How to Turn the Day of Judgment into the Greatest Joy of the Year? | Rosh Hashanah in Light of Chassidus

00:00 Have you noticed that in the prayers of Rosh Hashanah, we don’t mention sins, transgressions, or wrongdoing at all? So much so that there are several halachos, as brought in the Shulchan Aruch, about being careful not to mention them on Rosh Hashanah. That’s why, for example, when we say Avinu Malkeinu, we omit all the requests connected with asking forgiveness—“We have sinned before You,” “Forgive us,” and the like. There are also several other changes we make in the prayers so as not to mention sin or wrongdoing. And that’s surprising: Rosh Hashanah is one of the Ten Days of Teshuvah. The Ten Days of Teshuvah begin on 1 Tishrei, from Rosh Hashanah through 10 Tishrei, Yom Kippur, and yet we don’t mention sin or wrongdoing at all. I remember when I was a young bochur, there was, at one point, a farbrengen with the Rebbe on Rosh Hashanah. As was customary, at the Rosh Hashanah meal, during the farbrengen, they would sing various niggunim of our Rebbeim, from the Baal Shem Tov and all the Chabad Rebbeim. Once they sang a niggun whose words had the meaning of asking forgiveness, or something similar, and the Rebbe immediately objected and said, “We don’t sing that song on Rosh Hashanah.” So it’s interesting: how do we bring these two things together? On the one hand, Rosh Hashanah is one of the Ten Days of Teshuvah—indeed, the first two days of the Ten Days of Teshuvah—and we do say “Shir Hamaalos: From the depths I have called to You, Hashem” in the middle of the Shacharis prayer. Yet we are very careful not to mention sin or wrongdoing at all. That brings us to today’s subject: we’re going to explain what the work of teshuvah on Rosh Hashanah actually is. What exactly is teshuvah about, especially in connection with the holy day of Rosh Hashanah?

02:18 So on the one hand, these are the Ten Days of Teshuvah, and Rosh Hashanah is among the most important of them. So much so that the Rambam, in Hilchos Teshuvah, gives a special halachah concerning the shofar blasts we sound on Rosh Hashanah. The Rambam says that although sounding the shofar on Rosh Hashanah is a decree of Scripture—meaning the Torah doesn’t give us the reason; it doesn’t say why we sound the shofar, only, “In the seventh month, on the first of the month, it shall be a day of sounding the shofar for you”—nevertheless, it contains an allusion. The Rambam goes on at length, in wonderful words, to explain that the allusion in the sounding of the shofar is teshuvah: “Awaken, sleepers, from your sleep; rouse yourselves from your slumber; return in teshuvah,” and so on. And yet, as we said, there are two sides here. Rosh Hashanah is a day of teshuvah, but we don’t mention asking forgiveness or pardon, even though we know that asking forgiveness and saying vidui, confession, are essential and central to teshuvah. As we also discussed, in halachah the Torah mitzvah is the mitzvah of vidui, and specifically on Rosh Hashanah we don’t mention it. What is the explanation? This gives us the deeper understanding we’re going to discuss today: the nature of teshuvah in general, and the nature of teshuvah in connection with Rosh Hashanah in particular. Let’s begin with a teaching of the Baal Shem Tov. There is a teaching that the Frierdiker Rebbe repeated, which he had heard from Rebbe to Rebbe in the name of the Baal Shem Tov. The Baal Shem Tov spoke about the verse, “For had we not delayed, by now we could have returned twice.” This verse appears in Parshas Mikeitz, with no apparent connection to this time of year. It was said about Yosef’s brothers when they left Egypt and were on the road, after returning from Egypt with the food they had bought there.

