Ki Savo: 5785 - Erev Shabbos Selichos: The story of the simple villager who got up to recite Selichos over material matters, and its connection to Chai Elul. Presented by Rabbi Shimon Zonnenfeld; at the end of the lesson…

00:02 We’re on the eve of Shabbos Selichos. With Hashem’s help, on Motzaei Shabbos we begin saying Selichos: “At the close of rest, we come before You first.” There’s an interesting story about Selichos that’s told about one of the Alter Rebbe’s chassidim. I’ve always had a question about this story. What happened? Reb Shmuel Munkes, one of the Alter Rebbe’s prominent chassidim, was once traveling during the days of Selichos. He stayed at an inn. The innkeeper was an elderly, simple Jew. Early one morning, as was customary, the innkeeper got up for Selichos. But he saw that his guest was still asleep. He hadn’t gotten up for Selichos. The innkeeper was surprised: here was a respectable-looking man with a long beard, and he wasn’t getting up. Thinking perhaps he had overslept, the innkeeper went and woke him. Reb Shmuel asked, “What’s happened?” “Selichos,” the innkeeper said. “What? What are Selichos?” Reb Shmuel asked. Now the innkeeper was even more surprised. How could a Jew his age not know what Selichos were? “Before Rosh Hashanah, we say Selichos,” he explained. Reb Shmuel asked, “Why do we need to say Selichos?” “What do you mean? It’s the Day of Judgment, when Hakadosh Boruch Hu judges everyone in the world.” “So why do we need to say Selichos?” Reb Shmuel asked. “So the cow will give milk, the vegetables will grow in the garden, and we’ll have a livelihood and good health.” Reb Shmuel said to him, “Grown men like you get up in the middle of the night to ask for food? Babies wake up at night and need to be fed. But a grown man?” That’s the story they tell. I’ve always had a question about it. First of all, what do we ask for on Rosh Hashanah? We ask that we should have

02:07 a livelihood, good health, and all these things. Second, he seems to be making fun of a simple, sincere Jew who gets up in the middle of the night to say Selichos. Reb Shmuel Munkes was one of the Alter Rebbe’s great chassidim. Is he making fun of a simple Jew for getting up to say Selichos? That’s how it seems and sounds, as though it’s something to laugh at. I’ve always wondered about that, even though chassidim have always told this story. What, then, is the point of the story? We can explain it, though. There’s a teaching of the Baal Shem Tov, whose birthday was yesterday, 18 Elul. The Baal Shem Tov commented on the verse in Tehillim, “Hungry and thirsty, their soul faints within them.” He explained that when a Jew is hungry and drawn to a particular food, or thirsty and wants a particular drink, “their soul faints within them.” What does that mean? His soul is drawn to that food because the spark within that food or drink belongs to him. He needs to elevate it to holiness; he needs to refine it. That’s why he’s drawn to it. “Their soul faints within them.” It’s not simply that he wants to eat because he craves food. His soul is drawn to that food or drink because its spark is his portion in the world. He needs to attend to it, refine it, and elevate it to holiness. That’s how the Baal Shem Tov explained it. So, in light of this teaching, perhaps we can explain what Reb Shmuel Munkes meant. G-d forbid that he wanted to mock a Jew who got up in the middle of the night to say Selichos. Certainly not. A chossid of the Alter Rebbe would not mock a simple Jew for getting up to say Selichos. Rather, he wanted to awaken in him the understanding that what

04:08 we need to ask Hakadosh Boruch Hu for is not just physical food. There’s something deeper here: “Their soul faints within them.” It’s a matter of refining and elevating. We need to elevate the food to holiness. It’s not just that He should give us food and milk and everything we need. All of that has a purpose. What is it? “Their soul faints within them.” How could Reb Shmuel awaken this understanding in that simple Jew? By asking him those questions—why do we need these things?—he got him thinking. Wait, why am I going out in the middle of the night to ask for them? He awakened in him the awareness that there’s a deeper purpose to all our involvement with worldly, physical things: to elevate them to holiness. That was his intention. So this can explain the story. May it be Hashem’s will that He accept our Selichos and grant each and every Jew a good, sweet—sweet—year and a good sealing.