As we enter Elul, it is imperative to look for different ways of improving ourselves and bettering our chances at the din of Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Chodesh Elul generally begins with Parshas Shoftim, as it does this year. There is a powerful message in Shoftim that can help us to be zoche in din.
Before Klal Yisrael would go to war, the kohen would announce a list of groups of people who were exempt from fighting and were told to return home. One of these groups were those who were afraid and weak-hearted. The pasuk says that they should return to their homes, “v’lo yimas es livav achiv k’livavo – and he should not melt his friend’s heart like his own heart.” The Ramban quotes from the Bahag that there is a lo sa’aseh for such a person not to stay and thereby “melt” his fellow’s heart.
Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz, zt”l, derives from this that whenever anyone feels that he is in a poor state of mind, he should be very careful not to be around others, for this may discourage them. He points to many different places in Tanach where we find that great people were afraid of being affected by the downtrodden.
We know that middah tova is meruba – good measure is greater than the measure of evil. If the Torah goes to such lengths to warn us from discouraging others, how much more the reward for encouraging others to do good deeds would be.
The pasuk in Daniel (12:3) compares matzdikei ha’rabbim – those who help other do mitzvos – to the stars. Rav Chaim explains this comparison by relaying a vital fundamental principle. He asks how the sale of Esav’s bechora was valid when it was sold for a pot of beans. When one sells something for less than a sixth of its value, the seller may retract. The bechora was definitely worth an infinite amount more than a pot of beans. How was the sale valid?
Rav Chaim says that the value of anything ruchni – spiritual – is defined by its owner. The pasuk says “vayivez Esav es habechora – Eisav degraded the bechora.” Since in Esav’s eyes the bechora was worth not more than a pot of beans, the sale was valid. If one closes his Gemara or refrains from doing a mitzvah in order to make a certain profit, then he has valued his learning or that mitzvah to be worth less than that profit, ch”v. His reward in the world to come for the other times that he had performed that mitzvah may only reflect what he valued the mitzvah to be.
One who is mezakeh others to do mitzvos does not have any limitations on the value of those mitzvos. Since he is not the one who is performing the mitzvos, he cannot define its worth. Therefore, he will receive the maximum schar that was intended for those mitzvos.
As we approach the Yom HaDin we should focus on these important yesodos. In this zechus, we should all be zoche to a gmar chasima tova.