04:34 Then, along the way, they found the money that had been hidden, and they exchanged words of regret and teshuvah over what they had done to Yosef Hatzaddik. That is where we find the words, “For had we not delayed, by now we could have returned twice.” The simple meaning is that if we had done things more quickly, we could already have made the trip twice. But the deeper meaning, says the Baal Shem Tov, is that the letters of “lulei,” “had we not,” are the letters of Elul. “Had we not delayed”: the month of Elul is a time when a person has a whole month, thirty days, to linger—that is, to reflect, to think deeply, to take the time to make a personal accounting and see what needs to be corrected and completed from the past year, and to prepare for the coming year. So, “had we not delayed”: when a Jew uses the month of Elul to draw closer to Hakadosh Boruch Hu through teshuvah and good deeds, then “by now”—“atah,” with an ayin, yes?—“we could have returned twice.” It gives us the strength to do teshuvah twice, two kinds of teshuvah. The Baal Shem Tov says: a general teshuvah on Rosh Hashanah and a particular teshuvah on Yom Kippur. So it’s interesting: we hear here about a general teshuvah and a particular teshuvah. Rosh Hashanah is the general teshuvah; Yom Kippur is the particular teshuvah. What is the general teshuvah we’re talking about on Rosh Hashanah? When we look in the sefarim to see why we don’t say Selichos, ask forgiveness, or say vidui on Rosh Hashanah, they seem to say that it’s so as not to arouse the Satan. Since Rosh Hashanah is the Day of Judgment, the time when the Satan comes to accuse, interfere, confuse, and look for faults, we take care to confuse the Satan, confound him, and silence his mouth. So we do various things, and among them is this:

06:41 We don’t mention sin or wrongdoing, as though it doesn’t exist. We don’t want to “open our mouths,” as our Sages say. That is the straightforward explanation. But here comes a deeper, more profound and wonderful explanation according to Chassidus. It brings us to an understanding of the essence of Rosh Hashanah. According to Chassidus, the inner essence of Rosh Hashanah—something that is also based on the words of the Gemara—is the coronation of the King. The teaching of our Sages that underlies this whole subject is the wonderful teaching in Tractate Rosh Hashanah, page 16. The Gemara says that Hakadosh Boruch Hu asks the Jewish people: “Recite verses of kingship before Me on Rosh Hashanah, so that you will make Me King over you.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu asks and pleads with the Jewish people to make Him King: “Recite verses of kingship before Me.” That means the prayers and verses about kingship that we say in the Rosh Hashanah prayers, especially in Musaf, with all its verses of kingship. And we ask Hakadosh Boruch Hu to be King. Actually, it isn’t only in Musaf. In every prayer, in every Amidah we say on Rosh Hashanah—at Maariv, Shacharis, Minchah, and Musaf—we repeat the request: “Our G-d and G-d of our fathers, reign over the entire world in Your glory.” We ask Hakadosh Boruch Hu to be King.

08:15 We sing “Avinu Malkeinu, we have no King but You” on Rosh Hashanah, and so on. That is to say—and throughout the Ten Days of Teshuvah we also keep saying “the holy King,” “the King of justice.” So, as we know, the books of Kabbalah explain, and the books of Chassidus explain at length, that this is the very essence of Rosh Hashanah. On Rosh Hashanah, a Jew crowns Hakadosh Boruch Hu as King. It is the time when we commit ourselves to accepting the yoke of Heaven, as it says in the maamarim of the Frierdiker Rebbe: on Rosh Hashanah a Jew accepts the yoke of Heaven for the entire year. That is why it is called Rosh Hashanah, the “head of the year.” He explains that it is not called the beginning of the year, but specifically the head of the year. Just as the head is the source of life and energy, the source of the nerves that extend from the brain and head throughout all the limbs of a person’s body, so too Rosh Hashanah is the head from which all the “limbs”—all the days of the year—receive their influence, from the beginning, from the forty-eight hours of Rosh Hashanah. That is why he says in many maamarim that when Rosh Hashanah arrives, it is the time for a Jew to accept the yoke of Heaven, to give himself over like a simple servant who gives himself over to his master. He says, “I want to be a servant of the King. From today onward, I accept upon myself the yoke of Heaven.” Through our prayers and pleas on Rosh Hashanah, as we accept the yoke of Heaven, we arouse, so to speak, in Hakadosh Boruch Hu the desire and delight to be King. The Baal Shem Tov adds something further: on the night of Rosh Hashanah—or, as it is sometimes written, on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, as the holy day of Rosh Hashanah begins—Hakadosh Boruch Hu, so to speak, says, “I no longer want to be King.” In the language of Kabbalah, this is called a withdrawal. So to speak, the kingship of

