Rosh Hashanah

If we examine the Selichot and the prayers of the Days of Awe on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we find that we repeatedly entreat: "Act for the sake of nursing infants; act for the sake of those weaned from milk; act for the sake of schoolchildren who have not sinned." In our entire prayer, we mention and beseech that the Holy One, blessed be He, should help us in the merit of the innocent young children.

There is a profound parable recounted regarding this: A king once sentenced a father to an exceptionally harsh punishment, but granted him a grace period of two days to plead for a pardon. That man lived in a city far removed from the royal palace. He hoisted his little son upon his shoulders and journeyed toward the king's palace. He crossed roads, open fields, and thick forests on an arduous journey lasting several days to reach the seat of royalty.

When he finally arrived at the gates of the palace, he was suddenly informed that the king had shut the entrance; the king had retired to sleep and was receiving no visitors, and at midnight the grace period to request a royal pardon would expire. The man stood at the locked gate, knocking frantically and weeping for mercy upon his life, for failure meant death. Yet no guard paid heed, having received strict orders that none may enter.

Realizing that time was running out, the father turned to his little son and said: "Now only you can save us. Circle the perimeter of the palace walls, seek out a tiny crevice or hole, squeeze inside, and open the massive palace gates from within for your father." The father and child circled the walls, discovered a small breach, the child crawled through, unbolted the heavy gate from the inside, and the father entered to present his petition before the king.

The identical reality confronts us on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. We have reached the celestial gates, yet the gates appear shuttered because we squandered our appointed time. Throughout the entire year we had ample opportunity to repent and walk the righteous path, but we delayed until the doors closed. We therefore take our schoolchildren and nursing babes and plead that they enter through the aperture to unlock the gates of Heaven from within. We cry out to the Holy One, blessed be He: "Act for the sake of schoolchildren who have not sinned" — let the pure children open the gates so that our supplications may be heard.

Preparing Step-by-Step in Elul

To arrive truly prepared for Rosh Hashanah, a person must labor throughout the month of Elul gradually, step by step. One must understand a fundamental rule: people assume that Elul is merely the conclusion of the year, but the holy books explain that Elul is in truth the very start of the year. How a person conducts himself throughout Elul determines the quality of his entire upcoming year. If a person enters Rosh Hashanah in sanctity, purity, spiritual uplift, and reverence, his entire year will be blessed. If, however, he enters distracted and uneasy, his entire upcoming year will remain turbulent.

One cannot become a Tzaddik in a single day. The holy Torah states (Leviticus 21:9): "And the daughter of any priest, if she profane herself by playing the harlot, she profaneth her father; she shall be burnt with fire." Why is her dishonor linked specifically to her father if she is already a married woman outside his immediate domain? Our holy Rabbis teach that if she acted corruptly under her husband's roof, the corruption did not originate today; its roots began while she was still a young girl in her father's house.

Just as a person does not become righteous in a single day, neither does one become wicked overnight. Wickedness and piety both develop through cumulative, daily habits. One must toil diligently to achieve spiritual heights. Similarly, evil traits swell gradually within a person until they manifest fully.

The Holy One, blessed be He, created the universe to function through gradual development. Whether one comes to love or hate, it develops gradually; sudden shifts are often ungrounded. A person cooking food cannot cook it all at once; if cast into an overwhelming blaze, it burns on the outside while remaining raw inside. True authenticity requires patient simmering.

We see this principle exemplified with Yosef the Righteous when revealing his identity to his brothers. He instructed them (Genesis 45:8): "G-d hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt." Yosef knew that announcing his supreme status suddenly would terrify his father Yaakov, so he described his elevation as a gradual ascent: first a mentor to Pharaoh, then master of his household, and ultimately ruler over all Egypt.

If someone claims to have become fabulously wealthy overnight, recognize it as a deception; authentic enduring wealth grows incrementally, whereas sudden riches quickly collapse into ruin. Genuine ascent is guided by G-d step by step. When the Children of Israel were subjugated in Egypt, the bondage began gradually — a fraction after Yaakov passed away, more after the tribal heads died, until total enslavement took hold. The redemption likewise unfolded step by step through the Ten Plagues.

