The Weekly Shtikle - Yom Kippur

In this tumultuous presidential election campaign season, there has been no shortage of entertaining memes. One video clip shows one of the candidates repeating the exact same line over and over again in various different speeches. In numerous different settings, this candidate is seen claiming to "see what can be, unburdened by what has been." While it is certainly a laughable string of clips, there might actually be a valuable message behind this catchphrase, extremely pertinent to Yom Kippur and the ideas of teshuvah.

This point is best brought out with a beautiful thought I heard from R' Tzvi Mordechai Feldheim in the name of R' Shimon Schwab, zt"l. Each and every night, in the hashkiveinu prayer we recite during maariv, we beseech HaShem to "remove the satan from in front of us and behind us." The satan in front of us is simple enough to understand. This is the force that stands between us and becoming closer to HaShem. It is ever-present, drawing us toward sin and preventing us from performing mitzvos. But what is the nature of the satan behind us?

Rav Schwab explains that the satan behind us is the cynical voice that emerges when we try to make significant change. It is particularly active during this time of year. When we make up our minds to do teshuvah, the satan behind us says "yeah, that's what you said last year, and the year before." It has you believing that things must stay the same because that's the way they have always been. (Perhaps we should name him Newton.) We ask HaShem nightly for assistance in combating this force that pulls us down and burdens us by what has been.

Have a good Shabbos and a gemar chasimah… tov? {See below)

 

Eliezer Bulka
WeeklyShtikle@weeklyshtikle.com

 

Weekly Shtikle Blog Roundup:

Dikdukian: Remember Us for the Good

Dikdukian: A Happy Ending

Please visit the new portal for all Shtikle-related sites, www.weeklyshtikle.com

The Weekly Shtikle and related content are now featured on BaltimoreJewishLife.com

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to shtiklelist+unsubscribe@weeklyshtikle.com.