ראש השנה ה’תש”ע
For the past thirty days, and perhaps for the entire year, the Jewish nation has been preparing for the holy days of Rosh Hashana. On this day it is decided who will live, and who will die, which countries will rise to power, and which will descend from their status. Through a quick glance at the special prayers designed for Rosh Hashana, it becomes clear that the primary focus of our attention is on coronating Hashem as king over the entire known universe. The chazzan in every community begins the services with a time-honored chant before he opens with the first word of the prayer “Hamelech”. We beseech God throughout the services to reveal the true nature of his dominion to the entire world. And again in the Mussaf services, the men of the great assembly set aside thirty verses throughout the Tanach which direct our attention to the power of the one true king. I believe that there are two points which need to be addressed in understanding the depth of this holy day. Firstly, we know that on Rosh Hashana, Hashem judges the entire world, and determines the fate of every inhabitant therein. What is the connection between our coronation of the Master of the world, and our judgment? One would have thought to spend the entire day beseeching God for mercy in judgment, but that is not what we do. Instead we simply focus on His kingship, paying no mind to the frightening verdicts which may be going on in the meanwhile. And secondly, why does all this have to happen specifically at the beginning of the year? Wouldn’t it make more sense to judge us at the end of the year?
The Holy Ramchal explains in his masterpiece “דרך ה'” that although we look at the new year as a seamless extension of the previous year, this is far from the truth. Each and every year Hashem decides if He should “recreate” the earth and its inhabitants. If we merit, we enter into a new year. But if, God forbid, we were to be found guilty, or unworthy of continuance, our existence would be terminated. With the creation of a new world, there are many new positions that need to be filled. So along with the decision to create a new world, comes the decision of who will be appropriate to fill those available positions, or to continue in their previous arrangements, and who will be aided supernaturally in order to properly discharge their new responsibilities. So the reason we focus on the coronation of Hashem on this holy day, is because this is the purpose of all creation – to accentuate God’s glory on this earth. Just like the angels spend their existence praising God in Heaven, it is our duty to do the same do the same down here on earth. When we do this, we show Hashem that we are ready to take on our new task, whatever it may be, because we know why were created, and are ready, willing, and able to continue with that task, thereby earning the privilege to be granted another year of life.
Rosh Hashana is not only about getting the world to recognize the glory of the one true King, but perhaps even more integral to the day is instilling in ourselves a genuine awe of His majesty. The Gemorah in Rosh Hashana says, “Say the verses of kingship, in order that you should place Me as the king over you”! The Rabenu Yona, in the first chapter of Shaare Teshuva writes that man was created in order to recognize and to fear his God, and to control his passions. When a person has a true understanding of the grandeur of his Creator, he will be better equipped to embark on the challenging mission of subjugating his heart and all his limbs to the service of the creator. By instilling a powerful respect, and even a trepidation of Hashem’s greatness on Rosh Hashana, we show Hashem that we know the purpose of our existence, and are ready to use our body parts in His holy service. One of the ways we do this is through the blasting of the Shofar. The verse says, can a Shofar be blown in the city that won’t inspire fright in the populace? Elul is an acronym for the words “If a lion roars, is there not panic”? I once heard an interesting explanation of this Chazal. A lion in the Zoo does not inspire fear in a person, but when the lion is roaming free in the city, people run home and bolt their doors in terror. Similarly during these times, Hashem is closer to us, but only if we feel that closeness can we effectively improve our awe and respect of our creator.
The Chovos Halevavos explains that on a practical level, the way to improve our fear of Heaven is through extra cautiousness. A person must consider any possibility that could lead him to sin, and set up a series of fences which will safeguard him from ever falling prey to his evil inclination. It is interesting to note that every year, we blow the Shofar on both days of Rosh Hashana in order to instill fear of Heaven in the Jewish people as we explained. However this year, when one of the days comes out on Shabbos, we refrain from blowing the Shofar, because the Rabbis were concerned we may come to carry the Shofar on Shabbos/Rosh Hashana. How could the Rabbis, knowing the incredible power of the Shofar to appease Hashem, and confuse the Satan, and earn us a favorable judgment, go and obliterate this crucial Mitzvah because of a remote concern that someone might carry the Shofar? Based on what we have explained, the answer to this difficult question should be quite clear. The famous Mashgiach, R’ Moshe Shwabb explains that just as the goal of the Shofar is to instill fear of Hashem in the Jewish people, which we translated as extreme vigilance to prevent any possibility of sin, Chazal in their wisdom replaced that action with a different one that sends the same message. By making such a far fetched decree, Chazal simultaneously protected us from desecrating the Shabbos, and showed us how seriously we need to take Mitzvah observance if we want to be true servants of Hashem. They had no concern that we would lose the critical message of the Shofar to fear Hashem, because their actions testified and taught us that very message!
Let us conclude with the Rambam. The Rambam in the laws of Teshuva (3:4) says that although the Shofar is a mandate from Heaven, there is still a message which we are supposed to draw from its performance. The verse says, “Wake up, oh sleepers, from your deep slumber, search through your deeds and return to your creator”. We must use these precious two days to draw close to our loving Maker, and fill the gap that we have created through darkening ourselves with sin during the year by examining our actions beforehand, and recognizing Hashem as the one true king, and reaffirming our obligation to serve Him with all of our hearts!
May we all merit a favorable judgment and a happy and healthy year filled with every blessing and success!