* Translation by Yehoshua Siskin
What follows is one of the most beautiful stories I have ever heard:
One day, the holy Baal Shem Tov, founder of the Hasidic movement, arrived in a small town. It was during the month of Elul.
“Who is the chazan (cantor) who will lead the prayers here on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur?” the Baal Shem Tov asked. “How does he pray?”
The townspeople took him to the local chazan and along the way they told him: “There is one thing that is a little strange. The chain sings the confessional prayers of Yom Kippur to joyful melodies. ‘We have sinned, we have betrayed…,’ ‘For the sin that we have committed…’ — he sings all of this with great joy.”
The Baal Shem Tov met the chazan and asked him to explain. Why not pray with sorrow, even with tears?
The chazan replied:
“A servant who cleans up the dirt in the courtyard of the king’s palace is very happy while doing so. He loves the king, and he knows that by doing this he is bringing joy to the king. Therefore, he sings while he cleans the palace.”
“You have answered beautifully,” said the Baal Shem Tov. “I would be happy to stay here and pray with you.”
And what is the message for us?
The king in the story is God. The palace is our personal world. And each of us receives a special invitation from the King to clean the palace — once a year.
The month of Elul, Rosh Hashanah, the Ten Days of Repentance, and Yom Kippur are not days of depression and bitterness. They are days of great joy over the very opportunity we have been given to correct ourselves and change course.
Just think about a world in which it were impossible to regret our mistakes and start over, where every mistake became fixed forever because there was no way to repair or to improve.
Although it is not always pleasant to clean up the dirt, we must remember that the opportunity to begin anew with a fresh start each year is a wonderful privilege.
So how could we not rejoice?
