Parshas Nitzavim 5785 "Atem Nitzavim Hayom Kulchem" - The Unity of Jews in the Avodah of Rosh Hashanah

00:00 On Shabbos Bereishis 5757, the Rebbe told a story at a farbrengen that he had heard from his father-in-law, the Frierdiker Rebbe. On Rosh Hashanah 5690, the Frierdiker Rebbe told a story he had heard from his father, who had heard it from his father, who had heard it from the Tzemach Tzedek, who told it on Rosh Hashanah 5603. As is known, the Rebbeim did not speak at all on the first night of Rosh Hashanah, not even during the meals. But on the first night of Rosh Hashanah 5557, the Alter Rebbe called his son, the Mitteler Rebbe, and his grandson, the Tzemach Tzedek, and said to them: This year I brought about so many baalei teshuvah, so many beinonim, and so many tzaddikim. He gave the exact number of baalei teshuvah, beinonim, and tzaddikim he had brought about that year. So I am entitled to a reward for this. And as the reward due to me, so-and-so, son of so-and-so—and he said his name—that chossid should be blessed with an ample livelihood. So-and-so, son of so-and-so—and he said that chossid’s name—should be blessed with physical health. He went on to name a number of chassidim and mentioned blessings for children, life, and ample sustenance. Then the Alter Rebbe concluded: You are two Jews; “By the testimony of two witnesses a matter shall be established,” that [unclear].

01:37 When the Frierdiker Rebbe told the story, he was asked—[unclear]. The details of the story appear in the Reshimos, in the diary. The Rebbe asked the Frierdiker Rebbe whether, when the Tzemach Tzedek told it in 5603, he too had acted in this way to bring about blessings. The Frierdiker Rebbe did not give a clear answer, but from his expression one could see that this was indeed what had happened in 5603 as well. After the Frierdiker Rebbe finished telling the story that Rosh Hashanah in 5690, he said: A few years ago, the practice of reciting Tehillim was instituted. As is known, in 5687 the Frierdiker Rebbe publicized the well-known practice of reciting the monthly portion of Tehillim, its daily portion each day. Since people have been saying Tehillim for several years now, millions of letters of Tehillim have been added. The Rebbe calculated that, in their merit, millions of [unclear] dinars are due for children, life, and sustenance—for an ample livelihood. And the Frierdiker Rebbe added that, since we are in the darkness of exile, the value of

03:13 the letters of Tehillim is certainly far greater than it was in ordinary, more favorable times. This is similar to what the Midrash says about Avraham Avinu: Avraham Avinu told his guests that because they were in the desert, every food item he gave them was worth much more; they would have to pay more, and pay dearly. Similarly, the Rebbe says, much more is paid for the letters of Tehillim recited in recent years. When the Rebbe told this story at that farbrengen in 5757, he concluded: This happened in 5690. I do not know whether all the millions of dinars that the Frierdiker Rebbe intended to be given in the merit of the letters of Tehillim have already been paid. But since then, as mentioned, many more letters of Tehillim have been added, along with many other things. So we come with a demand to Hakadosh Boruch Hu that He give everyone the blessings they sorely need in material matters. And the Rebbe concluded that everyone should receive everything they need: living, enduring children, physical health, and an ample livelihood. And since there are several minyanim here, we say that there should be witnesses here and “the matter shall be established”—that Hakadosh Boruch Hu will indeed give every Jew all that they need in children, life, and ample sustenance. In general, regarding Rosh Hashanah, we find a strong emphasis

04:46 on this point: a Jew must ask and plead for grandchildren and children as well, and ask that the Jewish people have material abundance. We find this in Parshas Nitzavim, the parsha always read before Rosh Hashanah. “You stand today, all of you, before Hashem your G-d.” As is well known from the teaching of the Baal Shem Tov that the Alter Rebbe heard while still in Mezritch from the Maggid of Mezritch, who repeated the Baal Shem Tov’s words: the Baal Shem Tov said that in the verse “You stand today,” “today” refers to Rosh Hashanah. And of Rosh Hashanah we say, “This is the day.” In other words, when the word “today” appears without qualification, it means Rosh Hashanah, “the day of great judgment,” as the Targum on Iyov says. Of this it is said, “You stand today”: on Rosh Hashanah, the day of judgment, Jews “stand”—they endure and prevail, and are found worthy in judgment. Jews are confident of this. “Stand” is related to the phrase “a king’s officer”: they stand proudly and firmly, confident that they will be found worthy in judgment. And he said that, as is known, on the Shabbos Mevarchim before Rosh Hashanah, Jews do not bless the coming month. That is the practice, and reasons for it are given in the sefarim, but Hakadosh Boruch Hu does bless it. The Baal Shem Tov said that we do not bless the month of Rosh Hashanah because Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself blesses it. And what blessing does Hakadosh Boruch Hu give? He blesses specifically with the—

