Yom HaDin: Looking for the Good
דע, כי צריך לדון את כל אדם לכף זכות, ואפלו מי שהוא רשא גמור “Know that a person must judge everyone for the good, even someone who is completely wicked,” צריך לחפש ולמצא בו איזה מעט טוב, “it is necessary to search and find within him some modicum of good, שבאותו המעט אינו רשע, “because through this little bit he is not wicked”. ועל ידי זה שמוצא בו מעט טוב, ודן אותו לכף זכות, “By finding in him some little bit of good, judging him favorably, על ידי זה מעלה אותו באמת לכף זכות, ויוכל להשיבו בתשובה, “through this, one genuinely elevates him to the scale of merit and can make it possible for him to return in teshuvah” (Likutei Moharan 282:1).
This teaching of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, codified in Likutei Moharan, is the ikar, the essence of our spiritual work right now, this very moment. By looking for the good in another, even in the completely wicked, we fundamentally change him to have goodness, worth, hope, and life.
How can this be? Perhaps it is through a reevaluation in which we recognize a positive aspect that we overlooked. He wasn’t actually completely wicked. Or perhaps, we shift the spiritual makeup of another by choosing to find מעט טוב, even a little bit of good in them. We shift the divine evaluation for the good, elevating another from the scale of guilt to the scale of merit– מכף חובה לכף זכות.
Rebbe Nachman continues, וכן צריך האדם למצא גם בעצמו, “So too, a person much find some good point within himself.” ואפלו כשמתחיל להסתכל בעצמו ורואה שאין בו שום טוב, והוא מלא חטאים, ורוצה הבעלדבר להפילו על ידי זה בעצבות ומרה שחורה, חס ושלום, “[Especially when doing teshuvah, i]t may be that when he begins to examine himself and sees that he possesses no good and is filled with sin, that the evil inclination wants to push him into depression and sadness, God forbid” (Likutei Moharan 282:2:2). Through finding even a little bit of good in himself— as he does for another — מחיה את עצמו, he revives himself. (Likutei Moharan 282:2:9). על ידי זה נעשין נגונים כנ׳׳ל, ואזי הוא יכול להתפלל ולזמר ולהודות לה׳, “Through this, [which is very Rebbe Nachman] melodies/niggunim are made [making music out of yearning], and then he is able to pray, and sing, and give praise to God” (Likutei Moharan 282:2:7).
To introduce Musaf on Rosh Hashanah, the shaliach tzibbur says the tefillah of “Hineni”: באתי לעמוד ולחנן לפניך על עמך ישראל אשר שלחוני, ואף על פי שאיני כדאי והגון לכך, “I have come here to stand up and plead with You for Your people Israel who have sent me, even though I am not worthy or fitting to come” (Machzor). As we have been learning in our Elul Mishnah Berurah shiur together, a person becomes a shaliach tzibbur on the Chagim davka because he is כדאי והגון. We see in him the good – more than just a little bit – and so we stand with him, in melody and harmony around his voice. The rabbis paskened that the shaliach tzibbur at the Chagim should not only be of good character, learned, and desired by the community— but he also has to have lived enough to have a broken heart so that he can authentically be a voice for the brokenhearted amongst us, with requisite empathy (Mishnah Berurah Hilchot Rosh Hashanah 581:1:12).
Even a person who is kadai, can feel like an imposter. For we all know our greatest flaws, even if we try to hide them from ourselves. We may even wonder how we stand before Hashem worthy of teshuvah at all. And so we hear Rebbe Nachman’s wisdom– on Rosh Hashanah, as the world and we are reborn, we revive ourselves, doing spiritual CPR on the brokenhearted such that we move from the text of Hineni into the harmonious song of Musaf.
I think of a palliative care patient I once knew who was so grateful for the chesed of her shul community, but who didn’t feel worthy of it. She kept saying she needed to find a way to give as everyone gave to her in order to receive their kindness. And yet she felt too depleted from her chemo to begin. We explored not only what she was able to give amidst her limitations, but also what it was like for her to accept being the recipient, including as another way of giving. The concept of allowing herself to receive became her source of relief and peace— and of feeling kdai, worthy of God and others’ kindnesses. So many of us don’t feel worthy of support and carry guilt and despair because of it.
What is the antidote to despair? Rabbi Jonathan Sacks writes in his extensive work Happiness: A Jewish Perspective, “Happiness in biblical Judaism, is to be found in here and now, in this universe that God created and seven times pronounced ‘good’, in this embodied life, the mix of ‘dust of the earth’ and ‘the breath of God’….There is surprisingly little reference to the afterlife in the Hebrew Bible, and it is never offered as an answer to the problem of evil: why the wicked prosper and the innocent suffer. Nor is there any reference to original sin or the fallen-ness of the human condition. We sin; we repent; God forgives- —collectively and individually. It is here, on Earth and in this life, that justice is to be fought for, compassion practiced, and happiness achieved.”
Rabbi Sacks notes that the word for simcha appears once in each of the first four books of the Torah. But it is mentioned 12 times in the book of Devarim. Why? Because Devarim includes Moshe’s farewell address to the next generation. What he emphasizes most is the need for us to build a just society. As Rabbi Sacks writes, “We are persons in relation; therefore our happiness depends on the depth and quality of our relationships.”
This is what we do through teshuvah. We choose to find the good in others and in ourselves. In doing so, we actualize the potential for good, and make it so. Creating relational happiness from investment in each other. Affirming that the world that God called ‘tov’ is truly good. This spiritual work, as Rebbe Nachman teaches, is how we revive our souls, how we are reborn into the new year.
This moment, now, is kadai. We are kadai. We are worthy of each other’s love and forgiveness and we are worthy of God’s rachamim and brachot for a truly Shanah Tovah uMetukah. Let us be revived through the melodies and harmonies borne from brokenhearts, yearning to find מעט טוב in hopeful and just community. That little bit of good that tips the scales – מכף חובה לכף זכות— from past burdens and future worries, to the gratitude and joy of now.