10:17 Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s kingship—“Your kingship is a kingship over all worlds.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu is King of the world, and because He is King over the world, that is the source of its life, its continued existence, its very coming into being. The entire reality of the world exists because Hakadosh Boruch Hu is King. Then Rosh Hashanah night arrives, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu says, “That’s it. My kingship was only for one year. From now on, I no longer want to be King.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants, waits, and hopes for a Jew to ask Him—to plead with Him, to want Him to be King. As is explained, how can we say that Hakadosh Boruch Hu says, “I am no longer King”? If He were not King, the world would have to become nothing at all. The world would have to end. After all, the entire existence of creation comes from the power of Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s kingship: “Your kingship is a kingship over all worlds, and Your rule is throughout every generation.” His kingship extends over all creation at every moment. As the Baal Shem Tov teaches us about the words of Hakadosh Boruch Hu: “By the word of Hashem the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their hosts.” Hashem’s word brings creation into being, gives it life, and sustains it at every moment. The moment Hakadosh Boruch Hu stops creating and giving life, there is no world. So if His kingship departs on Rosh Hashanah night, the world should, G-d forbid, return to chaos, to nothingness. The answer is that the departure on Rosh Hashanah night is not from the speech, the bringing into being, the actual creation itself. What departs is the will and the delight. What withdraws, so to speak, is the inner dimension of kingship, the delight in being King. The Alter Rebbe explains beautifully the difference between kingship and rule. There is a king, and there is a ruler. Kingship depends on willing acceptance; rule can also be imposed against people’s will.

12:20 A ruler can even rule over animals. A ruler can rule over people who do not want him, taking power and holding it by force, whether they want it or not. That is a different kind of relationship. Of kingship, we say in prayer, “They willingly accepted His kingship upon themselves.” For someone to be a king, the people must devote themselves to him in complete bittul, and that awakens in the king the will and the delight to be king. So when we say that something departs on Rosh Hashanah night, we mean the will and the delight. The outer dimension of kingship remains, but its inner dimension disappears. The Alter Rebbe gives an analogy: a person does something without wanting to, without enthusiasm or pleasure. He keeps doing it—tired, falling asleep—but the action continues. It is an outward action, without any delight or enthusiasm. On Rosh Hashanah, through our prayers and through the inner work of a Jew devoting himself to accepting the yoke of Heaven, we want to bring about that Hakadosh Boruch Hu will choose us willingly and with delight—that He will “choose our inheritance for us, the pride of Yaakov whom He loves forever.” We want to awaken the love, the will, and the delight for Hakadosh Boruch Hu to choose to be King with will and delight. When kingship comes from that place, it is revealed inwardly and openly. Then His kingship is revealed in the world in a way that we can plainly see the beauty, the Creator within creation, the beauty of Hakadosh Boruch Hu within creation. We see the revelation of His G-dly kindness as He grants us, and all the Jewish people, a good and blessed year, with everything we need, in the most wonderful and abundant way, with goodness that is visible and revealed. That is what we want to bring about through our work

14:17 on Rosh Hashanah. In fact, this is what we say in every Amidah of the Rosh Hashanah prayers: “Reign over the world in Your glory; be exalted over all the earth in Your splendor; and appear in the majesty of Your glorious might to all the inhabitants of Your world. Let every created thing know that You made it, and every formed being understand that You formed it. Let all who have breath in their nostrils declare: Hashem, the G-d of Israel, is King, and His kingship rules over all.” In other words, we are asking—and this is the very essence of the prayer a Jew pleads from the depths of his heart again and again on Rosh Hashanah—that Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s kingship be revealed in His glory, His splendor, and the majesty of His glorious might, with all its beauty, perfection, magnificence, and greatness. This will be expressed in the world recognizing its Creator. The Arizal says that “every created thing” means even the most physical creations in the world—the inanimate, the plants, the animals, and human beings, including the nations of the world. “All who have breath in their nostrils”—all creation should recognize and declare openly, “Hashem, the G-d of Israel, is King, and His kingship rules over all.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s kingship in its fullest greatness, its fullest revelation, its fullest light. That is what a Jew wants to bring about on Rosh Hashanah. And since this is the work of Rosh Hashanah, it is also the inner meaning of blowing the shofar, as explained in Rabbeinu Saadia Gaon’s reasons for blowing the shofar. As is well known, Rabbeinu Saadia Gaon gives ten reasons, and the first and primary one is the coronation of the King: “With trumpets and the sound of the shofar, sound a blast before the King, Hashem.” When a king is crowned, the shofar is sounded; we find several coronations in Tanach that were marked with a shofar. The shofar expresses the coronation. When a Jew comes to the Rosh Hashanah prayers and the blowing of the shofar, and we stand face to face with the King of kings, Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and crown Him as King, the Frierdiker Rebbe says

16:26 in his maamarim, the coronation takes place with tremendous bittul and great joy. It brings together two remarkable feelings that do not usually go together. But that is the very essence of crowning the King: tremendous bittul on the one hand, and great joy that we have merited such a King and have merited to be His servants. “Fortunate is the people who know the sound of the shofar.” The Baal Shem Tov says: Fortunate are the people who know how to crown Hakadosh Boruch Hu through the blowing of the shofar, with immense joy that they have merited to be servants of the King of kings, Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So this is the inner point of Rosh Hashanah: accepting the yoke of Heaven with delight, joy, and expansiveness. Tremendous bittul together with great joy that we have merited to accept the yoke of Heaven. And so this is the essence of teshuvah on Rosh Hashanah. This is the deeper meaning of teshuvah, as we have also discussed in previous classes. At its foundation, the Alter Rebbe writes in Igeres Hateshuvah in Tanya that the essence of teshuvah is accepting the yoke of Heaven. At the heart of teshuvah is a Jew standing before the King, Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and saying, “I am Yours.” Complete devotion. That is the foundation, and that is why teshuvah is done with great joy. As we said, it is the great joy of having such a great King, of accepting the yoke of His kingship, and of His accepting us. In fact, we say this in the Torah reading that we always read before Rosh Hashanah. It is remarkable that the Torah reading of Parshas Nitzavim before Rosh Hashanah speaks about precisely this. For the Baal Shem Tov’s well-known teaching says that the blessing of the month of Tishrei—we know that we do not bless the new month after the Torah reading as we do every other month, and it is always explained that this is also to confuse the Satan. But the Baal

18:35 The Baal Shem Tov says that the real reason we do not bless the month of Tishrei is that Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself blesses it. And what is His blessing? “You are standing today, all of you, before Hashem your G-d.” Hashem’s blessing is that we all stand before the King of kings, Hakadosh Boruch Hu. We stand firm and prevail in judgment, as he says. And what comes next? “So that He may establish you today as His people, and He will be your G-d.” The Baal Shem Tov says: “Today” means Rosh Hashanah. There is a source for this in the Zohar. Although the verse speaks about 7 Adar, when Moshe Rabbeinu addressed the Jewish people on the day of his passing, the Zohar explains that these verses, which we always read around Rosh Hashanah, also contain hints to it. The word “today” in Parshas Nitzavim alludes to Rosh Hashanah: “This is the day of the beginning of Your works, a remembrance of the first day.” So “you are standing today”—on Rosh Hashanah. The Jewish people stand firm and prevail in judgment. And what is the purpose of Rosh Hashanah? To enter the covenant. This is the covenant Hashem makes with the Jewish people, that they should be one with Him. And how is the covenant of Rosh Hashanah expressed? “So that He may establish you today as His people, and He will be your G-d.” Hashem raises us up and makes us His people. The word “people” suggests being “with Him”: Hashem is our G-d as our King, and we are together with the King and the King is together with us. “As His people, and He will be your G-d.” This is the wonderful thing about Rosh Hashanah. And this gives us a deeper understanding of why we do not mention sins and transgressions on Rosh Hashanah. Do you know why we do not mention them? Because when you stand face to face with the King, there is no place for mentioning sins and transgressions. This is not the time to think

