We’re overwhelmed by the Day of Judgment, but Rav Dessler presents a recipe for success: “We only need to think differently,” he says, and we’ll see a vast improvement in all our midos, because nearly all midos bein adam l’chaveiro pass through this point.
Dear readers it isn’t too late. True Rosh HaShanah has already come and gone but we still have Yom Kippur. Still we’re afraid we might not have awakened our hearts readjusted our thoughts or corrected our deeds in preparation for the Day of Atonement.
Yet there is hope as Rav Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler illuminates for us in Michtav Me’Eliyahu. It might seem like a very simple tip and really we’re talking about a small change – yet an incremental move that can bring about a dramatic transformation in our status before the Supreme Judge.
“If only we had an easy simple way of becoming purified from our tumah so that we could rise ever higher in our Torah and midos without hindrances and cling to Hashem wholeheartedly and eagerly ” writes Rav Dessler. If such a thing were available wouldn’t we all want it especially in these days of awe and fear of Divine judgment?
“But there is such a thing!” Rav Dessler tells us. “And Chazal revealed it to us: ‘Kol hamaavir al midosav maavirin lo al kol p’sha’av’ (Rosh HaShanah 17a) — loosely translated ‘If a person reacts with understanding and compassion toward those who distress him his own deliberate sins will be judged compassionately.’ This is a marvelous tool for getting free of the grime of sin.”
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