Rosh Hashanah: Crowning Hashem as One Nation

Transcript

We're addressing two questions posed by the group, by the chashuvah crowd that we have here, the hundreds of guys that are sitting here and listening to the Rosh Hashanah Yom Kippur shmooze. All right? Your question is, what should I think about when I pray, when I daven Rosh Hashanah, and how do I arouse myself to be on peak performance in my mindset? What should I bring myself to? Okay. So the answer is, what should I daven about Rosh Hashanah? There's a Zohar. The Zohar says you can't daven on a personal, for personal things. Whoever davens for personal gain, give me, give me, I need money, I need a car, and I need house, and I need parnassah, is like a kelev, like a dog. Hav, hav. You know, a dog barks, Hav! Hav! It sounds like, give me, give me. A dog's about give me. A dog is not, I give you. Give me, give me, not I give you. So let me explain to you. Rosh Hashanah is about the Melech. It's about subordinates to a king. The subjects of a melech is all about the melech. Avadim, slaves, their whole thing is bringing up the king. Their personal almost doesn't exist. That's what, im Hashem, as the Melech HaKadosh Baruch. Now I want to explain to you. There's an interesting Gra. The Gra says, Ki laShem hameluchah. U'Moshel bagoyim. Ba'olam, Moshiach, right? Do you know the end of the pasuk? What is LaShem hameluchah and Moshel ba... What's the difference between meluchah and moshel? What's the difference? What's the difference between a melech and a moshel? Says the Gra, melech is accepted by the people. Moshel rules with force, even if he's not accepted, a dictator. LaShem hameluchah — Klal Yisrael accepts Hashem. Moshel — they don't accept; Hashem rules by force. Ki LaShem hameluchah u'moshel bagoyim. The Gra says, by tekiah shofar, no crying. You have to be upbeat and happy. Why? U'truat melech. What does truat melech mean? Announcing the king, proclamation of the melech. When you make an inauguration of a king, what, you're crying? Yeah, when it's, you know, Democrat, Republican, yeah, they're crying. But otherwise, you're upbeat, you're happy. You need to be happy. As a matter of fact, in halachah it's brought down, you're not allowed to cry on Rosh Hashanah. Where's this halachah? Halachah is, and it's brought down in the Be'er Heitev — I'll tell you soon in a second — it's brought down, lechu ichlu mashmanim u'shתו ממתקים. You were supposed to eat and drink. You know when? On Rosh Hashanah. Don't be, Ki chevas Hashem uzchem. The chemi tells the people it's a happy day for you. But it's a day of fear and judgment, and the answer is both: fear, and if you fear, you can be happy because Hashem will give you a good, blessed year. But it's a day of happy. Many, what do you call it, in hashkafah, the crying and the sadness of Rosh Hashanah is an unacceptable thing. Arizal, the Berhete brings it down, that if somebody does cry on Rosh Hashanah, he shouldn't want to cry, he shouldn't make himself cry, but if it comes out, it's fine. Why? There's different types of crying. There's crying sadness, and then there's crying closeness. You ever notice people who come to greet people at an airport, they'll see their relatives, they're crying. So I could tell the difference. Are they crying because they're happy to see them, or are they crying because they're stuck with them for the next two weeks? There's different type of crying. You see, when these guys walk into yeshiva in the morning, I cry. I tell them it's because I'm so happy to see them. That's right. Maybe I wasn't so happy to see you. No, I was going to go with the latter. You wanted to climb up the ladder, you said? Okay, so listen carefully. No, don't jump. Listen carefully. The point is, this is not for you. This doesn't interest you about Rosh Hashanah. Okay, so the question is, you hear, crying. So the Arizal says if you do cry, it should be, you know, not so much that you're unhappy, it's hitorerut. And he does say that if someone does break out...