06:21 blessing of “You stand today, all of you”: that the Jewish people will be found worthy in judgment. And regarding the seventh month, the Baal Shem Tov explained that “the seventh” is also related to the word for being sated: it is a month filled with abundant good and filling every Jewish home with it. But what is the vessel for these blessings? The Alter Rebbe says in Likkutei Torah, in the well-known maamar “You stand today, all of you,” that the vessel is “all of you.” The vessel for receiving all the blessings with which Hakadosh Boruch Hu blesses us for the new year is “all of you”—united as one. That is, the Alter Rebbe explains there at length that Rosh Hashanah is what the verse describes: “There was a King in Yeshurun when the heads of the people gathered, the tribes of Israel together.” When Rosh Hashanah arrives, “There was a King in Yeshurun” takes place: we crown Hakadosh Boruch Hu as King of Israel and King over the world. “Reign over the entire world in Your glory”; “the King of Israel and its Redeemer”—we crown Hakadosh Boruch Hu and make Him King. “Recite before Me verses of kingship.” And when “There was a King in Yeshurun” takes place and the Jewish people crown Hakadosh Boruch Hu, what is the vessel for all the blessings the King gives? The verse continues: “When the heads of the people gathered, the tribes of Israel together.” All the souls of Israel—the Alter Rebbe says there,

07:52 the sparks of the souls—gather together and stand as “all of you as one.” “The tribes of Israel together”: “together” means united as one, with everyone standing together. And the Alter Rebbe explains what this “together,” united as one, means. He explains that all Jews are like one body. As we see in a single body, it has many parts: 248 limbs and 365 sinews, a head, a torso, feet, and all the individual parts. Yet all the parts need one another and affect one another. Although the head is the head of all the limbs and directs them, the foot has a particular advantage that the head needs. What keeps the body standing, and what takes it where the head wants to go? The head cannot walk on its own; it needs to be carried there. The feet have the power to support the body and take it where it wants to go. So the head is the head in the matters in which it is the head, but there are matters in which the foot is actually the head: walking and keeping the body standing. This is what “united as one” means, without regard to the differences

09:08 between head and foot. That is what we seek when we look at the Jewish people as a whole. Among the Jewish people there are many kinds of Jews, from “your heads, your tribes,” mentioned later in the verse—Jews who are in the category of the heads of the Jewish people—to the ten groups listed here in the parsha, down to the last of them, “your woodcutters and your water drawers,” the simplest among the Jewish people. Yes, as Rashi says, the Canaanites. “Canaanites” also has a meaning connected with commerce. There is an explanation in Chassidus, and the Rebbe explains that this is the allusion in Rashi’s words: a Jew whose affairs all revolve around commerce, someone engaged in business rather than sitting in the study hall, who spends the whole day running about to earn a living, is called a Canaanite. “Canaanite,” as is known, refers to businesspeople. Nevertheless, we say that from “your heads, your tribes” to “your woodcutters and your water drawers”—the head and the foot—all are united as one when they stand together. That is how they stand before Hashem your G-d on Rosh Hashanah, “to enter into the covenant of Hashem your G-d.” This is the making of the covenant: on Rosh Hashanah, the covenant between a Jew and Hakadosh Boruch Hu is made. And the Alter Rebbe explains what making a covenant means. A physical covenant is made as Rashi describes in the parsha: they cut

10:30 The calf is cut in two, and they pass between the pieces of flesh, as Avraham Avinu did at the Covenant Between the Parts. In other words, it is one body divided in two, and they pass between its parts to show that although two separate bodies appear to be here, they are really one. The same is true of Hashem’s covenant with the Jewish people: “To establish you today as His people, and He will be your G-d”—in such a way that Hashem and the Jewish people are one. “I need them, and they need Me”: a Jew needs Hashem, and Hashem, so to speak, needs the Jew; [unclear], so to speak, they need each other. Yes, Hashem and the Jewish people become one. All this is a result of the avodah of Rosh Hashanah. That is why, on Rosh Hashanah more than at any other time of year, Jewish unity—the “all of you”—is needed as a preparation and a vessel for crowning Hashem: “And He became King in Yeshurun when the heads of the people gathered, the tribes of Israel together.” When the Jewish people stand together, united as one, and each feels the other’s needs and shortcomings—because they stand together in true Ahavas Yisroel and Jewish unity—then we can draw down and bring about all the blessings and Divine flow for the entire year. When we enter into this idea,

