God’s Crowning – The Empowerment of Man and the Nation

Crowning Hashem as king, which stands at the center of Rosh Hashanah and its prayers, can be perceived as weakness of man * When Hashem’s kingdom is perceived as such in a lower type of faith, people seek to distance it from the army, government offices, and the family unit, so as not to dwarf them * However, the exact opposite is true: Lack of faith imposes weakness and feebleness on all aspects of life, and the crowing of Hashem gives power to the individual and national entities  * If we do not want to remain in a situation where it is difficult to pass the nation-state law, a situation in which the connection to Judaism and nationalism is weakening, we must raise faith and strengthen the crowning of Hashem upon ourselves

A Day of Remembrance, Judgment, and Trumpeting

On Rosh Hashanah, the life allowance that God gave to his world in the previous year ends, and He remembers his creations, and creates new life for them for the coming year, for God’s memory is a taking into account, and the giving of life. And so His kindness not be turned into evil by the wicked to be used for iniquity, God determined that on this day He would judge His world. Thus, Rosh Hashanah is a day of remembrance and judgment, in which the righteous and evil deeds that were performed during the year are remembered, and the Almighty sits on the throne of judgment and calculates his worldly account, and judges every nation and people in general, and each and every person as an individual.

The essence of the judgement of the entire world depends on the People of Israel and the Land of Israel, for Israel is the heart of the world, the nation of Hashem, and ‘tikkun olam’ (the correction of the world) depends on them. Therefore, Israel’s reward and punishment are greater than the reward and punishment of other nations. That is why God first judges Israel, and as a result of the judgement of the People of Israel, judgement spreads over all mankind and the world (Rosh Hashanah 8a, b; Ta’anit 10a).)

This is why Rosh Hashanah is called ‘Yom Teru’ah’ (day of blowing) for the teru’ah alludes to tribulation, weeping, anxiety and the breakdown of order. Tribulation and weeping – over what is finished, but incomplete; anxiety – towards the next stage, which has not yet been determined who will live and who will die, who will be at ease, and who will suffer. Therefore, even though the duration of the teru’ot is relatively short, the entire day is called the “Day of Teru’ah” – the day of tribulation and weeping. However, God commanded us to blow a simple ‘tekiah’ which expresses joy and stability before and after each ‘teru’ah’, for the whole purpose of the teru’ah is to correct and improve. Therefore, the day of the ‘teru’ah’ is also a festival day in which we are commanded to hold feasts, for the purpose of all of this is correction and joy.

Our Will – Revelation of Hashem’s Kingdom  

As a result of our great worries about the future of our lives in the coming year, we could presumably dedicate the entire Day of Judgment to private prayers about livelihood, health, and all the other things a man occupies himself throughout the year. However, this is the special virtue of Israel, whose deepest desire is for Hashem’s kingdom to be revealed and the entire world inevitably be repaired and redeemed – even if Israel has to endure suffering for this purpose.

The People of Israel chose this great and awesome path, starting from the forefathers of the world who accepted upon themselves to believe in God in the face of all the pagans around them, and concluding with the long exile in which the People of Israel, despite all the hardships, chose not to assimilate with the nations and continue bearing the banner of faith and Torah, in order to repair the world in the kingdom of God.

When Israel sets aside its own grief and occupies itself with His honor and the revelation of His kingdom, God says to the angels: “See my sons, my beloved ones, who set aside their sorrow and occupy themselves with my honor.” Thus, the claims of Satan who wishes to annul Israel from the world are blocked, and Israel is given a new year in which to progress another step towards ‘tikkun’ and redemption. And the more we merit accepting upon ourselves on Rosh Hashanah Hashem’s kingdom, with humility and awe, the greater our ability will be to merit a better and more blessed year.

The Kingdom of Hashem at the Center of Prayer

Therefore, the heart of the Rosh Hashanah prayer deals with the crowning of Hashem as king over us, and therefore in the signing of the third blessing of the Amidah, instead of saying “Ha K’el ha’kadosh” we say “ha’melech ha’kadosh”, and continue saying so for all Ten Days of Repentance. This matter is so important that those who err and forget to say “ha’melech ha’kadosh” have not fulfilled their obligation, and must pray again (S. A., O. C. 582:1).

Even the signing of the blessing of the holiday in all the Rosh Hashanah prayers is: “King over all the world, who blesses Israel and the Day of Remembrance.” And in the Musaf prayer, which is the main prayer of Rosh Hashanah in which the shofar is blown, our Sages determined three blessings: Malchuyot, Zichron’ot, and Shofar’ot, with the first and most important one being Malchuyot. To a great extent, even the blessings of Zichron’ot and Shofar’ot deal with Hashem’s kingdom.

Does God’s Kingdom Lower Man?

In a lower perception of faith, the more one believes in God and accepts His kingship over himself, the more he reduces himself. He is filled with anxiety, afraid to act in the world and correct it, pleading with God as a poor son and as a humble slave for Him to do everything for us, because we have no deeds. Faith makes him cowardly and soft-hearted. This type of belief, too, is needed, because fear of heaven serves as a barrier to man’s desires, which may erupt with murderous cruelty and with disgust and humiliation. When people succeeded in freeing themselves of faith (in the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany), they murdered many more people than at times when faith was present.