crying on Rosh Hashanah, it's a sign that at that specific moment they're judging. If someone in the middle of the prayer all of a sudden reaches a crencho—I don't know the word in English—reaches a point, a peak where he starts to cry, crescendo, that's what was the word I was looking for, yeah. So that is because at that moment, at that moment, they're judging him. So the answer to your question, why should you think on Rosh Hashanah a lot less about yourself and a lot more about the King? Now, is that picture helping you with the shiur? I just wanted to know, maybe. Okay, now, many discuss b'toch ami anochi yosheves, which means on Rosh Hashanah we do ask—so there's a question, the Zohar says not to ask. You're not asking for yourself; you're asking for Klal Yisrael. The Shunamite, the story of the Shunamite that asks Elisha. Elisha says, Is there anything I could do for you? You made me a room, right? I want to repay you. Is there anything I could do for you? I'm close to the king. I could talk to the king on your behalf. And she answers, I need nothing, b'toch ami anochi yosheves. I sit among the people, which means there's no personal—Klal Yisrael, I don't need much. It was on Rosh Hashanah; that story happened on Rosh Hashanah. Many mefarshim say it's a lesson to the theme of Rosh Hashanah, and that is b'toch ami anochi yosheves. I don't ask for personal; I ask for Klal Yisrael, okay? As a matter of fact—exactly—as a matter of fact, tell me, so how could you not mean it when you see every day the most horrific tzarot in Klal Yisrael? I don't understand how you—let me ask you a question: when you see a guy who was sitting here yesterday, sitting shiva in shul because his brother was run over by a car, it doesn't wake you up and say Klal Yisrael needs yeshuos? When you talk about people who are drowned in the summer, young people, fathers of families, so why—how could you not ask for Klal Yisrael? I don't know what— I'm saying when people have an ulterior motive, that if I ask for others, then— I didn't tell you to do that. Sounded like. Sounded to you like that. That's not what I said. That's not what I said. You should also have that at a low. That's half of it, mitoch shelo lishma ba lishma, but that's not what I meant. I meant you should ask for Klal Yisrael as a nation. You know, in Kelem, the giants, the Rabbanim, the tzaddikim, the Alter, the old, the mashgiach of Kelem, he never took an aliyah on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Why? B'toch ami. Into the crowd. What do you call it? You disperse into the crowd, because if you blend in, because if you make yourself singular, you single yourself out. Yeah, you're a target. Wait a minute, let me see your mitzvahs here. B'toch ami, anochi yosheves. B'toch ami. As a matter of fact, there's a very famous question. On one hand, we tell you to be afraid. On the other hand, the Shulchan Aruch says take haircuts and be happy, and I don't understand. You should be secure, so what's the whole point? I don't understand. On one hand, you tell me be scared. Imagine if I tell a guy, Oh, you're gonna get a ticket. Don't worry about the ticket, because you don't have to pay it anyway. It'll be good. So what's the point? Says the Alter from Kelem, it depends on how you go to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. If you go on your merit as an individual, you got a lot to be scared about, all right? If you do it on your good looks, you have a lot—I'm just kidding. Yeah, if you do it, you have a lot to be scared of on your own merit. But if you go as a tzibur, then you have daftacha. For the tzibur. You know, in Kelim, they used to put up a sign. You know what the sign was? Rosh Hashanim Yom Kippur. That was the sign that they put up. Ein melech b'lo am. That was the sign. That was the message of Rosh Hashanah Yom Kippur: Ein melech b'lo am. What does that mean? If you want Hashem to be a king, you need to be His nation. You know, there's a lot of people walk around that the king, that the king of fantasy, that doesn't exist, right? I'm king of my palace. What's his palace? His house, and, right, and his dog. I mean, what's he the king of, right? If you want Hashem to be a king, you need to be His am. You need to be His nation. So the avodah on Rosh Hashanah Yom Kippur was to be am, to be the nation. You hear? That was one of the big themes of mussar and hashkafah in the yeshivas of mussar: Ein melech b'lo am, and the avodah is to be am. So the question is, should a—

The person prays for himself. You think, yeah, give me a good Latin. You're going down the wrong path with that. I would get a lawyer if you were going to think about that. If you want to win with that case, you better get yourself a good defense lawyer, all right? Even you don't ask. What you're doing is you're saying, I want the good of Klal Yisrael. I want Klal Yisrael, and you're blending with the tzibur. You're part of the big crowd, and you're good to go. You see? Again, it's not kids. It's Klal Yisrael. I'm davening for Klal Yisrael, for Klal Yisrael, daven for Klal Yisrael, for Klal Yisrael, daven for Hashem. Care for your people. They're your people. Take care of them. You know, and of course, I'm one of them. I'm part of them. That's now. How do you reach the level of hitorerut? It comes by itself. If your mind is not selfish, and you're not focused on yourself, but focused on the King and His nation, it will come by itself. Humility brings emotion. You know, when you're wrapped up with yourself, people don't realize that when a person is wrapped up with himself, for some reason his life becomes unrewarding, unrewarding, and everything becomes a burden. You're humble, and you look at life, and you look around, you become moved from humility. It's a certain—I know I'm not explaining it, but it's a reality. You know, when a person is humble, his heart becomes moved. That's what happens. So. What should you think on Rosh Hashanah? As Baalei Mussar say, take away all the negative and the positive will come by itself. We have in ourselves that feeling of love, Hashem, the King, and teshuva. We have all that. If you let it be, you gotta let it surface. You gotta let it surface. You let it surface, then you got it. Yeah, then you got it. One of the things that are me'akev at ha-teshuva—there's 24, you know, there's 24 things the Rambam says holds back teshuva. What's one of them? Ha-poreish min ha-tzibur. It's one of the 24, the Rambam brings. He stays away. He separates himself from the tzibur. What if? Why? Before the what if, why? Why should it be that way? Why is that teshuva? Making himself a target. It's more than that. Klal Yisrael has a power—calm down—Klal Yisrael has a power of teshuva and a siyata dishmaya for teshuva. Hashem helps Klal Yisrael come back. If you stand out individuals—here, imagine a guy comes and he says, What happened? Hello? It's not for you? It's not? Okay. Tell me where you have to go. Maybe I have to go there also. Maybe, I don't know. He has to go. Is there a war or something? Is there fire? Maybe I have to go there too? What? Okay. Yes, there's a war. Maybe I have to go also. I have to run. There's a draft. My parnassah is not here. Believe me, I don't make any—trust me, if you think I'm making parnassah out of this, you haven't learned your community yet. You know very little about your community. Look in the mirror. What if I enjoy praying? Huh? Not good. So let me explain to you. Tzadikim were able to get away with that. Big rebbes were able to get away with this concept that they prayed better alone. Not alone, like the shul is here, I pray in like the ladies' section. Again, sometimes that's not a big problem if the ladies' section is meant to be part of the shul. It's not terrible. You have to know the, the, what do you call that? You need to know the layout of this, of the room, you know. Okay? All right, so we can stop over here this year. We can stop it, and you'll send it out. Go ahead, do. All right.