לעילוי נשמתה של חמותי היקרה, גולדה בת יחיאל מיכל ז"ל

The Mussar master, Rav Israel Salanter asks the following intriguing question: Why is Yom Kippur not before Rosh Hashanah? Should we not first receive forgiveness for our sins, and then be standing before Hashem, to be judged, on Rosh Hashanah?’.

To elucidate: we say, in Mussaf on Rosh Hashanah, the piyut: ’Today You gave birth to a world’ - and the critical continuation, for our purposes - ‘today You will stand in judgment before You, every creation, if as sons, if as servants.’

This, then, is the awesome situation confronting each person, on Rosh Hashanah, as he pleads: ’זכרנו לחיים: remember us for life, King who desires life, and inscribe us for life, in the Book of life, O living G-d.’

Might we not rightfully think, that since Hashem ‘desires life’, He would judge us at the time most propitious for us to merit being inscribed in the Book of Life - on Yom Kippur, when we have completed our process of repentance - at the conclusion of the Ten Days of Repentance, and culminating in the purification of Yom Kippur?

How much more so, when we read the beautiful paean of Rabbi Akiva, as to the purification on Yom Kippur: (Yoma 86: ) אשריכם : how fortunate are you Bnei Israel, before Whom you are purified, and Who purifies you: your Father in Heaven, as it says (Yechezkiel 36:25): ’And I pour over you pure waters, and you are purified, and as it says:(Yitmiyahu 17:13): ‘Hashem is a mikveh for Israel- just as a mikveh purifies the impure, so Hashem also purifies Israel.’

Let us savor three answers to our existential query.

The first is based on the words of the Sweet Singer of Israel, David Hamelech (Ps’ 27), which we have been saying since Rosh Chodesh Ellul: ’By David, Hashem is אורי my light וישעי: and my salvation’.

Our Sages, in the Midrash, expounded: ‘my light’ is Rosh Hashanah, ‘my salvation’ is Yom Kippur’.

The allusion to Yom Kippur - as ‘salvation’ - is readily understood, as it brings atonement and purification - but lthe allusion to Rosh Hashanah as ‘my light’ calls on us to seek to expound it.

We can do so, by noting that on the first Rosh Hashanah the world was created and - as our Sages relate -the light which Hashem created at that time, was a light ‘with which one could see from one end to the other’.

Our Sages added, that because of this special nature of the light, it was denied to the wicked, and reserved for the needs of the righteous - with whom the genuine penitents who seek atonement, must surely be included.

‘Though wholeheartedly seeking to repent, we are confronted with a great difficulty in doing so, as :’man is closest to himself’, and so, is in his nature, inclined to judge himself favorably - rather than objectively.

True repentance requires an honest answer to the question that Hashem asked Adam Harishon after his transgression: איכה: ’Where are you?’ - what is your spiritual level, now, after your misdeed?.

This very same question is the starting point for repentance - a true חשבון נפש: spiritual accounting of the soul.

Without knowing our true spiritual standing, how can we proceed to change, and to truly repent?

This is the chessed of Rosh Hashanah, of being ‘my light’ - the unique nature of its light enabling us to truly ‘see’ our spiritual standing, so that we can avail ourselves of these auspicious days - overcoming the barrier with which we were confronted, as we brought - and receive the ultimate gift of atonement, on Yom Kippur.

This can be summarized by saying: ’If not for ‘my light’, there would not be ‘my salvation’ - meaning: the light and awakening of Rosh Hashanah are the foundation and a pre-condition to the forgiveness and atonement which comes on Yom Kippur.

Rav Avigdor Nebenzahl proffers a second answer: the beginning of the process of repentance is the recognition on Rosh Hashanah, of the Kingship of Hashem.

The Rav expounds: ’If you want to demolish a faulty structure - in our case, man built on transgressions - there are two ways to do so.'

‘One way is to assail the structure with a heavy hammer, and to strike blow after blow, brick after brick, until the whole structure is demolished.

‘Whilst this approach likely will achieve the objective, if the structure is strong - as the errant body is - the work will take a long time and great effort.

‘The second way is very much simpler: If we dig under the foundations, the structure will collapse of itself, and not require great effort or time.

‘This is the foundation of Rosh Hashanah - and also the major difference between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

‘On Yom Kippur we conduct a frontal assault on our transgressions, in viduim, strikes on our hearts and resolutions as to the future;’On the transgression that we sinned.. on the transgression that we sinned…’.

‘On Rosh Hashanah, by contrast, we seek to take preceding action, to prepare the soil - the foundation - on which the transgressions arise.

