Haazinu

‎The song of Haazinu‎ is the song of the history of a nation, for just as a musical composition has decrescendos & crescendos, so, too, the history of the Jewish people has its diminished times, periods of calamity, that will be followed by the joyous crescendo of the great finale, the ultimate redemption. (Otzros Hatorah)

One of the stanzas in our parsha states: ויאמר אסתירה פני מהם , and He will say I shall hide my face from them, אראה מה אחריתם, and see what is their end, כי דור תהפכת המה, for they are a generation of reversals. Rashi explains that they reverse Hashem's good will to anger. 

However, Reb Zusia of Anipoli saw the end of the verse in a good light. He translated the posuk as follows: "I shall hide my face from them" - let them act carelessly for a while. "I see what their end will be" - I'm not so worried about how they are acting now, for ‎"they are a nation of reversals" who have the potential to reverse in an instant from sinfulness to repentance. 

We just completed the fast and contrition of Yom Kippur. Ask anyone how it was & they will answer, “it was a great, inspiring, beautiful davening”.  However, looking around the day after doesn't seem much different; for the most part, we still look the same, act the same & dress the same. So what changed? 

What did we accomplish? ‎What could we still accomplish?

The Chafetz Chaim tells us a story about a wealthy man, who had many different businesses & ‎many employees. One day, his newly married nephew needed to go to work & came to him looking for a job. The wealthy man was very happy & told his nephew, “this is perfect; I need someone I can trust to oversee all the different businesses & workers to make sure everything runs smoothly.” 

The nephew was delighted for it was an easy job; he didn't need to get his hands dirty & the uncle was going to pay him a nice salary at the end of each month. The wealthy man took a piece of paper, wrote on it all the daily activities of the workers, gave it to his nephew and said, “come to me at the end of the month & we will go over the list;  then I will pay you”. 

He took the paper & was so excited that he would be making so much money‎. As soon as the month was up, he came to his uncle to get paid. The money was waiting for him, but first his uncle wanted to review with him all that was going on in the companies. He asked his nephew to report & the nephew rattled off the entire paper by heart, every worker and what they were supposed to be doing. The uncle was impressed that he knew the ‎schedule by heart but he wanted to hear how the workers were doing. Were the businesses performing properly? However, the nephew just kept repeating the chart; he knew nothing else. The uncle asked, “did you think I was paying you so much money just to memorize the chart? The chart was only a guide for you to know what to do, not just to say!”

At Ne’ila, the high point of Yom Kippur we all shout out the יג מידות, the thirteen attributes of mercy.  When we say these to Hashem, we should be forgiven & He will answer our prayers.  However, it doesn't seem like that is always the case. The Chafetz Chaim explains that we are like that nephew, just saying the list. The יג מידות are not just a prayer; it is the manual for what we have to do, not just say. We need to emulate the attributes of Hashem, be‎ compassionate, merciful, kind, etc. If we emulate Hashem & go in His ways by being nicer to people, looking out for each other's benefit, 

trying to emulate Him, then we will merit change, forgiveness & the answering of our prayers!

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