The poem that had to be rewritten

My great-grandfather Tzvi Meir Steinmetz was a Holocaust survivor. Born in Budapest in 1915, he was 29 years old when the Nazis invaded Hungary. While Hebrew poetry was his forte, he posed as a non-Jewish electrician during the Nazi occupation of Budapest, while his wife and three daughters, including my grandmother, were hidden by righteous gentiles. Thank G-d, they survived.

After the war, they emigrated to the United States and settled in Brooklyn. While he did not come from a Chabad background, he became a disciple and ardent follower of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson.

In 1989, he was surprised to see a poem he had authored in 1941 printed in the Hamodia newspaper. It was about the month of Elul.

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This Shabbat is Shabbat Mevarchim Elul — the Shabbat on which we bless the coming month, in this case Elul. Elul is the last month of the Jewish year, and the one that precedes the month of the High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, as well as the joyous festivals of Sukkot and Simchat Torah.

In the poem, he compared the Jewish people facing the Day of Judgment to lazy people sweeping rubbish under the beds. “The one who transgressed faces the wall and covers his eyes, hoping that You, too, will not see it.” The poem ends with a plea for forgiveness: “Kindness is your attribute, Merciful G-d.”

As was his custom, my great-grandfather shared his poem with the Rebbe, noting, however, that he wrote it “before the light of Chabad touched my creative spirit.”

The Rebbe was quick to reply, sending one of his aides to hand my great-grandfather the Rebbe’s written response in person.

The Rebbe thanked him for the poem, but promptly requested that he write another: “Since we are at the end of the month of Elul, and we are going to dress in white because we are sure that we are meritorious in judgment. …”

The Rebbe was quoting the Tur, Rabbi Jacob Ben Asher, a 14th-century rabbi who wrote a monumental work on Jewish law. In his laws of Rosh Hashanah, he writes that “generally, one facing judgment dresses in black and is unkempt, for he doesn’t know what his ruling will be.” “But unlike this are the Jewish people,” continues the Tur. “They dress in white and are well-groomed, eating, drinking and rejoicing on Rosh Hashanah, for they know that G-d will perform a miracle for them.”

So the Rebbe wanted him to write another poem that more accurately portrayed the month of Elul, when G-d’s 13 Attributes of Mercy shine forth.

My great-grandfather shared the Rebbe’s reply with his daughters, explaining that the Rebbe was reprimanding him for speaking harshly of the Jewish people when they had surely repented already. “The Rebbe has urgently requested another poem, he explained, to ‘fix’ the first one. And it’s not easy to write a poem on demand … .”

Nonetheless, that is exactly what he did. Over the next five days, he worked on a new poem. As soon as he submitted it to the Rebbe, which was on a Friday afternoon close to Shabbat, the Rebbe immediately sent his aide to transmit his thanks and appreciation.

But what are these 13 Attributes of Mercy that shine in Elul?

The founder of Chabad, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, presented a parable for this:

The king’s usual place is in the capital city, in the royal palace. Anyone wishing to approach the king must go through the appropriate channels in the palace bureaucracy and gain the approval of a succession of secretaries and ministers. He must journey to the capital and pass through the many gates, corridors and antechambers that lead to the throne room. His presentation must be meticulously prepared, and he must adhere to an exacting code of dress, speech and mannerism upon entering into the royal presence.

However, there are times when the king comes out to the fields outside the city. At such times, anyone can approach him; the king receives them all with a smiling face and a radiant countenance. The peasant behind his plow has access to the king in a manner unavailable to the highest ranking minister in the royal court when the king is in the palace.

The month of Elul, says Rabbi Schneur Zalman, is when the king is in the field.

As Elul approaches, let’s tap into this once-a-year opportunity, when G-d is more accessible to each and every one of us.

As this week’s Torah portion begins: “See, I set before you today the blessing … to motivate you to heed the commandments of G-d …”

May each and every one of us be blessed with a ketivah v’chatima tovah, l’shanah tovah umetukah, a good inscription and sealing for a good and sweet year! PJC

Rabbi Yossi Feller is the rabbi of the Chabad Jewish Center of Cranberry. This column is a service of the Vaad Harabonim of Western Pennsylvania.