11:54 the Alter Rebbe says there must be Ahavas Yisroel and Jewish unity, “united as one.” There is a very beautiful sicha of the Rebbe in which he explains this double expression. Why say both “united” and “as one”? He explains that we see two aspects in the body—and the body is the analogy the Alter Rebbe gives. On the one hand, there is the unity of the body: all its limbs are part of one single body. It makes no difference whether it is the head, the torso, the leg, the eye, the nose, or the toes. The whole body is one complete body. If the head is missing, it is not a body; and if the toes are missing, it is not a complete body either. In other words, a body is a complete body, and all 248 limbs and 365 sinews must be there together. If even one limb is missing, whether an important limb or a simple one, the body is not complete, and its unity is lacking. That is to say, all of them together form one single unity: the human body. On the other hand, there is a second kind of unity. Here, [unclear], each complements the other: one

13:04 contributes in one area, and another contributes in a different area. As we said earlier, the head provides intellect, while the leg provides the power to walk, and in this way gives vitality to the body. Each individual limb provides vitality that another limb [unclear] receives from it. Each limb contributes something of its own strengths, and each is also a recipient, needing to receive from the strengths of the other limbs. By each contributing and receiving, together they create a great unity. These two aspects also exist in Ahavas Yisroel. As is well known, chapter 32 of Tanya is the “heart” chapter of Tanya. The Alter Rebbe placed the teaching of Ahavas Yisroel in chapter 32—the chapter whose number spells “heart”—because Ahavas Yisroel is the heart of a Jew, the heart of a chossid, the heart of Tanya. And what does chapter 32 say? That there are two kinds of Ahavas Yisroel. There is the Ahavas Yisroel of “Love your fellow as yourself,” from the greatest to the least: “They are all equal, and they all have one Father.” Regardless of who a person is or what his character and standing may be—tzaddik, beinoni, or rasha—all Jews are one, because “they are all equal, and they all have one Father.” One single Father,

14:16 one single soul, a part of G-d above. That is the one essential point through which they are Jews. But on the other hand, there is also the unity the Alter Rebbe speaks of: each person has his own strengths, and “Who knows their greatness and stature at their root and source in the living G-d?” In other words, each person has his own strengths and qualities, and together they form a complete body, in which each contributes his strengths to the other and also receives from him. This is what the Alter Rebbe is alluding to here in Likkutei Torah on Parshas Nitzavim, in the maamar for Rosh Hashanah. What is the preparation, what is the vessel for everything associated with Rosh Hashanah? When we come to Rosh Hashanah and ask Hakadosh Boruch Hu for “the desire and pleasure” [unclear] to be King of Israel and King of the world, and to bestow a good inscription and sealing, a good and sweet year, on every individual and on the community as a whole—what is the main thing, the guiding principle, the vessel for this? The vessel is “the tribes of Israel together.” And that “together” has two aspects: the unity in which we are all as one, one single entity, because we are all Jews; and the unity in which we recognize that each person has his own strengths, that he must share those strengths with other Jews and also receive from other Jews. Here, too, there is a giver and a recipient—“united as one.” Why?

15:36 Each kind of unity has a special quality. On the one hand, a unity that is one single entity from the outset has no distinctions, no levels, no particular forms, no separate details, and no limitations. There is the essential fact that a person is a Jew, and that alone creates the bond between him and another Jew. I am a Jew, you are a Jew, and all Jews are one single entity. On the other hand, there is also the second, deeper aspect: each person has his own distinctive qualities, and that is the innovation in Ahavas Yisroel. Unity exists not only when you step beyond your individual identity, set yourself aside, and feel that you are a Jew. It exists even when you remain who you are as an individual, recognize your own strengths, see the other person’s strengths, and see that you, too, receive something from him. I [unclear] what you need to know, but this is how it must be: just as in a complete body every limb contributes and receives, so every Jew has distinctive strengths, and we must learn from other Jews. This is the basis of what the Baal Shem Tov taught us about the greatness of simple people: we must find the strengths in every Jew and bring them from concealment into the open. That is where the avodah lies.

