Blessed are we who have lived and endured for this time.
The month of Elul, or in its original name, "Elul," is already upon us. Here and there, the sound of a shofar echoes in a thin fanfare, and the beads of summer sweat between times have already been wiped from the wrinkles on the forehead.
Now, with the holiday storm over, and the warm sun cooling off the mountains, it's time for some serious soul-searching, and believe me - a worthwhile one.
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The multitudes of young men and women of the Kollel community, may God live upon them, are making the necessary mental preparation for the arrival of 'Elul', for about a month - and especially as a 'time'.
Even Israeli women, mothers and wives, know and understand a chapter or two about the trembling of fish and the roar of a lion on a city street.
It is no empty thing to experience the month of mercy and forgiveness, which is all but a preparation for a fixed period of twenty-five hours. Or as the Holy Maggid said: "The whole year is one long 'Elul' in preparation for the month of Elul, and the month of Elul itself is 'Elul' for the whole year.".
Didn't you understand? Apparently you're short on the definition of 'Godly.' It's okay, that'll come later.
The month of Elul is also the pride of the Haredi yeshiva students who claim the crown against their conservative counterparts, for whom, as is commonly believed, Elul is nothing more than a date, usually September.
It is not for nothing that the constant cry of the yeshiva head, the Rabbi Ezrachi, to the yeshiva students every month of Elul is: "Elul is not September," a kind of updated "Look what's between my father-in-law and my son.".
So maybe we're right about that, and maybe the actual feeling of the 'month of Elul' belongs specifically to the black yeshiva students, but let's talk for a moment about an ideal. Let's see what 'they', the knit society, have that we don't.
Well, maybe there is, but in a low, very low dose.
It is true, we are also strong in the 'pure view' and we will do everything, but absolutely everything, for the sake of the Torah and the lumediya. On the contrary, the almost complete disregard for the Torah and the halacha is found in great pride and arrogance, in the synagogues and seminaries of the Haredi public. The definition of the Tanna in the Avos, which speaks of a very specific piece of bread in a very specific place in a specific life process, is imprinted on thousands of Avrechim and their families from the Haredi sector. There is no doubt.
But what about 'idealism'?
They heard a story: In the building where I live, a couple lives happily with eight children without the evil eye. All are well-groomed, well-groomed, and ironed – an exemplary family.
A senior official in a government office leaves early in the morning and returns in the evening to a house that requires 'operation' and feeding, cleaning, and catering services, all with patience and a lot of love.
This beautiful story ends, or rather begins, with the father of the family.
The owner of this wonderful house is a former officer in the Armored Corps who carries a lot of shrapnel in his body from a shell that was fired directly into the tank in which he was staying with his subordinates.
Besides the shrapnel, he also has long plates and screws holding what's left of his leg, and they are what allow him the power of movement and operation. Yes, he is an IDF invalid.
Until I came to my senses, I believed that his severe disability came after the wedding in the middle of some reserve service. But when I was exposed to his story, I understood and learned a new chapter in 'Outlook and Principles'. Hereinafter, 'Ideal'.
It turns out that his serious injury was what brought him good luck. His wife, a member of the Datal sector, chose him precisely because of the fact that he sacrificed his body for the people and the country. In her opinion, not only was there no compromise here, but on the contrary, she realized her vision.
Now is the moment that hurts, not in the leg, but in the heart.
Will we, in the Haredi sector, so beautiful and so guarded, which prides itself on preserving the principles and holding on to the assets of the iron fold of Jewish tradition, and rightly so - find a seminarian here who will choose and seek out the yeshiva student whose backbone was bent because of studying and deepening the Holy Torah?
Leave the back bent. Is there any preference at all for choosing a yeshiva with glasses, which are the clearest evidence of "eye disability" created by perusing the pages of the Gemara and Jewish books?
So that's right, we are strong in answers and rejections.
We are masters at explaining that "what is the connection between these things at all?" The 'sedentary disability' is not measured at all by an external defect, God forbid, but by the inner soul, by being content with little and by renouncing in principle a life of comfort.
And after such "defects," on the contrary, many pursue with ideals and sacrifice. It is all true. We indeed magnify and glorify the hardworking yeshiva student and the young man who is content with little. That is true.
But still, perhaps Elul is the right "time" to look at ourselves in the mirror, to see the great ascension, the right and pure aspirations of these days, and to decide faithfully that the Torah is the supreme value and it is worth getting hurt for it.
Not with the foot, with the soul within - with the desire of the heart.