Just as the sun rises and sets gradually, all matters in human life require time. One cannot enter Rosh Hashanah suddenly and declare, "We are righteous, let us strengthen ourselves." The proper path is daily cultivation throughout Elul. If a person receives a summons to court, he immediately engages legal counsel and arranges his defense; he does not wait until he stands before the magistrate to fabricate excuses.

It is recounted concerning Rabbeinu Saadia Gaon that he once stayed at an inn where the innkeeper did not recognize his identity. The host treated him with standard civility, as an ordinary guest. Later, the townspeople discovered that the great luminary Rabbi Saadia Gaon was present and crowded into the inn, showering him with supreme honor and reverence.

Witnessing this, the innkeeper fell before the Gaon's feet, weeping bitterly and begging for forgiveness. Rabbi Saadia Gaon asked him: "Why do you weep so intensely? You treated me with admirable hospitality!" The innkeeper replied: "Had I known your true stature, I would have honored you a thousand times more! My remorse is that I honored you only according to my limited understanding."

Rabbi Saadia Gaon reflected deeply upon this and declared: "If that innkeeper cried because he failed to honor a mortal according to his true greatness, how much more must we weep before the Creator of the universe! Every passing day that we study His Torah, we perceive a greater glimpse of His boundless majesty. Consequently, we must repent for yesterday's service, because yesterday we worshipped Him with an inferior comprehension of His infinite glory!"

When a person reaches forty years of age, he understands his Creator far better than he did at thirty; at fifty, his awareness deepens beyond what it was at forty. Therefore, a person must do Teshuvah for his past days because he failed to appreciate G-d and value His commandments with appropriate reverence. This is the meaning of the verse regarding Avraham Avinu (Genesis 24:1): "And Abraham was old, well stricken in age (Ba Bayamim — literally 'came with all his days')." Avraham brought every single day of his life into elevated rectification.

True repentance must encompass not only outward transgressions, but the spiritual omissions of our youth. As the Talmud states (Pesachim 50a): "Happy is he who arrives here with his Talmudic study in hand." When a person matures, he grasps the gravity of spiritual negligence. During Elul, we must awaken to repent for our insufficient recognition of G-d and our superficial performance of Mitzvot, Tefillin, Shabbat, and charity.

Scrubbing the Mark from the Back

The Mishnah (Rosh Hashanah 1:2) states: "On Rosh Hashanah, all who enter the world pass before Him like sheep (Bnei Maron)." The Gemara (Rosh Hashanah 18a) explains this through various interpretations, including the analogy of sheep passing through a narrow pen for tithing, where they must file through single file.

When a shepherd tithes his flock, he counts every sheep: one, two, three, until the tenth. The tenth sheep is marked with red dye upon its back to designate it for sacrifice. Our holy Rabbis explain that when a sheep realizes it has been marked with the crimson streak marking it for slaughter, it frantically attempts to rub its back against stone walls and fences to erase the incriminating dye.

The identical reality applies to mankind on Rosh Hashanah. All creatures pass before the Almighty like sheep. A person does not know what decree or mark has been affixed to him. How many individuals stood healthy and strong two years ago, yet today are no longer among the living? Therefore, a person must vigorously scrub his spiritual back through sincere repentance, tears, and prayer before the decree is sealed.

Shifting the Heavy Ledger

It is recorded in the holy books that the month of Elul is the day of judgment when the Holy One, blessed be He, reviews the personal ledger of every individual. Who can emerge vindicated in strict judgment?

Our holy Rabbis offer sublime counsel: when a person engages in true repentance, G-d shifts his dossier to the side of mercy, deferring judgment to give him life. A single genuine thought of repentance (Hirhur Teshuvah) has the supernatural potency to move the file of judgment. However, this repentance must emanate from the very depths of the heart (De-Liba), not as a superficial transaction.

The more a person dedicates himself to the holy Torah, the more external financial burdens are lifted from him. It is related (Bava Metzia 84b) concerning Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai (or Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in Vayikra Rabbah 35:7) that he saw in a prophetic dream on the eve of Rosh Hashanah that his nephews would be forced to forfeit seven hundred gold dinars to the government tax collectors.

