Rosh Hashana – Yom HaDin

Arguably, the most fundamental question that we have to pose in looking towards Rosh Hashana is how is it that we're not more focused on Rosh Hashana? Most of us in our generation, more or less, obviously everyone is different, so you can never generalize with perfect accuracy, but most of us, we just go about our routines. Our emotional life is more or less the same. And even now, less than a week before Rosh Hashana, we don't sense what we read about in the descriptions of what Elul was, a sense of awe, a sense of dread, a sense of pachad at what were experienced as Yamim Noraim. And we hear it, we read about it, and yet I don't know how many of us are zocheh to feel it. So the very first, just basic, elementary question before we try to get a little bit of insight into Rosh Hashana, is how is it that our consciousness isn't just simply dominated by the fact that Rosh Hashana is imminent? In many ways, the answer to the question is to recognize that this isn't really an isolated problem. The problem we have in relating to Rosh Hashana is simply part of a larger, broader problem, perhaps the most basic challenge in avodas Hashem. And that is relating to and experiencing what's invisible, what's intangible. The ultimate, well, there's only one ultimate reality, Hakadosh Baruch Hu, but the other realities that Hakadosh Baruch Hu created and wills, those which are takeh realities, they're all invisible, they're all intangible. We spoke last year when we were exploring a little bit Kedushas Shabbos. I think the first shiur we had was to show how Kedushas Shabbos is not just dinim. Kedushas Shabbos is a reality in the world. So this reality is one which often is one that we don't relate to, we don't experience. And it's the same problem that we're encountering that we're struggling with in terms of preparing for Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah is yom hadin, Rosh Hashanah is malchiyos, ideas and we can say Torah, but it's all abstract, it's all on an abstract level. V'haraya, if it were a reality, so we'd all be tzittering, we'd all be trembling. And we're not. So there are two very simple, almost prosaic strategies that a person can should employ when he correctly recognizes this fundamental problem in his avodah. First of all, there's a direct correlation between the more gushmidik a person is, the more materialistic a person is, the more of an involvement that there is with the physical, which we spoke about last week, the bechinas havlei hazman, so by definition the less sensitive he is and the less able he is to connect to spiritual realities. There's a direct correlation. It's a very intuitive one. To the degree that a person is shakkua in havlei hazman, to that degree a person is insensitive to spiritual realities. So certainly, certainly, in our avodas Hashem in general, in hachana for Rosh Hashanah in particular, there has to be a stress on trying to at least peel away a layer, as many layers as possible, of that materialistic orientation that we have. The second, again simple, simply described, it's an avodah to implement. But the second simple strategy is, if a person's going to go to din before a melech basar vadam, okay, so let's say he doesn't, the din is impending and he's not really reacting. You don't see any hisorerus in the person. The truth is it's not so terrible. They'll come and they'll put the handcuffs on his wrists, and maybe they'll put the shackles on his ankles and they'll drag him and they'll stand him up in front of the judge. So then that's going to arouse him and he's going to have a tremendous tremendous hisorerus and he's going to feel the eimas hadin. He's going to feel the eimas hadin. When the Melech is invisible, when the court and the scales are invisible, it means that a person can't be passive. And the klal gadol, klal gadol in avodas Hashem, and it's another weak point in our avodah that needs to be corrected, it needs to be addressed, a person can't wait to be aroused, a person can't wait to be stimulated, a person can't be passive. A person can't wait the whole time that okay I'm waiting to feel Elul. I'm waiting to I'm waiting to. As long as a person is in that kind of passive mode, so he's not going to see Elul. You can't, and certainly not with the with the cornea, you're not gonna, you can't see Elul that way. When there's something physical to see, so then the senses function, even the chush ha-ro'oh so will function even if a person is passive. But when you're dealing with realities, the real realities, the ultimate realities, so then there's no room