Rosh Hashana - Parshas Ha'azinu 5785
- Torah Tavlin
- Oct 2, 2024
- 3 min read
ותתן לנו ה' אלקינו באהבה מועדים לשמחה וכו' את יום הזכרון הזה יום תרועה ... (סדר קידוש)
When the Kotzker Rebbe zt”l was 5 years old, someone asked him a question, a typical question that one asks a 5 year old child, but his answer was very atypical. He was asked, “Where is Hashem?” And he answered, “Wherever you let Him in, that’s where He goes.”
So, we are supposed to let Hashem in, but how? Of course, by thinking about Him. By thanking Him, by asking Him for all our needs, by praising Him and focusing on all the good that comes from Him. Hashem is always close to those who “let Him in” but now He is especially close.
If you look at the beautiful davening on Rosh Hashana that we say in our machzor, we are basically describing the perfect world, the world of Moshiach, the world where Hashem is King. We describe how the tzaddikim will rejoice and the evil forces in the world will be silenced and the wicked will go up like smoke and be eradicated from the world. The entire population will know that Hashem is the King. Rosh Hashana is the day that we live life exactly as we wish it to be. It is a day of clarity, a day of light, where the spotlight is on us, the Jewish People, who will finally be recognized as Hashem’s chosen people.
This is why we say in “L’Dovid Hashem Ori” that Ori, my light, is referring to Rosh Hashana. It is like that beautiful picture at a family wedding, where everyone is wearing their most beautiful clothing, everyone is smiling, everything looks perfect. We look like the perfect family. Everyone is happy, nobody is fighting, but it is all a show. Nobody really looks like that in real life ... and not everyone who is smiling on the outside is really smiling on the inside. But we have a picture of who we really want to be.
Rosh Hashana is the day that we show Hashem who we really want to be. We daven almost all day, we greet everyone respectfully and cheerfully, we make a beautiful family seudah and we all try to be on our best behavior. After all, it is the Yom HaDin.
But we are not afraid. We go into this Day of Judgment wearing our new outfits and eating all the delicacies that we prepared. We are trembling with joy, because we know that the Awesome King who is judging mankind is also our Father.
I will never forget how my high school principal (this goes back many years ago) used to tell us every year that his favorite holiday is Rosh Hashana. I actually thought he was being facetious and couldn’t completely comprehend what he meant. It took me a few years to get it. But when I did, I was blown away. In fact, with his outlook on Rosh Hashana, it didn’t take long for the holy day of Yom Kippur to become my favorite Yom Tov.
What special days we were given to achieve the purpose for which we have come to this world. Yom Kippur is called “Yishi” - my salvation, because on Rosh Hashana, “We see the light” we get the clarity that is necessary to do real teshuvah and so we have 10 days to do teshuvah. We have Aseres Yemei teshuvah, 10 days in which we need to turn that beautiful picture of Rosh Hashana, that momentary flash of the camera, to reality. When we truly do teshuvah and return to Hashem at this time, we enter into Yom Kippur, the day of salvation and are completely cleansed of all our sins by our beloved Father in Heaven.
Only then can we enter the sukkah, the private chamber of Hashem, like the yichud room between us and Hashem, where the zman simchaseinu is palpable. The joy of Sukkos depends on the mindset of Elul and the clarity of Rosh Hashana and the teshuvah of Aseres Yemei teshuvah and the selicha and kappara of Yom Kippur.
It is a chain reaction of the most wonderful and lofty levels that man can achieve. It is the way we start the new year, with a burst of Emes, truth, so that we remember as the year goes by what we are meant to accomplish in 5785.
Remember, Hashem goes wherever you let Him in, and all of those hirhurei teshuvah you feel when you are eating, cooking, walking, or even shopping with your kids are the small steps pushing you in the right direction. So follow your heart and keep going forward and up ... right into the loving embrace of your Father, your King.