‘We seek to convince ourselves how mistaken the transgression was - though it appeared correct at the time, and worthwhile - as today we reckon the reward for a mitzvah as against the loss caused by the transgression - and we return to the point in time before the deed, and understand that the calculation we made then, was mistaken.

‘This is why repentance can retrospectively undo and uproot the transgression, because we have uprooted the foundation - just as in hatarat nedarim ( the release from vows), because the Sage discerns today, that my assumption when I acted, was mistaken.

‘I now realize that all the illusions that the yetser ha’ra led me to envisage, when inducing me to act against the Will of Hashem, was mistaken - as the Will of Hashem is the only truth - and, when we reach this understanding, the whole structure of transgressions, collapses by itself!

‘To reach this understanding, we need - therefore - to deepen the uprooting of the foundation, that underlies transgression: that there is a מציאות ; a Reality, other than Hashem, and the acceptance that He alone is the only Reality.

‘When we internalize this truth, the transgression will - of itself - fall apart.

‘This is our task on Rosh Hashanah - and also the main part of our prayers: the sole Kingship of Hashem, as we pray to ‘המלך הקדוש': ‘the Holy King’, and in the fourth bracha of the Shmoneh-Esreh: מלך על כל הארץ:’King over all the land.’

‘This, too, is why we sound the Shofar on this day, as this is the manner in which kings are crowned.’

Clearly this had to precede our service on Yom Kippur, as we only now know from whom - and for what - we need to seek atonement, and to repent.’

The third answer is my own humble offering, and I proffer it to fulfill the teaching of our Sages (Chagiga 3.): ’There is no Beit Midrash without חידוש: an original Torah insight’.

There is a כלל: a general principle in Kabalistic and Chasidic thought, that, in spiritual matters, for there to be an ‘awakening’ - help - from Above, there needs to first be an ‘awakening’ - be it an action or an intention, below - from man.

Applying this principle to our query, let us first ask: What chessed are we asking for on Yom Kippur, from Above?

The answer is readily found in David Hamelech’s psalm: We are asking for ישועה: for the priceless gift of absolution from our transgressions - which is so beautifully elucidated by Rabbi Akiva in the gemara we brought.

The need for teshuva - to repent - is so vital, that our Sages (Pesachim 54. and in several other gemarot) say that it was one of the seven things created before the creation of the world.

They point to a source for this, in Psalm 90, which states that, before the world was created, Hashem called on man to repent: ’Before the mountains were born and You had yet fashioned the earth.. You say: ’Repent, O sons of man’ - based, in turn, on several sayings of the prophets.

The commentators expound that the reason for this, is that the ability to atone for one’s transgressions is an essential need for man.

If we have found an ‘awakening Above’ - which we receive on Yom Kippur - what can mortal man precede by ‘giving’ to Hakadosh-Baruch-Hu, to fulfill the condition of an ‘awakening below’?

An original answer is advanced by Rav Azriel Tauber: ’For reasons beyond our limited intellect, Hashem has a request of us, on Rosh Hashanah, as the Gemara relates (Rosh Hashanah 15.): תמליכוני עליכם:’Crown Me as your King, over you’.

The Vilna Gaon comments that though Hashem will still be the ruler over all, should we not crown him as our King, he would not be a King, as a King - by definition - is one who is crowned willingly by the people, as Bnei israel merited to do - as we say in our prayers: מלכותו ברצון קבלו עליהם משה ובני ישראל:’And whose Kingship they willingly accepted on themselves, Moshe and Bnei Israel.’

Should you ask here: What need is there for this - the willing acceptance of the Kingship, by the people - the answer is provided by the Yalkut: אין מלך בלא עם: there is no King without subjects - and our Avot chose to be the subjects of the King of Kings.

We can now rightfully claim to have first fulfilled the condition of ‘awakening below’ - by crowning Hashem as our King on Rosh Hashanah - to merit the ‘awakening Above’, on Yom Kippur.

A parting gem from Rav Salanter, who proffers his own answer to his question: The purification of Yom Kippur is the result of a long process of altering the very being of the person to his core .

This process starts with the realization of the correct order of priorities, the main one being the Kingship of Hashem over Creation.

Hence, Rosh Hashanah is the beginning of the process - and thus must precede Yom Kippur - which alters us deeply, and enables culmination in the purification of Yom Kippur.

לרפואת נועם עליזה בת זהבה רבקה ונחום אלימלך רפאל בן זהבה רבקה, בתוך שאר חולי עמנו.