THESE ARE THE WORDS — Because these are words of reproof and he is enumerating here all the places Bnei Yisrael provoked God to anger, therefore he suppresses all mention of the matters in which they sinned and refers to them only by a mere allusion, hinted to in the names of these places, out of regard for Israel. (Rashi on Devarim 1:1)

A maggid was once speaking in a synagogue, berating the congregation for all the sins they were doing. The Baal Shem Tov, who happened to be in the audience, got up and left in the middle of the speech. Seeing this, the rest of the audience also go up and left – which immediately ended the rebuke from the maggid. The maggid then approached the Baal Shem Tov to find out why he left. He answered, “Here I was in shul and there was a man saying lashon hara about klal Yisrael in front of the aron hakodesh! If rebuke had to be given, we are supposed to learn how to do it from Moshe Rabbeinu and give it in a veiled form!”

The Alter of Kelm once went to daven shacharis in the shul of a summer resort. He noticed that many of the Jews there did not have their tallis and tefillin. They told him that when they were travelling, they just did not have room for the “extras” in their valises. That evening, the Alter got up on the bima and asked permission to tell over a story. “I was once walking in the street of your hometown and heard a wailing. I determined the source of the wailing and ran into the home. The home was deserted of people, yet the wailing continued! After listening further, I determined that the wailing was emanating from the closet, and I found in there the source: A bag containing a pair of tefillin and a tallis. I said, “Tallis bag, why are you crying!?” The bag answered, “My owners went on vacation and left me behind. They took with them all their luxuries and money and only left me.” I consoled the tallis, saying, “Don’t worry, shortly your owners will be going on a very long trip, and their money and pleasures will be left behind, and they will only take you with them.” The Alter then left the stage, having made his message obvious to all.

We now have two conflicting stories: The Baal Shem Tov who held that rebuke must be said in an indirect way, and the Alter who held that rebuke must be said directly in the face. Let’s bring in one more story from Rav Shlomo Schwadron to try to put this all together:

The Rav of a small community had no time to learn because people in his community were having endless dinei Torah, as they stole chickens one from another. To put an end to this folly, the Rav commissioned a famous maggid to come to his community to speak about the severity of theft. The shul was filled to the rafters on Shabbos, and the community drank in every word that the maggid said. The Rav sat back in his chair, confident that by Sunday these silly thefts would stop, and he would be able to spend the entire day learning. Sunday morning came, but it was “business as usual”. The same questions regarding stealing chickens continued. He sent a telegram to the maggid asking for his money back since the “product was defective”. The maggid responded, “Put up a sign stating that due to popular demand, I will be back on Shabbos with Part Two.” On Shabbos morning there wasn’t room for a toothpick in the whole shul, as even those who missed the gems on the previous week also came to hear Part Two. The maggid got up to the bima, slammed his hand down, and said, “Rabbosai, you are NOT allowed to steal. That includes chickens and I am talking to all of you.” There was a roar in the crowd, “A CHUTZPAH! He comes here to tell us what to do?” They physically picked him up and threw him out of the shul. Yet on Sunday morning the Rabbi sat down to learn and wasn’t interrupted even once – because the message was received.

There are times where the direct approach is the only way to get the point across.

It seems to me that as we stand here on Erev Tisha B’Av, the way we have acted over the previous week has shown that we realize that we need a salvation. May our fast and our behavior on this upcoming day be a direct, heartfelt, plea to Hashem – which should translate into an inspired service of Hashem the day after as well, leading us towards a true Teshuva.