Question:
What is easier to believe?

Choices:
All of our sins are forgiven on Yom Kippor
Our financial income for the year is determined on Rosh HaShana

 

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Rabbi Mitterhoff,

“And the people feared the L-rd, and they believed”: The Hagaddah of Pesach
Based on Rav Iskok Blazer

If you are like most people, it is easier to believe that one’s sins are forgiven on Yom Kippur than it is to believe that Rosh Hashanah establishes one’s financial portion for the entire year.(1) Yet intelligence dictates, that repentance cannot change the damage of the past and still we come out of Yom Kippor with happiness and joy. Why?

The answer is that we are lacking the perception of the destruction and power of sin. It states in Ezekiel Chapter 33:11 “Say unto them: As I live, saith the Lord G-D, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?”

This generation understood what it meant to go against the will of their creator and anger him. It was against their intelligence that they could sin and still live. Hashem had to tell them in the form of an oath that if they repent they could continue to live. As it said “As I live, saith the Lord G-D”

This helps to explain what the Hagaddah says: At the sea it says, "Israel saw the great hand that the L-rd laid against Egypt; and the people feared the L-rd, and they believed in the L-rd and in His servant Moses."(shemos 14:31). Isn’t it obvious that the people believed in Hashem after all the miracles preformed for them in front of their eyes?

The answer is, that after they saw the destruction of the Egyptians thru the 50 plagues at the sea they became so afraid of Hashem’s punishments, as it states “and the people feared the L-rd” that they could not believe that they themselves could continue to live. Chazal tells us that the angle of the Egyptians argued for justice saying” just as the Egyptians did idol worship so too the Jews did idol worship”. When the Jewish people saw the awful and awesome destruction of those who rebel against the will and word of Hashem, they could not comprehend why Hashem did miracles for them. The only solution was to have had faith in Hashem’s promise to deliver us from Egypt which was made to Abraham our father.

Chazal tells us that that starting point to begin serving Hashem is to fear his punishments. As it says in Psalms 111:10 The beginning of wisdom is the fear of Hashem. We must all spend time contemplating this idea.



(1)Betzah 16a: All of a person’s sustenance is fixed from Rosh Hashanah until Yom Kippur, except for what he uses for Shabbat, Yom Tov or education. For those, if he increases it is increased and if he decreases it is decreased.
(2)Yalkut Shemoni: Ychezcal 18

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Rabbi Mitterhoff,