Because of the matter that they did not greet you with bread and water on the way when you came out of Egypt; and because he hired against you Bilam son of Beor from Pesor in Aram Naharayim to curse you. (Devarim 23:5)

People don’t like hypocrisy. We like to think that we are consistent in our approach. In truth there are many situations which, even in the realm of halacha, are called b’dieved, and the torah would demand from us in those situations to act differently than we normally do. When the reality changes, we are expected to do more. While this seems to be contradictory, there is in fact total harmony. The classic example of this is someone who has a severe medical condition that the doctors and the Rabbis say, “If he fasts on Yom Kippur he may die!” The man therefore eats on Yom Kippur, and yet his prayers will be accepted equally to a healthy person who fasted. When he is out of any danger by the next Yom Kippur, he will once again be required to fast. While last year it was a mitzvah to eat, this year it would be a sin to eat. This is simple to understand when rationale for the change is clear. But if one were to see someone wearing tefillin all day, for example, our initial reaction might be, “Why is this guy such a machmir?!” People say this, even though Chazal tell us that the reason we don’t wear tefillin all day is due to a b’dieved situation that we find ourselves in today, whereas this fellow is following the ikar hadin.

In this week’s parsha it states: The descendants of Amon and Moav are not permitted to marry Jews because they did not offer the Bnei Yisrael food to eat, and also because they hired Bilam to eradicate the Bnei Yisrael. The commentators are perplexed: The fact that they wanted to eradicate us should be ample enough reason. Why should the fact that they didn’t extend themselves to do chesed also be part of the reason? And is that enough of a reason not to let someone into Klal Yisrael?

Perhaps from the points of view of Amon and Moav, Klal Yisrael was a threat and they felt that if they were to let them exist, they themselves would be annihilated. Therefore, in their mind’s eye, they could have legitimized that they had no choice but to find a “clean” way of disposing of Klal Yisrael by hiring Bilam. They would vindicate themselves by saying, “It is not that we don’t like the Jews; just when it is a question of ‘us or them’ We will choose ourselves!” How would one know whether this is true or not? The answer is, “let us see how they act in other areas.” When they were given a choice to help Klal Yisrael, without any threat to themselves, they didn’t. This clearly shows that their real intent was to wipe Klal Yisrael off the map because of their intense hatred for them, and not self-defense.

As we find ourselves in the midst of Elul, there are people make extra time to learn, say Tehillim, or do chesed. When they pencil it into their calendar, they make it clear that this special schedule is just until the Yomim Noraim pass. So, when they make their kabala, the yetzer hara may say to them, “You think that Hashem doesn’t know that you plan to curtail these activities as soon as the heat is over? On the contrary, this ‘show’ you are putting on may arouse His wrath. Just be NORMAL and continue your life as you do all year round!”

How do we respond to such a yetzer hara? I believe the answer is urgency. Sometimes we find ourselves in a dire situation and we are able to overachieve. This is not proof that we can really be an overachiever all the time, rather it shows our determination and responsibility by the fact that we are performing above our norm. For many of us throughout the year it is not possible to stay on such a high level, but when we do it for these forty days, the message that we are sending to Hashem is: This is how I would like to be all the time. Chazal tell us if a person is a victim of circumstance, and cannot perform a mitzvah, Hashem will give him credit as if he did it. Possibly another bonus of our extra observance during these days is that it could give us merits in the future as if we did the mitzvos all year long.

May we be blessed with a year of super-accomplishment!