for passivity. In particular, what it means to be proactive in in pursuit of kedushah within one's avodas Hashem means different things in different contexts. But minimally, with regard to Rosh Hashanah, it simply means that if we haven't been doing it for the past three plus weeks, then in the remaining, the remaining few days, a person simply has to think about the fact that come Wednesday night is a yom hadin. A yom hadin pashuto kemashmao, not a yom hadin, an idea, but but a reality of yom hadin. Of ספרי חיים ספרי מתים פתוחים לפניו. Basically, what the piyut of Unesaneh Tokef tries to do is tries to impress that upon us. The reality of yom hadin. And that's something that if we want to come into Rosh Hashanah already in a position to spend, to observe the entire 24, 48 hours as they should be observed, so we can't wait until the until we say until the shliach tzibbur says Unesaneh Tokef. Simply to think that as of Wednesday night there's a reality of yom hadin. There's that tokef of kedushas hayom so great that מלאכים יחפזון וחיל ורעדה יאחזון ויאמרו הנה יום הדין. To say it once isn't going to isn't going to register. But again and again and again, as the Mesillas Yesharim writes in his hakdamah, again and again and again, so then ultimately it does register. But it requires that proactive approach, not just it's Elul and and I'm waiting to feel Elul. Let's talk just for a few minutes about about the relationship between Rosh Hashanah and teshuvah. I don't remember, it could be that that we discussed these inyanim last year. I don't remember which which inyan we discussed last year. There is a paradox on Rosh Hashanah. A very basic and and fundamental paradox. And that is mitzad echad, Rosh Hashanah is the yom hadin. Rosh Hashanah is the first of Aseres Yemei Teshuvah and therefore unquestionably Rosh Hashanah is a time of teshuvah. There is a special chiyuv of teshuvah on Rosh Hashanah. That that emerges from the Rambam's remez in tekiah shofar, that tekiah shofar is a remez עורו ישנים משנתכם חזרו בתשובה זכרו בוראכם. Rosh Hashanah is a zman of teshuvah. Meidach gisa, the Rambam tells us in perek aleph of Hilchos Teshuvah that kapparah, viduy is meakev, viduy devarim is meakev in teshuvah, and there's no viduy on Rosh Hashanah. No viduy on Rosh Hashanah. Not only is there no full-blown viduy, you don't even have the Ashamnu of Ne'ilah. According to the Arizal, you're supposed to skip אבינו מלכנו חטאנו לפניך. There's a very basic paradox on Rosh Hashanah. On the one hand, the need... And the chiyuv to do teshuvah is so great and so absolute and on the other hand our hands are tied that we can't by definition do a proper teshuvah because we're not supposed to be misvadeh on Rosh Hashanah. So how can that be? Now the reason that we're not misvadeh we can understand. The reason we're not misvadeh we can understand. Rosh Hashanah is a day of Malchiyos. What Malchiyos means is that a person affirms absolute absolute loyalty. He's absolutely mivatel himself to the Melech Malchei Hamlachim. So imagine that there was a coronation of a melech basar vadam, melech basar vadam. Maybe he just recently consolidated his rule or maybe it's an anniversary of that and because of that they're staging another coronation and in the context of this coronation someone comes over to the melech and says your majesty I want to apologize. A few weeks ago when you visited our town so if you'll recall that there was someone who shouted all kinds of invective against you, there was someone who pelted you with stones and with rotten tomatoes and you know chatasi avisi pashati it was the wrong thing to do I regret doing it I'm never going to do it again. And he says it sincerely he says it with all sincerity. Clearly clearly this sincerity notwithstanding it's an outrage because the time of Malchiyos the time of coronation there's no hava amina of cheit. The very mention of cheit even if it's in the context of a sincere heartfelt vidui contradicts the Malchiyos because Malchiyos is so absolute that there isn't a hava amina of cheit, there's no hava amina of cheit. The minhag not to eat nuts, not to eat egozim because the gematria is the same gematria as cheit within one. So whatever else the gematria expresses it just shows cheit can't not only can't a person rachmana litzlan be choteh on Rosh Hashanah but the word can't cross our lips the thought can't enter our mind. So clearly you can't have vidui on Rosh Hashanah. How can you have vidui on Rosh Hashanah? But that doesn't do anything to alleviate the paradox of Rosh Hashanah is the Yom Hadin you need to do teshuvah you need to be raui to be granted kaparah and yet we're not in a position we're not in a position to fulfill what is absolutely meakev in the process of teshuvah. Gemara in Shabbos says if a person is meshamer Shabbos kehilchaso אפילו עבד עבודה זרה כדור של אנוש מוחלין לו. It didn't say vidui and teshuvah so how can that be? How can that be? So apparently what you see from the Gemara in Shabbos is that there is a parallel track that the track that the Rambam describes in perek aleph of Hilchos Teshuvah the track the path to attaining kaparah is one track but it's not the exclusive track. In certain zmanim there's a parallel track. There's a parallel track on Shabbos