What did the Sage do? Throughout that year, he repeatedly urged his nephews to give charity to the poor, persuading them until they had distributed six hundred and eighty-three dinars. On the eve of the following Yom Kippur, royal officers arrested them, demanding seventeen dinars. The Sage explained: "Had you not given that wealth to the needy, it would have been extracted by the gentiles. It was decreed upon you on Rosh Hashanah, but you transformed it into a merit!" When a person gives with joy to Hashem, he spares himself harsh losses.

The Mystery of the Shofar Sounds

One of the loftiest obligations on Rosh Hashanah is the sounding of the Shofar, the hour when the Holy One, blessed be He, rises from the Throne of Strict Justice and sits upon the Throne of Mercy. What is the true essence of these Shofar blasts?

The Midrash (Tanchuma, Emor 18) explains that the sounds correspond to the agonizing groans of a mother in labor. Just as a woman in childbirth groans, sighs, and cries out in pain before the child emerges into the light of the world, so do the Shofar blasts — Teruah, Shevarim, and the one hundred sounds — correspond to the cries that bring forth a new creation.

A second opinion in the Gemara (Rosh Hashanah 33b) states that we derive the Shofar sounds from the cries of the mother of Sisera, the wicked general. When Sisera went out to battle against Israel, his mother looked out through the window and wailed (Judges 5:28): "Why is his chariot so long in coming?" She sobbed one hundred sobs, corresponding to our one hundred Shofar blasts.

How can we derive our holiest Shofar blasts from an idolatrous Amalekite woman? We learn our prayers from Avraham and Yitzchak, not Amalek! The holy books reveal a startling secret: Sisera possessed a captive spark of the highest holiness, which was later reincarnated into none other than Rabbi Akiva. The Talmud (Gittin 57b) explicitly states that the descendants of Sisera taught Torah to children in Jerusalem.

The great luminary of the Jewish nation, Rabbi Akiva, who equated to Moshe Rabbeinu, emerged from that lineage! When Sisera's mother wept, she lamented because the holy spark within Sisera was about to be severed through his death. When Yael drove the tent pin through his temple, that spark was liberated and later brought into the world through the holy soul of Rabbi Akiva.

This teaches us that within a single fractured moment, a person can elevate himself from the deepest darkness to supreme heights. During the Shofar blowing, a person must meditate on the martyrdom and sublime holiness of Rabbi Akiva, knowing that G-d can redeem and elevate every trapped soul.

There is a story told about the Chatam Sofer's zya"a, who asked his daughter to sew the button that had fallen off his coat. When the daughter returned the coat to her father with the button sewn on tightly, the Chatam Sofer inspected the coat, smiled, and said to his daughter, "It seems to me that it was the servant girl who sewed on the button, and not you…"

The daughter apologized and admitted that indeed the servant girl had sewn on the button, and explained that she had not wanted to postpone the matter despite her busy schedule, so she asked for the servant girl’s help. "But tell me, Abba," asked the daughter, "How do you know that it was not I who sewed on the button?"

The father opened the coat and showed her that on the side of the coat not far from the buttons, there was a small hole… "That tiny hole," the Chatam Sofer explained wisely to his daughter, "I did not ask you to repair. I relied on your astuteness, that certainly when you sew on the button and notice this tear, you will come to the conclusion on your own and repair the hole too.

For it is the way of a daughter that when she sees a hole in her father's garment, she quickly repairs it! But when I noticed that the tear had not been repaired, I understood that probably the button repair had also not been done by you but by the servant girl, who does only what she is told to do and that's it!"

This is the great difference between a servant and a son. The servant is obligated to obey his master and does only what he is explicitly instructed to do. He will not add anything of his own accord, above what he is instructed. Not so the faithful and beloved son. He always adds something in addition to what he was instructed to do, for out of his great paternal love, he will always contemplate on his father's will, also concerning those things that he wasn’t specifically asked to do.

It follows from this that the way to merit being judged as children, and thereby merit Hashem's mercy just as a father has mercy on his children, is that we too, in our service of Hashem, should act like a son to his father. We should carry out our actions willingly and with love, not out of coercion like a servant who formally does his duty and no more.