However, man basically wishes to reveal his powers and therefore desires to be released from a lower type of faith that diminishes the image of God in himself, and to ascend to a higher faith that strengthens his soul and his powers. At such a level, the crowning of Hashem as king does not weaken man, but rather gives inspiration and meaning to his life, and elevates him to a level of courage and creativity that cannot be attained without faith (see ‘Midot HaRayah’, Emunah 29).

The Kingdom of Hashem Strengthens Nationalism

When most of the religious and ultra-Orthodox public live most of the time in a lower level of faith, many people do not desire such faith. And even those who give faith a place in their lives are interested in lowering its volume, and to occupy themselves with small personal matters, and not get involved in public life – not in science and industry, out of fear that it will delay any development and weaken any initiative; not in the army – for fear that it will bring us back to the days of exile, or for fear that since God ordered the conquest of the land, we must ignore all rational considerations, for what does man know? The main goal is to do the will of God, even if it poses a huge risk to the existence of the state. Thus we find many people who fear the influence of faith in matters of public life.

However, when there is no recognition of the kingdom of God, the soul is silent, and all human systems are emptied of meaning and remain hollow. Thus, even the gnawed ‘Chok Ha’Leum’ (nation-state law) people find difficult to pass and implement, and resultantly, weakness is found in the building and settlement of the Land, and a lacking of power to call aloud to all Jews in the Diaspora to immigrate to Israel. And in light of this weakness, the Arab representatives who should thank the Jewish people from morning till night for all the good Israel has brought them, spit into the well from which they drink, and proceed to spread slander of our good and moral state throughout the world.

The Kingdom of Hashem and the Nation-State Law

While in one of the army camps, I saw a giant banner on which the vision and values ​​to which the army educates were written in enormous letters. The list of values ​​was: “Love of man, professionalism, personal example, friendship, modesty, creativity and innovation, love of the Land.”

These values ​​are wonderful, but the Jewish people is not mentioned. The Zionist vision is erased. True, love of the Land was mentioned, but only because it could include the Druze and the Circassians – and the Arabs, if they were willing to enlist. It should be noted that the training commander who led the parade spoke balanced and correct. He mentioned the Bible and the suffering that our people have experienced throughout our long history, and the IDF’s mission to make sure events as difficult as those of our people in the past are no longer repeated, while maintaining the law and proper treatment for all. His words were both measured and moving.

But the shameful situation is that the IDF is no longer officially capable of writing that it is committed to the Zionist vision and the Jewish people, which proves how necessary it was to legislate the nation-state law, and how important it is to strive to integrate its values ​​in all spheres of society. For this we must return to faith in God’s kingdom, which is the foundation of our national existence.

In the opening speech of the First Zionist Congress, Herzl also said that first of all we must return to our Judaism, and from this, to our country.

Faith Gives Meaning to the Family

The crowning of Hashem as king in the lower level of faith maintains the family, so that a couple will remain faithful to each other and not betray one another. But since there is no vision and spirit in this type of relationship, many people prefer to look for different types of family that give them more freedom and personal expression. But without faith, these families fall apart.

The crowning of Hashem as king on the level of supreme faith gives the family the meaning of sanctity, of the revelation of the divine unity, in miniature, in the love between the couple. And as the joy between them grows, so the name of God is grows greater between them, Divine unity is revealed, and a great blessing and abundance spread throughout the worlds (see Zohar, sect.2, Pikudei 259:1; sect.3, Shlach 167:2).

When people realize that this is the proper family, many are eager to have similar families.

Reign Over the Entire World

The more a person merits faith in its higher level, the greater his powers become in freedom of choice, and feels a greater mission to reveal them in order to add blessing to the world.

In a similar vein, the honor of Jerusalem does not damage the honor of the other cities in Eretz Yisrael, but on the contrary, it exalts them, for how great and important they are that Jerusalem is the crown on their heads. And all the other countries do not suffer from the honor of the Land of Israel, for how great are the countries that dwell together in the same world that has a holy and wonderful land like the Land of Israel.

Similarly, a person’s dignity is not impaired by the fact that his friend ascends to higher levels, but on the contrary, having such a friend, he himself ascends. Similarly, the dignity of the nations is not diminished by the uniqueness of Jewish people, but on the contrary, all the nations are elevated by the fact that the People of Israel exist in their hearts.

This is the meaning of the Rosh Hashanah prayer: “Our God and God of our ancestors, may your sovereignty be acknowledged throughout the world. May your splendor and majestic glory be reflected in the lives of all who dwell on earth. May all that you have made be aware that you are their Maker, and may all that you have created acknowledge that you are their Creator; and may all that breathe the breath of life proclaim: The Eternal, God of Israel, reigns and his sovereignty embraces everything in the universe.”

This article appears in the ‘Besheva’ newspaper, and was translated from Hebrew.

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