16:45 In particular, this is the inner avodah of Rosh Hashanah. What is the avodah of Rosh Hashanah? It says, “You are standing today, all of you”—united as one. The Rebbe once told a story in this connection. It was customary among chassidim to travel to the Rebbe for Rosh Hashanah after Shabbos. That was how it was among chassidim throughout the generations: they did everything they could to spend Rosh Hashanah with the Rebbe. Once, one of the distinguished rabbis was asked why he stood with the Rebbe in Lubavitch—with the Rebbe Maharash or the Rebbe Rashab—pressed tightly among the chassidim. There was a large crowd, and no one was given special honors at the Rebbe’s; he was pressed in like everyone else. The Rebbe once said humorously that when people stood at the Rebbe’s, they were pushed to the side. There was a great crowd, so people were pushed. In any case, they asked that rabbi: Why do you travel to Lubavitch for Rosh Hashanah? Why don’t you stay in your own city, or [unclear], with your own community? He said that Rosh Hashanah is the time of the King’s coronation, and on Rosh Hashanah we receive Divine influence for the entire year. When you spend Rosh Hashanah with the Rebbe, pressed among the chassidim and setting yourself completely aside, until the crush makes you forget that you are the rabbi, and you and everyone else become one—you receive from that self-effacement strength for the entire year. It is truly the strength of self-effacement for the entire year.

18:09 This must come from genuine kabbolas ol, from dedicating ourselves to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. In his sichos about the avodah of Rosh Hashanah, the Rebbe also cites what is brought in the Frierdiker Rebbe’s sichos in the name of the Rebbe Maharash. The Rebbe Maharash said that as Rosh Hashanah approaches, Jews have a custom, after the evening prayers on Rosh Hashanah, to wish one another, “May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year.” The Rebbe Maharash once said that thousands of millions of angels stand in heaven, eagerly awaiting Rosh Hashanah night, when one Jew wishes his fellow Jew, wholeheartedly, “May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year.” They wait for this and delight in it. It is their greatest joy. Why? All the angels know how precious it is to Hakadosh Boruch Hu when one Jew offers another warm, heartfelt blessings and wishes from the depths of his heart. It is precious to Hakadosh Boruch Hu even more than the prayers of the Jewish people. And that is truly how it should be. What is Rosh Hashanah? It is a time for prayer—to pray and ask, to arouse abundant mercy and ask for a good and blessed year. But we must remember that when Rosh Hashanah arrives, there must be “You are standing today, all of you,” united as one: we must strengthen true Ahavas Yisroel and true Jewish unity among ourselves, so that “one person helps another and says to his brother, ‘Be strong.’”

19:40 And to daven and ask that every Jew should indeed be inscribed and sealed for a good year, a good and sweet year, materially and spiritually alike. And not only to daven and ask, but to actually wish one another this warmly, from the heart, with a welcoming, radiant face. The Rebbe even instituted that on Rosh Hashanah, people should go to all kinds of places where there are Jews who would not go to shul, blow the shofar for them, speak with them about the meaning of Rosh Hashanah, inspire them and bring them joy. In all kinds of places where Jews are alone, where there are people, [unclear]. This is a matter of Ahavas Yisroel and Jewish unity. And they encouraged them, especially through the shofar blasts. There is a special connection. [unclear] The third day, and the verse says that on the third day, “it was good” appears twice: good toward Heaven and good toward others. [unclear] There is an action, a mitzvah, that is both good toward Heaven and good toward others. [unclear] When the soul descends into the world, this is [unclear] spiritually, and especially materially.

21:10 This is connected to the fact that through Ahavas Yisroel and Jewish unity, [unclear], Hakadosh Boruch Hu makes a vessel to hold blessing for the Jewish people. “Hakadosh Boruch Hu found no vessel to hold blessing for the Jewish people other than peace.” In other words, unity is a vessel for blessings. May blessings flow throughout the world, and may we have a good and blessed year, a year of light, a year of blessing, a year of Geulah, [unclear], may the whole year be good, a year of Torah, a year of davening, a year of teshuvah, a year of praise, and the true and complete Geulah through Moshiach Tzidkeinu. And this very year.