Rabbi's Blog

This week’s Dvar Torah is dedicated by Susan and Ronnie Masliansky in commemoration of the 14^th Yahrzeit of Ronnie’s mother, Tsippora Masliansky, Chaya Tsippora bas Yehuda Leib on the second day of Rosh Hashana

This Shabbos we complete Pirkei Avos and turn to the finale for the season as we enter  the week of Rosh Hashana. Pirkei Avos is comprised of six chapters (technically five) that are read or reviewed - one chapter per week. As you will read later, a custom that takes us from after Pesach until Rosh Hashana does not always have one chapter per week. This year, we had to double up during the last two weeks to fit it all in. One can ask, why double up at the end, why not do this someplace during the middle or even at the outset? We could offer one approach, saying that there are many different strategies in races and marathons, such as speeding ahead in the beginning and slowing down to preserve energy towards the end, or the inverse, maintaining a steady pace in the beginning and speeding up towards the end. Others say one should maintain an even pace from beginning to end. The decisions regarding how one approaches a competition are relegated to when and with whom we are competing against. When it comes to an individual’s personal race against him or herself, however, there needs to be a continuous, consistent climb to finish the race in the strongest possible sense. I understand racing and competing with someone else requires pacing and planning. But if I am competing against myself, there is a guarantee that I will finish, win the race, and get my reward. If so, why trouble ourselves about how to go about the course? Doesn’t it state in the Mishna that everyone has a portion, meaning we will all win the race? In the case of Pirkei Avos, why should it make a difference as to when to double up chapters to finish? Why do we wait until the end?

For those who are not as familiar with this situation, there is a widespread custom according to Rema in Orach Chaim 292:2 to study one chapter of Pirkei Avos each Shabbos afternoon during the summer months. The Kaf Hachaim 292:23 explains that some observe the custom for the first six weeks following Pesach, thereby completing the entire tractate of Pirkei Avos once as a preparation for Shavuos and "Kabbalas HaTorah. The Machzor Vitri 143, and Mateh Moshe 486, explains that in most communities the study of Pirkei Avos is continued beyond Shavuos right through to Rosh Hashanah. Most people who study Pirkei Avos on Shabbos in the afternoons do so following Mincha, while others do so before Mincha. Every chapter has a prelude taken from the Mishna in Sanhedrin 90a כל ישראל יש להם חלק לעולם הבא שנאמר (ישעיהו ס, כא) ועמך כולם צדיקים לעולם יירשו ארץ נצר מטעי מעשה ידי להתפאר:  All of the Jewish people, even sinners and those who are liable to be executed with a court-imposed death penalty, have a share in the World-to-Come, as it is stated in Yeshayahu 60:21: “And your people also shall be all righteous, they shall inherit the land forever; the branch of My planting, the work of My hands, for My name to be glorified.” We learn from this Mishna that yes, everyone, even those who have committed grave sins, will have a share in the world-to-Come. So, what is all the concern about? If even the wicked will receive a place, why should I bother to do any better myself?

Rabbi Feldman and his son, who come to collect for the Gerer Yeshiva in Bnei Brak, once explained that the statement, ”Every Jew has a portion in the world to come” is not automatic. There is no guarantee that you will receive it. There is a guaranteed space or place, but there are conditions attached which need to be understood. While everyone has a reserved spot in the next world, we nevertheless must earn it to retain it. If we fail to do so, we lose it.  I suggest that the custom to make sure we complete Pirkei Avos before the end of the year is to show that, with effort, we can make up the difference - even until the very end of the year. Perhaps we did not plan out the course of our past year properly, thinking as every day goes by that we are ok. This thought process typically started at the beginning of 5784; at this point we may have miscalculated and are now falling short before the conclusion of the year or the race. Perhaps the message is, ”This is the last call.”

Each of us has a choice: we can take it by doing more or just let it be and fall short. Surely there is a stark difference between a physical race and the spiritual maze we navigate over the course of the year. Rav Yakov Moshe Charlap* would often say there are two kinds of desires: a hidden desire and an open desire. The hidden has no bounds while the open one has boundaries and limits. The Midrash of Koheles teaches ’Whoever has one hundred wants two hundred’. This does not mean that before the person attains the first hundred, he does not desire two hundred. Rather, it implies that until now the second hundred was hidden. Now that the person has the first hundred, his desires and focus to attain the second hundred becomes active. There are individuals who have a great number of desires, but never attain them, testifying that such individuals never really work consistently and earnestly to reach their goal.

This is how we come to understand a passuk in this week’s Parshas Nitzavim in Devarim 30:14 where the Torah states "כי קרוב אליך הדבר מאד, בפיך ובלבבך לעשותו"  “It is something that is very close to you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can keep it”. If the desire is so close to you, if it is felt in your mouth and heart, it is guaranteed that you can reach the level to do it and keep it! For whenever a person has a desire and depth of feeling to reach a goal, it is guaranteed to be forced out of his system into the practical realm of consistently working to reach that goal. Once the person has passed that threshold, no physical desire will prevent or hold him/her back from fulfilling that goal. When the mouth and the heart are aligned together, a person will merit to do Teshuva. Even at the very last call, each and every one of us is capable of succeeding, of taking it all!   

Ah Gutten Shabbos

Rabbi Avraham Bogopulsky

*Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Charlap (1882-1951) was an Orthodox Rabbi, Talmudist, kabbalist, and Rosh Yeshiva of Mercaz Harav and a student of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook. Rabbi Charlap served as rabbi of the Shaarei Chessed neighborhood, and author of the Mei Marom series of books on Jewish thought. He died in 1951 and is buried in the Sanhedria Cemetery in Yerushalayim. His grandson was Rabbi Zevulun Charlap (1929 – 2024), head of Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS).