Shoftim 1

Before the dvar torah I would just like to wish mazal tov to my brother and sister in law for having a baby boy this past Tuesday, Rosh Chodesh Elul, may he be zoche to Torah, Chupah and Ma'asim Tovim!

Cities of Refuge:

We all know the halacha of ir miklat (the city of refuge). The halacha is that if someone kills accidentally the family of the victim can kill the murderer until he gets to one of the six cities of refuge. The murderers must then spend all of their time until the death of the Kohen Gadol. If, before that time, the murderer takes even one step out of the city and the victim's family is there they can kill him. There is another halacha not as well known directly after this parsha. From perek 19 pasukim 11 and 12 in this week's parsha says "But if there is a man who hates his fellow... and strikes him mortally and he (the victim) dies and he (the murderer) flees to one of these cities... then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there and place him in the hand of the redeemer of the blood..." What?! They must remove the man from the city? Why can't they just kill him there why must he first be taken out of the ir miklat? I believe the answer to this question is quite revealing especially since we are in the month of Elul.

We all know the power of Teshuva. Someone can perform a sin and upon completing the requirements for teshuva not only will that sin be forgiven but it will actually be transformed into a mitzvah. When someone commits a sin he creates a chalal (vacuum) in the world. In this place Hashem's presence is removed. The whole purpose of Hashem creating the world was so that He can rest in it. But our sinning is removing His presence from the world. Now when we do teshuva the chalal is removed and the Shechina is returned there. This is the power of Teshuva.

Now there is another way for us to be forgiven for our sins. This is not as powerful as Teshuva but it does remove the sin that would otherwise stay with us for all of eternity and damaging us in Gehenom. This process is called Isurim (pains). If someone gets hurt that pain reduces his pain after he dies. One such pain is Galut (exile). Many gedolim throughout history put themselves into galut to atone for their sins. The idea of the accidental murderer running to the ir miklat is that he is putting himself into galut and as long as he remains in galut it is as if he as no sin. So too, a murderer who killed on purpose. Even though he killed on purpose the moment he steps into the ir miklat he is sin free. The judges cannot touch this man because according to halacha he is sin free. The murderer cannot be touched. Only if the elders of the city remove him from ir miklat can he be put to death.

This idea teaches us a very important lesson for this time of year. We all know that we will be judged for all of our sins in just a couple of weeks. We all know how important the next month is, but if we take a step back and realize how far our teshuva can go. Every little act that we do can get us out of countless bad things that we deserve. If a murderer walks into an ir miklat he is forgiven for his sins. But we must also realize the other side. That these small steps must get us somewhere. If after the month of Elul, Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur we remain unchanged then we have wasted our time. It is just like the murderer that goes to the ir miklat and then after a few days decides to leave. He worked so hard to be free but in the end it was all for nothing because he did not stay in the city. This is even more true for the person who killed on purpose. He would be forgiven if he would remain in the city but once he leaves the city he is the same murderer when he came in. If someone sins and then does the teshuva he is like this murderer who walked into the ir miklat. The real question is will he remain in the ir miklat?

Rav Pincus gives an interesting mashul in the introduction to one of his seforim. He says there are two types of people that go to the airport. One type who goes to the airport goes on line and gets through to the plane. Then the plane takes off and he leaves to a new place. The second person walks into the airport and walks through security he gets to the gate where the airplane is and watches all of his friends get on the plane. The man watches as the plane leaves the terminal and takes off. After a couple of minutes he turns around and heads home. He went to the airport but never went anywhere. Are we going to go through the entire month of Elul, Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur all just to watch the planes take off or are we going to get on the planes and go somewhere?

May we all be zoche to have a month of extreme spiritual growth and may we all get on the planes in the end.