5772 — Yom Kippur, Neilah — Mt. No Mountain (Finale: Two Texts)

“No Mountain At All”

 

Yom Kippur – Neilah

Neil F. Blumofe

7 October 2011

SUKKOT 52A

1.            V’safda ha’aretz mishpachot l’vad – the land will eulogize each family by itself (Zechariah 12:12)

What is the nature of this eulogy – there is a disagreement among the rabbis.

One says that this refers to a leader who has been killed in battle the other says that this refers to the yetzer hara  that will be eradicated in the future.

Q: How can this be?  If in fact the yetzer hara will be gotten rid of in the future, wouldn’t that be cause for great rejoicing?  Why would this bring out a eulogy – why would people weep?

A: It is as R’ Yehudah expounded:  In the future the Kadosh Baruch Hu will bring the yetzer hara for destruction in the presence of the righteous and in the presence of the wicked.  To the tzadikim the yetzer hara will look like a high mountain that can hardly be scaled, and to the r’shaim it will appear like the flimsiest hair that can easily be snapped.  Both the tzadikim and the r’shaim will weep.

The tzadikim will weep and say, “How were we able to overcome such a high mountain?”  And the r’shaim will weep and say, “How were we not able to overcome such a flimsy strand of hair?”

And so too, the Kadosh Baruch Hu will wonder with them both (as it says, ko amar haShem Tsevaot ki yipalei b’einei sh’eirit ha’am hazeh ba’yamim haheim gam b’einai yipalei – thus said the Lord, God of Hosts – as it will be wondrous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in those days, so it will also be wondrous in my eyes, as well).

2.            Hinei samtich l’morag Tadush harim v’tadok, ugvaot kamotz tasim

Tizreim v’ruach tisa’aim, usara tafitz otam v’atah tagil badoshem. (Isaiah 41:15/16)

 

I will make you to be a threshing board and you shall thresh mountains into dust and make hills like chaff.  You shall reduce them and the wind shall carry them off – the whirlwind will scatter them and you shall rejoice in haShem.