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WHERE ARE YOU?
Shnear Zalman of Ladi, who was the founder of the Chabad movement was once in jail.
The details of how come he was there are not important. It is enough to say that the Mitnagdim betrayed him to the government. They claimed that he was on the side of Napoleon in his war against the Czar, which was not true at all. The warden of this prison fancied himself to be an intellectual, and so when he heard that a Rabbi, who was known to be a profound thinker, was in his prison, he decided to pay him a visit.
The warden entered the Rabbi’s cell and they conversed for a few minutes. And then the warden said, “I’ve been reading your Bible and I have found a number of logical fallacies in it. Can I ask you to explain them?”
The Rabbi said, “If you wish.”
The warden said, “I found a mistake right in the first few pages of the book. God creates the first man and the first woman, and he puts them into the Garden of Eden. And He tells them that they may eat anything that they want to—but they are forbidden to eat of the Tree of Knowledge, which is located in the center of the garden."
So what do they do? They immediately eat of the fruit of the tree that they have been told is not permitted to them. And then they heard the sound of God, walking in the garden, and so they hide. They hide because they feel guilty for having broken the one commandment that they were given. They hide----and God calls out to them, “Where are you?”
“Now I ask you," said the warden, “if you believe that your God is omniscient, if you believe that He knows everything, then why does He need to call out and ask 'Where are you? Did God not know where they were?”
The warden asked this question, and then he sat back with a look of “Gotcha!” on his face. He thought to himself "Surely the Rabbi will not be able to get out of this logical contradiction, no matter how hard he tries.”
The Rabbi said, “I will answer your question---provided that you answer one question of mine first.” The warden figured it wouldn't cost anything to humor this old man, and so he agreed.
The Rabbi said: “Do you believe that the Bible is not just history but that it is destiny? And if so, do you believe that it speaks---not just to the first human beings but to all human beings?”
The warden agreed. He figured, why not? What did it cost him to say yes?
Then the Rabbi said, "If so, then it is as if God is speaking---not just to Adam and Eve but to you, and as if He is saying to you: You are fifty six and a half years old. Where are you?"
When he heard his own exact age mentioned by the Rabbi, a moment of fear came over the warden. But then he shook it off, and he stood up and patted the Rabbi on the back. And as he left the Rabbi’s cell, he said to him, “That was a very clever answer.” But for the rest of his life, he would sometimes wake up in the middle of the night and hear that question, WHERE ARE YOU?
The reason I tell you this story is because we are now in the month of Elul. And the purpose of the month of Elul is to force us to hear that question. All during the rest of the year, we work endless hours in order to avoid hearing that question. All during the rest of the year, we go to parties and listen to loud music in order to avoid hearing that question. But when Elul comes, and we hear the sound of the Shofar at Services every morning, saying in its clear and blunt way, “One more day closer to Yom Kippur! One day closer to the end of your life! Where are you? And what are you doing with your days on earth."
Think about this question when you hear the sound of the Shofar. And don’t avoid it or shake it off the way the warden did. For if you hear this question, and if you answer it honestly, you will be ready to enter the New Year.
-Rabbi Jack Riemer
A Special Note From Rabbi Jack Riemer:
"Sue and I (Rabbi Jack Riemer) are grateful for the two year honeymoon that we spent at B'nai Amoona!"
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