Maghen Abraham - Thoughts From Mayer Sasson

"… and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword." (26,8)

 To silence the prosecutors

 Rabbi Moshe Arye Leib Litch Rosenbaum, author of Matta Diyerushalaim, said: The first letters of these words "ונפלו אויביכם לפניכם לחרב" spell out ELUL אלול.

The Torah alludes to us that when the Jews repent in the month of Elul, they silence thereby all the prosecutors that exist against them on the Day of Judgment.

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 "But if you will not hearken unto Me…And if you despise My Laws, and your souls reject My social regulations…you break My covenant." (26, 14-15)

 Progressive defection

 Once you have lost the theoretical knowledge and understanding of the Torah, and for any reason, put it behind you back in practical life, your conscience gives you no rest until, to justify to yourself, you have sophistically converted the defection into "progress" and accustomed yourself to look down on faithful adherence to the Torah as something to be conquered.

For the existence of the Torah and its power to form and rule life – even if the knowledge of it has been lost and it has ceased to be a factor of practical life – does still come to us from the life of its contemporary faithful adherents. And every such loyal adherent is felt as a reproach to the deserter, until he has succeeded in sophistically considering himself as a "better man" and learnt to look down with disdain on the Torah and its followers.

Thus the fall from the Torah, begun with the lack of study and knowledge, progresses to contempt of the Torah.

"He who does not study and does not perform in the end despises others."

 Shabbat Shalom!!