What Should We Do to Confuse the Satan?
by R. Eliezer Simcha Weisz
וְהָסֵר שָׂטָן מִלְּפָנֵינוּ וּמֵאַחֲרֵינוּ
Remove the Satan from before us and from behind us
We are now in the month of Elul, and our preparations for Rosh Hashanah have begun. Chazal tell us:
למה תוקעין? רחמנא אמר תקעו. אלא למה מריעין? כדי לערבב השטן
“Why do we blow the shofar? The Merciful One said to blow it. But why do we sound a teruah? In order to confuse the Satan.” (Rosh Hashanah 16a)
Chazal connect the blowing of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah with ״לערבב השטן״, confusing the Satan. Several of the practices of these days are also connected with this idea. We do not blow the shofar on Erev Rosh Hashanah, and we do not announce thecoming of the new month before Rosh Chodesh Tishrei as we do during the rest of the year. The blowing of the shofar throughout Elul, besides serving as a preparation for the Day of Judgment and a call to teshuvah, is also part of this preparation.
But there is a question. How can we confuse the Satan year after year with the same practices? He has heard the shofar blasts of Elul many times before. He knows the practices of Rosh Hashanah and knows very well that when Elul arrives, we begin preparing for the Day of Judgment.
Perhaps the answer is that the nisayon of one year is not necessarily the nisayon of the next.
Our obligations do not change. We must serve Hashem, preserve the kedushah of our homes, raise our children in the ways of Torah, and remain loyal to Torah. But the nisyonos we face do change.
The nisayon we faced in 5786 is not necessarily the nisayon we will face in 5787. The world changes, and the ways in which the yetzer hara seeks to weaken a person’s emunah and his commitment to Torah change as well.
We therefore have to recognize, each year anew, the nisyonos we are facing and consider how we must meet them.
This is especially clear in the reality in which we find ourselves today. We are once again witnessing open expressions of antisemitism, and at times even acts of frightening violence. A Jew is confronted with a reality in which simply being Jewish can make him a target.
This is a special nisayon. We must stand firm in our Yiddishkeit, strengthen our children in their Jewish identity, and not allow fear or the atmosphere around us to weaken our commitment to Torah and mitzvos.
At the same time, here in Eretz Yisrael, we face deep differences between different parts of Jewish society. These differences are felt in public life, in society, and sometimes even within families. We must know how to live with this reality without compromising our loyalty to Torah, while at the same time avoiding unnecessary division and sinas chinam among Jews.
These are some of the nisyonos of our generation. We have to recognize the reality in which we live and think about how a ben Torah is meant to deal with it.
This is especially true in chinuch. Our obligation to transmit the Torah from one generation to the next does not change. The Torah is the same Torah, and its principles do not change. But the nisyonos of each generation are different, and parents and mechanchim must know how to strengthen children and help them face the particular nisyonos of their time.
חֲנֹךְ לַנַּעַר עַל פִּי דַרְכּוֹ
“Educate a child according to his way.” (Mishlei 22:6)
The Torah does not change. But we have to know how to raise our children with Torah and yiras Shamayim within the reality in which they live, and how to prepare them for the nisyonos they will face.
What was taken for granted by one generation is not always taken for granted by the next. The influences that strengthened one generation are not necessarily the same influences that will strengthen the next. The approaches that helped us withstand the nisyonos of the past may not be enough for the nisyonos we face today.
The same is true of each person’s own avodas Hashem.
Elul is not only a time to look back at our avodas Hashem during the past year. We must ask ourselves: What is the nisayon I am facing now?
What has changed in me? What has changed in my home? What has changed in my children’s lives? And what now requires a different response from me?
There is a danger in relying too much on past experience. A person may think that because he has already dealt with a particular nisayon, he knows how to deal with it now as well. But circumstances change, and sometimes the very same nisayon appears in a different form.
The Satan does not have to come to us in the same way every year. It is enough for him to find another opening, at another time and in another way.
Perhaps this is part of what we ask in our tefillah:
וְהָסֵר שָׂטָן מִלְּפָנֵינוּ וּמֵאַחֲרֵינוּ
“Remove the Satan from before us and from behind us.”
We ask Hashem to remove from us the obstacles that stand before us and behind us. But we also have a responsibility to recognize the obstacles that face us in our generation. We must know what we have to guard against, where we need to strengthen ourselves, and where greater strength is required of us.
This is one of the cheshbonos of Elul: not only to ask in what areas we need to strengthen ourselves, but also whether we are dealing properly with the nisyonos that stand before us.
The nisayon changes. The Torah does not.
Our task is to recognize the nisyonos of our generation and meet them with the strength of Torah, which has guided Klal Yisrael throughout the generations.
Therefore, the question is not only where we need to strengthen ourselves beyond what we did in 5786. We must also ask:
What do we need to do differently in 5787?
What should we do to confuse the Satan in 5787?
This is the question we should give serious thought to as we prepare for Rosh Hashanah. If we face this question honestly, we can enter Rosh Hashanah with a true cheshbon hanefesh and with the proper preparation for the Yom HaDin.