teshuva on all of our sins up to the point as the Rambam writes, that Hashem can be a witness that we won't sin again. And if we don't reach that level then according to the Rambam we haven't fulfilled the Mitzva of Teshuva properly.
Most of us get an amazing Chizzuk from the Yetzer Harah to become Malaachim overnight. The Yetzer Harah tells us to undertake ten or twenty big Kabolos (undertakings), to add a few hours of learning, to concentrate the whole Shemone Esrei and lots more. But as we have experience it doesn't really last.
There was someone who sat down on Erev Yom Kippur and prepared himself a whole long list of Kabolos to improve himself the upcoming year.
When he got to Shul he suddenly realized that he had left his paper at home with all his amazing Kabolos. He was devastated. But when he opened his Machzor he had a miracle, the paper was there. Ah Baruch Hashem it somehow had arrived...
But then he realized it was his paper from last year with exactly the same Kabolos. Nothing had changed since last year.
But we can take one point, something that we know we need to rectify, not to look for the big things but rather something very small that we can undertake (and possibly cut it in half), really pull ourselves together and the main thing is to be consistant, because the consistency is the secret of our ultimate success.
When we do that we have done a complete Teshuva in one area.
May Hashem help us that we have the open heart to want to do Teshuva and be able to do Teshuva and come closer again to Hashem and merit a sweet new year.