The Baal Shem Tov once sent his students to observe a
local innkeeper as part of their preparation for Rosh Hashanah. The students dutifully checked into the inn.
Initially they observed nothing remarkable. After saying the Saturday night Selichot (special
penitential prayers recited before the New Year), they went to sleep, only to
be awakened by the innkeeper moving about in the lobby. They tip-toed out of
their rooms to find the innkeeper opening up a cabinet and removed two big
ledgers.
From one ledger he proceeded to read all his sins of the
past year: he confessed that he was insensitive to his family, that he didn’t
fulfill all his obligations to his community, that he didn’t study enough
Torah, he once came late to prayers, etc. Then he opened the second ledger,
saying to G-d, “These are my failings, now here’s what You didn’t do … I asked
for a better living wage this year and you didn’t give it to me. My wife is
still ill. My children need shoes. The cow stopped giving milk…”
In the end he concluded, “Look, I didn’t live up to my
obligations and You didn’t live up to Yours. So let’s call it even. I’ll close
my book, You’ll close Your book, and we’ll start a new year again with a clean
slate.”
-Rabbi Simon Jacobson
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