כל המשמר שבת כהלכתה אפילו עבד עבודה זרה כדור של אנוש מוחלין לו

and apparently that's the answer to the paradox on Rosh Hashanah that apparently there's a parallel path or track on Rosh Hashanah as well. Le'achar ho'iyun, it would appear that it's not just that Shabbos and Rosh Hashonoh are two different examples of where you have a parallel track, of where you have another path of kapora, but the truth is that they are one and the same. Le'chora, what is that parallel track on Rosh Hashonoh? What cheit represents, what cheit represents is a rejection of Malchus Shamayim. Malchus Shamayim means that a person is misbatel to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, misbatel to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and that's why when in the V'chein Tein Pachtacha, when we're asking that there should be a Giluy Malchus Shamayim, so it's וישתחוו לפניך כל הברואים. Yishtachavu, pishut yadayim v'raglayim is an expression of total hisbatlus. Malchiyos means a hisbatlus. Cheit, every cheit is a contradiction to Malchiyos. The Melech's rule is absolute. כל איש אשר ימרה פיך, that's a rejection, that's an encroachment, that's a violation of Malchus. If every cheit is a violation of Malchus, to a degree rachmana litzlan is a rejection of Malchus, so on Rosh Hashonoh the path to kapora and the way one does teshuvah is through Malchiyos. By being mekayem the Malchiyos of Rosh Hashonoh, so that's the track, that's the path of teshuvah on Rosh Hashonoh. Whatever my cheit was, whatever the yetzer hara was to which I succumbed, if be'emes u'vesomim I'm mekabel Malchus Shamayim on Rosh Hashonoh, I'm

ממליך הקדוש ברוך הוא, ממליך הקדוש ברוך הוא על רמ"ח איברי ושס"ה גידי,

that's the tikkun of the cheit. And heyos that it's a zman of Malchiyos, so the Torah says that this is the way to do teshuvah. All year long, no, all year long the Torah wants we have to clap al cheit, we have to say the vidui, that's the track. But when it's a zman of Malchiyos, a zman of Malchiyos when it's not a time for vidui, so then the path to teshuvah, the way one does teshuvah is through Malchiyos. Through the Imru Lefanai Malchiyos, that's the way a person does teshuvah on Rosh Hashonoh. And the emes is that that's gufa the same pshat in כל המשמר שבת כהלכתו, as we spoke about baruch Hashem repeatedly last year, that's takeh the pshat by Shabbos also. Shabbos is also a day of Malchiyos and that's also why כל המשמר שבת כהלכתו, it's that same track. אפילו עובד עבודה זרה mochlin lo. So one aspect of the relationship between Rosh Hashonoh and teshuvah is that you can't have Malchiyos without teshuvah. You do teshuvah through Malchiyos, but you can't have a Malchiyos without teshuvah. You can't have Malchiyos without a teshuvah. If a person comes to Rosh Hashonoh v'sheretz b'yado, a person comes to Rosh Hashonoh and he's not willing, he's not prepared psychologically, emotionally, he hasn't worked on himself, he's not working on himself on Rosh Hashonoh to let go of the sheretz. What the sheretz is or what the sheratzim are, so everyone has their own. So what good does it say to say ה' ימלך לעולם ועד and שמע ישראל ה' אלקינו ה' אחד and v'hayah b'yeshurun melech? It's not a Malchiyos. You can't have Malchiyos without teshuvah because Malchiyos means וישתחוו לפניך כל הברואים. means total hisbatlus to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Total hisbatlus to Hakadosh Baruch Hu is asei retzoncha kiretzono. So that's one aspect of the relationship between Rosh Hashanah and teshuva. Malchiyos is mechayiv in teshuva, because without teshuva you can't have malchiyos, and conversely, the malchiyos gufe is the way we do teshuva. A second aspect of the relationship between Rosh Hashanah and teshuva is not unique to Rosh Hashanah, but is rather Rosh Hashanah as one of the Aseres Yemei Teshuva, one of the Aseres Yemei Teshuva. The Gemara in Rosh Hashanah: Dirshu Hashem behimatzo which refers to a yachid, eimas?

