Rabbi's Blog

I am introducing this week’s message by presenting a clearer
understanding of last week’s message, ‘Changing of the Guard’.
The full intent of the message to the younger generation is not to
push out the old regime while taking up with the new. It is important
not only to get involved in the fiscal and physical components of the
Shul but to also become more actively involved in the spiritual side
as well. As our older members are no longer present or can no longer
physically make it to the minyanim or volunteer for different
activities, we need the younger, upcoming leaders of our shul to pick
up the reins. Although the demands on life may be overwhelming for
young husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, we also need them to
fill those roles that the aging population can no longer continue
doing. This includes attending Shul and volunteering in the myriad of
ways that a Shul functions.

Ki Saytzay – Taking it to the Enemy

In the eyes of many people, turning fifty years old is a milestone
that should be duly recognized. My mazal is that I turned fifty this
year. Along with all of the celebrations and good wishes, my doctor
informed me of a special birthday gift one is entitled to at this
age: health insurance pays for your first colonoscopy and this is a
gift that I should accept with grace. As the saying goes, ‘Never
look a gift horse in the mouth’. With that I scheduled the
appointment and eventually received instructions on the preparation
for this delightful procedure. It is basically a two-day process
whereby the first day I could only drink clear fluids and in the
evening I had to drink this magical potion that would miraculously
clear my entire system and then some. The day of the actual procedure
I would again drink this magical potion to clear out anything
remaining in my system from the previous cleaning. I believe the only
thing that came out the next morning was the liquid that I drank that
very same morning preparing to waste it.

It struck me that in the two-day preparation I was only permitted to
drink; it was sort of a fast day to me. It dawned on me that there
was nothing really preventing me from eating except the fact this was
the rule for the test. In a similar fashion on a mandated halachik
fast day, there is also nothing preventing me from eating except for
the halacha. In both fasting scenarios, whether religious or medical,
I chose not to eat. It boiled down to the difference between a
medical fast and a spiritual fast. I happen to fast easily, but
typically there is a struggle for people to fast, avoiding all food
for an entire day. There is a common struggle between the two reasons
we may fast. In actuality, we should not view them as independent
struggles of the same kind but rather as being complimentary one to
the other.

In the beginning of this week’s Parsha Ki Seitzei the Torah states
in Devarim 21:10 “Ki Seitzei LaMilchama Al OyVecha, UnSano Hashem
Elokecha B’Yadecha V’Shavisa Shivyo”: “When you go out to
wage war against your enemies, Hashem will place them in your power;
you may take captives”. Moving away from the Pashut PShat - the
simple meaning of the text - the Torah suggests that there are other
types of wars that man goes out to fight. *Reb Shlomo Kluger suggests
that the Torah is hinting that there are two kinds of war: War with
the nations; and the war within, the evil inclination better known as
the Yetzer Hara.

War with the nations affects our physical welfare, whereas war with
the evil inclination affects our spiritual welfare and keeping
Hashem’s commands. Hashem tells us that He will deal with us Midda
Knegged Midda. He will help us in our war with the physical enemy on
condition that we control and subdue our Yetzer Hara. Reb Yisroel
Ba’al Shem Tov teaches that the words ‘Ki Seitzay’ - when you
go out - is in the singular. There is no man who goes out to do
physical battle without an army consisting of many men; no one can do
such battles alone. Therefore, the context is speaking of the
spiritual battle that each and every one of us must go into alone;
the spiritual battle is our fight!

The Shlah HaKadosh gives a deeper clue to the success on the
battlefield. The key strategy is ‘to go out’ to be on the
offensive and not sit back and wait for the enemy to come to us but
rather to be pre-emptive. When we attack the Yetzer HaRah, Hashem
guarantees us that the Yetzer Hora will be delivered into our hands.
The reason follows the saying, “kal Haba L’Tahair, M’sayin
Oso”: whoever comes to purify, Hashem helps him. If man goes out
and tries, then God helps, but only on the condition that we take the
first step. The last and highest level this method brings us to is
the re-direction of the sin. If we cut off the path of the sin, then
we are actually able to use that power and influence for something
positive.

As we are now in the month of Elul, we should be preparing not only
to do battle but to take the fight to our Yetzer Hora, perhaps better
known to us as our weaknesses. We need to plan an attack in the areas
in which we know we can do better. We cannot wait until Yom Kippur to
ask forgiveness for those sins we committed or for the positive
commandments which we omitted. Rather, we each need to troubleshoot,
to think ahead, to erase the charges that might be held against us.
We need to begin the spiritual fast now. Just because I can eat if I
want to, I know that it’s better for me if I don’t. Each and
every one of us needs to create a strategy to be on the offensive in
this battle for our Neshama and not wait until it’s too late.

Ah Gut Shabbos

Rabbi Avraham Bogopulsky

*Shlomo ben Yehuda Aharon Kluger (1783–June 9, 1869): שלמה
קלוגר‎ born in Komarow, Congress Poland, was chief dayyan and
preacher of Brody, Galicia. He was successively rabbi at Rava-Ruska
(Galicia), Kulikow (Galicia), and Józefów (Lublin), preacher at
Brody, and rabbi at Brezany (Galicia) and, again, at Brody (where he
held the offices of Dayan and preacher for more than fifty years). He
died in Brody on June 9, 1869.