20:31 about the details, to feel sorry about the details, to agonize over the details, to go into what went wrong and start thinking about the details. On the contrary, the inner point lies in the essence of teshuvah. On Rosh Hashanah, a Jew places himself face to face with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. In crowning the King, there is tremendous self-nullification, a sense of awe born of shame and awe before His greatness. That is the essence of the Days of Awe. It is not awe in the sense of fear: What will happen this year? Fear of punishment, fear—G-d forbid—of material troubles. On the contrary, the true awe of Rosh Hashanah is awe born of shame, awe before His greatness: a Jew stands face to face with the majesty and greatness of the King of kings, Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And when we stand before the King and have the privilege of crowning Him, there is tremendous awe and self-nullification, and at the same time, great joy: the wonderful joy that we have merited to have a great King and that we are the people of this great King. Crowning the King, with that great self-nullification and that joy, leaves no room to bring up matters of sins, transgressions and offenses. Of course, after that coronation, after Rosh Hashanah, once we have had the privilege of crowning Hakadosh Boruch Hu as King, He has accepted that coronation, and the days of Rosh Hashanah have passed, then the Ten Days of Teshuvah and Yom Kippur begin. Those are the times for asking forgiveness and correcting the specific things we need to correct from the past year. That is the next step: the seven days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and Yom Kippur itself, when we say Al Chet several times. After dedicating ourselves to the King, we need to see how to improve our conduct, cleanse and atone for everything in the past, and begin a new period, a new relationship, and a new year that is clean and bright. So this is the essence of the teshuvah we are meant to work on during these days. I had the privilege

22:39 of being at a farbrengen of the Rebbe. It was in 5748, during Rosh Hashanah, and I remember that the Rebbe delivered a maamar of Chassidus on the verse, “A Song of Ascents: From the depths I called to You, Hashem.” It was a short, profound maamar, and I had the privilege of hearing it from the Rebbe himself. He spoke then about teshuvah. “A Song of Ascents: From the depths.” We begin on Rosh Hashanah. He explained: “From the depths” refers to teshuvah that comes from a depth within a depth. It is the depth of the heart. Depth twice—a depth within a depth, the deepest depth. As explained in Chassidus, within the depth of the heart there is the depth, and then there is a depth within a depth. There is chayah, and there is yechidah, the most wondrous, deepest level within a Jew. And there are also the depths Above, the depth within a depth of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, so to speak. Rosh Hashanah is the time for teshuvah, and afterward it extends through all the Ten Days of Teshuvah: teshuvah from a depth within a depth. The Rebbe spoke then about the details of teshuvah and the essence of teshuvah. The details of teshuvah mean correcting one detail after another after another. The essence of teshuvah is the leap, the jump from one extreme to the other, when a Jew places himself in a different state. Placing myself there—that is what happens on Rosh Hashanah. A Jew places himself there, leaps, jumps, leaves his former place. I place myself face to face with the King, and then I declare: “Our Father, our King.” We have no other king—nothing else, no other king, no one else, no inclination that rules over us—only You. You are our only King. We give ourselves over to the King of kings, Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and He, so to speak, gives Himself over to us, to grant us a good and sweet year, a good inscription and sealing. May we merit to accept the yoke of Heaven with joy, with expansiveness, with delight. May each and every one of us have a good and blessed year. A good inscription and sealing,

24:39 a good and sweet year, the year 5786, with all the interpretations, acronyms and gematrias we will merit to hear. Above all, may it be in the most tangible and revealed way: the complete Geulah through our righteous Moshiach. Amen.