אמר רבה בר אבוה אלו עשרה ימים שבין ראש השנה ליום הכפורים.

The Gemara in Yoma tells a story on the bottom of פ"ז ע"א, that רב הוה ליה מילתא בהדי ההוא טבחא. Rav, obviously no fault of his own, had been involved with some kind of confrontation with a certain butcher. לא אתא לקמיה במעלי יומא דכפורי. The butcher didn't come to be mifayes Rav. So amar ihu, so Rav said, איזיל אנא לפיוסיה ליה. I'll take the initiative. I'll take the initiative. Paga bei Rav Huna. So when Rav was on his way to the butcher, he bumped into Rav Huna. אמר ליה להיכא קא אזיל מר? He couldn't imagine where Rav was going; Erev Yom Kippur is not a time to stray around and take a walk. So where is Rav going on Erev Yom Kippur? אמר ליה לפיוסיה לפלניא. There's been some stama he said it in a way either Rav Huna knew about it or Rav said it in a way that there was no problem with loshon hora, but he said I'm going to try to appease so-and-so. So amar, אזיל אבא למקטל נפשא. So Rav Huna tells Rav, no, you're going to kill someone. You think you're going to make sholom, you're not going to make sholom. You're going to kill someone. Azal ve-kam la-avei. So Rav continues and Rav presents himself to the butcher, he stands in front of him. הוה יתיב וקא פלי רישא. So the butcher was practicing his trade, he was cutting up meat, in particular the skull of an animal. Dali einai, he lifted his eyes, vachazyei. He sees Rav there. אמר ליה אבא את? Right? So without any sense of yiras hakavod for Rav he said, that's you, Abba? Zil! לית לי מילתא בהדך. I have nothing to do with you. Get out of my store, get out of my home. Says the Gemara: בהדי דקא פלי רישא. While he was continuing to chop up the head of the bones of the head of the animal, ishtamit garma, a bone flew loose, umachyei belovei vekatlei. It pierced his throat and it killed him. Rav Huna's prediction materialized. So what happened here? How did Rav Huna was a navi? How Rav Huna knew? So there's a famous comment from Rav Salanter on this Gemara. Rav Salanter says that Rav Huna apparently knew this butcher and knew that he was such an akshan or a rasha or whatever he was that he wouldn't respond to Rav's overture. But the more of an opportunity a person is given, so then the greater the teviya if a person doesn't take advantage of that opportunity. Here he has the opportunity erev Yom Kippur, erev Yom Kippur. Rav himself takes the initiative. He extends his hand. He says I'm sorry that there was that there was misunderstanding between us. He makes it so easy for the butcher to be chozer betshuva. And the butcher's not chozer betshuva, so then there's a there's a tremendous teviya against him. And Rav Huna understood, Rav Huna understood that Rav was making it so easy for him that there was going to be a such a strong teviya, such a strong middat hadin against the butcher. So the yesod which Rav Yisrael Salanter focuses our attention on in terms of this gemara is that there's a correlation between opportunity and responsibility and obligation. That the more of an opportunity we're given, so the more of an obligation that we have to take advantage of it. The emet is the Ramban, the Ramban writes it in I think it's in the Drasha to Rosh Hashanah. Ramban says the Ramban says the same point. He says that on the one hand, he says teshuva is an incredible chesed, incredible chesed, the same way Rabbeinu Yonah begins his description, a tremendous chesed מן הטובות שהיטיב השם עם בריאיו. But the Ramban says, but it's also a tremendous mechayev. It's also a tremendous mechayev. If there was no such thing as teshuva, says the Ramban, okay, so then a person he ate neveila or treifa, sure, okay, he did what he did. What's he supposed to do? Teshuva is an indescribable chesed, but it's also a mechayev. Why? Because of Rav Yisrael Salanter's the other side of the coin of the chesed of an opportunity of a beracha is that it's mechayev. It's mechayev. Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives us an opportunity, so we have to we have to take advantage of that opportunity. So the other aspect of the relationship between Rosh Hashanah and teshuva, Rosh Hashanah again, or the first of Aseret Yemei Teshuva, that there's a tremendous opportunity. It's easier to do teshuva. The sefarim all explain when it says dirshu Hashem behimatzo, Hakadosh Baruch Hu doesn't change. So what does it mean Hakadosh Baruch Hu is closer to us? What does it mean Hakadosh Baruch Hu's closer to us? Hakadosh Baruch Hu doesn't change. What it means is, the change is in us, right? If there's a difference in the time, so we exist in time, so the change is in us. The change is in our capacities, our abilities, and our opportunities. It means that we have an enhanced opportunity and capacity to do teshuva. That's what it means. In that sense, dirshu Hashem behimatzo. That enhanced opportunity is also a mechayev, also a mechayev. The emet is it's a frightening task that we've been outlining. That's the truth. It's a frightening task. The Malchuyos, the fact that the chesed of teshuva, the chesed of Aseret Yemei Teshuva is a mechayev, it's frightening. Ella mai, the gemara in Rosh Hashanah says אמרו לפני מלכויות כדי שתמליכוני עליכם. So that's part of a whole series of הביאו לפני עומר בפסח כדי שתתברך לכם תבואה שבשדות and הביאו לפני שתי הלחם בעצרת כדי שיתברכו הפירות and נסכו לפני מים בחג כדי שיתברכו גשמי השנה. But there's a difference between the imru lefanai malchuyos and all the others. All the others you do one thing. the Omer, Hakadosh Baruch Hu's going to see to it that the crop of tevuah flourishes. We bring the shtei halechem, Hakadosh Baruch Hu says in that zechus I'll see to it that the crop of peiros is good. We do nisuch hamayim on the mizbeiach, Hakadosh Baruch Hu says I'll see to it that all year there's enough rainfall. Imru lefanai malchuyos so it should be כדי שאכתוב ואחתום אתכם בספר החיים. No, it's אמרו לפני מלכויות כדי שתמליכוני עליכם. So there's no, it's not parallel to all the other cases that the Gemara has there in Rosh Hashanah. It's one thing which is just circular. Imru lefanai malchuyos so we already mamlis, so what's Hakadosh Baruch Hu doing? What's His half of the deal? Nisuch hamayim on Chag, יתברכו לכם גשמי שנה, that's Hakadosh Baruch Hu's part of the deal. The tevuah will be successful, the peiros will be successful. What's Hakadosh Baruch Hu's part of the deal in אמרו לפני מלכויות כדי שתמליכוני עליכם? So you see that the answer is this. It's takeh difficult. We're talking about you have to feel Rosh Hashanah. You have to feel the malchuyos. Says Hakadosh Baruch Hu so I'll make a deal with you. I'll make a deal with you. I realize that you're not going to be able to do that on your own. Imru lefanai malchuyos, say the malchuyos sincerely. Say it sincerely and bezechus that, kedei shetamlichuni aleichem, then I'll help you that you should feel the malchuyos. I'll help you, you say it and mean it with as much feeling as you can muster. Is that enough feeling? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. But when you pour the mayim on the mizbeiach, that doesn't guarantee that there's going to be enough rainfall all year either, but bezechus that, כדי שיתברכו לכם גשמי שנה, I'll take care of the rest, Hakadosh Baruch Hu says. So imru lefanai malchuyos, you do your best before Rosh Hashanah, prepare yourself that on Rosh Hashanah you'll say malchuyos to the best of your ability, ba'asher hu sham, Hakadosh Baruch Hu says to us. Imru lefanai malchuyos and then I, but I don't feel it, I don't have that full, I don't have that full sense of total hisbatlus before Hakadosh Baruch Hu. I don't even begin to fully understand the malchuyos, על אחת כמה וכמה to fully experience it. אמרו לפני מלכויות כדי שתמליכוני עליכם. And Hakadosh Baruch Hu says then I'll finish the process for you. Halivai we should all have a gut yohr and kesivah vachasimah tovah.