“For the matter is very close to you in your mouth and in your heart to do it.” (Devarim 30:14)

I cannot hold myself back from recording an amazing thing I found in the Yalkut on this parshah — a story about Eliyahu Hanavi. It is a great source of encouragement that will make it impossible for us to shirk our responsibility to serve Hashem with our hearts no matter what situation we are in.

This is what it says: “Once I [Eliyahu HaNavi] was walking and a certain man found me. He was mocking and deriding my words. I said to him ‘What will you respond to your Creator on the Day of Judgment?’ He said to me ‘I was not given wisdom and understanding to learn.’$$separate quotes$$” (Michtav Me’Eliyahu by Rav Eliyahu Dessler) 

“What will you respond to your Creator on the Day of Judgment?”

During these days this question reverberates from one end of the world to the other.

It fills the seas and the rivers the mountains and the hills. It spills into the streets and penetrates every home. No one can escape it. How will you answer your Creator on the Day of Judgment?

I’m thinking about the recipe for sweet chicken I’d like to try about my daughter’s torn Shabbos shoes. I’m wondering if the sheitelmacher will take  my sheitel even though it’s so late. To me the Yom Tov is three full days of Shabbos clothes and tights seudos challos and guests.

$c$ “I said to him ‘My son what is your profession?’

“He said ‘I am a fisherman.’

“I said ‘Who taught you to take flax weave it into nets cast them into the sea and catch fish from the sea?’

“He said ‘I was given wisdom from Heaven.’

“I said ‘If you were given the wisdom and understanding to take flax weave it into nets cast them into the sea and catch fish from the sea is it possible that you were not given wisdom and understanding to learn Torah about which it says “For the matter is very close to you”?’

“He immediately raised his voice and wept until I said to him ‘Do not be distressed. Everyone in the world gives this response but their actions belie their words.’$$separate quotes$$” (ibid.) $c$

Who gave us the knowledge to cook and do laundry? To set a beautiful table and make that complicated apple dessert? Who gives us the time to phone our sister-in-law or the hour to search for the right shoes?

Is it possible that the One Who gave us all these things hasn’t given us the wisdom to do teshuvah properly before Him? He must have also given us the time to think to contemplate and to make resolutions. And there is no doubt that we always have the ability to make courageous resolutions and the strength to uphold them.

$c$ Eliyahu HaNavi revealed the great secret of the answer to the charge leveled at every person in the world — the Torah is not far away but rather near at hand. We are making a grave mistake if we think there are times or situations when spiritual strength is far from us. Absolutely not! It is always close by — and not just close but very close to us. (ibid.) $c$

There’s no need to travel far or feel distressed that we’re not attending shiurim. We have no need to wait for great inspiring moments to whisk us to a different more spiritual realm. That moment is here and now! Right between the thawing chickens and the shirts awaiting buttons.

$c$Now if we could we’d ask Eliyahu where we can find the key to that path “so close” to us. In our eyes it seems as if we try dozens or hundreds of times and accomplish nothing Heaven forbid. We don’t even see a path to success but the Torah itself has already told us that it’s “in your mouth and in your heart” — that’s where we find the special gateway that leads to the observance of the Torah. (ibid.) $c$

There is no time not fitting for teshuvah no moment when it is impossible and no daughter who is not precious to her Father.

“Return to Me” Hashem tells us “and I will return to you.”

Shanah Tovah!