"Say Malchuyos before Me so that you make Me King over
you" (Rosh Hashonoh 16a).
"And those from far away will come and hear, and they will
present You a Kingly crown" (Musaf Yomim Noraim).
How elevated is Rosh Hashonoh! Mere human beings of flesh and
blood are lifted to the lofty level of saying
Malchuyos — of proclaiming Hashem's governance
over the entire world. Hashem tells them: "Make Me King over
you, give Me a Kingly crown." Klal Yisroel join the
Heavenly mal'ochim in crowning Hashem: "The multitudes
of mal'ochim above will present You with a crown,
together with Your people Yisroel gathered below"
(Kedushoh according to Nusach Sephard).
Rosh Hashonoh is different from all other days. Its two days
are considered one long day — a reshuffling of nature.
Man, a servant of HaKodosh Boruch Hu, is privileged on
Rosh Hashonoh to receive a wonderful present: he can proclaim
Hashem as his King and King of the entire world.
The secret of how to succeed in the annual Divine judgment on
Rosh Hashonoh, the way to arrive at that objective, is: "Say
Malchuyos before Me on Rosh Hashonoh . . .
Zichronos (pesukim mentioning Klal
Yisroel's nearness to Hashem) so that your remembrance
will come before Me for your good" (Rosh Hashonoh
16a). Through elevating himself, a Jew reaches the pinnacle
of this aim. He is not fawning. He is not like a lowly
crawling creature humbling itself until all despise it.
Instead man appears as if sparkling white. A brilliance of
glory surrounds him, and an uplifted feeling fills his soul.
How great, elevated, and sublime is man when he is called
upon to herald the kingship of the King of the World.
Man's realization of his task in life, his truthful
expression of his nature, that of being an eved to his
King, has no more wonderful fulfillment than through his
declaration of Malchuyos.
This is man's glory, according to Jewish thought. Man is
raised high so that he will understand his essence, duty, and
purpose. Judaism awards man the highest task possible,
something that is only also done by the mal'ochim in
Shomayim. Through the power of the Torah, man is
capable of reaching a high plane that no other creature can
reach.
Progressive ideology to which, unfortunately, many Jews have
been allured (and as a result have cast away both themselves
and their Judaism), has produced the antithesis of all this.
Such Jews have gone to look for something else to give their
lives substance.
They have tried to "free" man from his dependence on the
Creator — as if this were at all possible. They have
invented a new faith called "Belief in Man." They aim to
raise man's stature by seemingly redeeming him and elevating
him to believe in himself instead of Hashem, who is in fact
the One-and-Only Power over the world.
The results are instead devastating: never has man been so
lowly, and his prominence so diminished, as since this
heretical philosophy has spread.
What has not happened to man on his way downward? What have
we not seen among these Jews who wanted to "free themselves"
and not be servants of Hashem?
They have abandoned their holy objective of proclaiming the
Creator's dominion over the world and instead have made
themselves would-be kings over the world. By doing so they
have subjected themselves to their yetzer, to their
base inclinations and tendencies, and have lessened the
tzelem of man.
Before, they joined with mal'ochim in saying
shiroh to Hashem and proclaiming Him King of the
World, but now man has become like a wild animal unable to
control himself.
*
Man's greatest freedom is when he realizes who he is and
where he is, and his innate capabilities and expectations.
Man's greatest enslavement is when he tries to be much more
than he can be and refuses to see his limitations.
By doing this, not only does he not attain his pretentious
aspirations, but in addition he loses both what he is capable
of arriving at and the inherent talents that the Creator has
provided him.
The haters of Judaism, those who abhor its truth, have (just
like those carrying out any malicious plot) always attributed
to it features that are the diametrical opposite of its
eternal truth. They have claimed, "It restricts man, erects
walls around him, puts him in jail, places him behind lock
and key, forbids him to attain his desires and lusts, takes
away his freedom to do what he wishes." These "charges" are
based on the false claim that freedom for man means casting
off responsibilities and accountability for his acts. They
feel that man must let his yetzer rule over his
intellect, his heart control his mind — and let his
lusts' inclinations rule over what he thinks. The elevated
content of Rosh Hashonoh contradicts and rebuts all this.
Where is there another nation whose members become the top of
all creations on their Day of Judgment, as if their
restrictive physical essence is removed and they are
presented with a viable approach to the eternal, unlimited
truth by proclaiming the Creator of the World to be their
King?
Where is there a greater, more exalted expression of man's
capability, a greater glorification of man's inner powers,
than by his recognizing the power of Hashem's Malchus
— that Only Hashem is the King of the world —
and his tendering to Hashem His royal crown?
What did those who waved the slogan of "Belief in Man"
actually give to man?
They awarded him liberty to engage in his lusts. They turned
him into a beast of prey. He is chasing limitlessly after
material achievements, denied any measure of real happiness,
racing to and fro, day and night, after what seems to him
capable of bringing him happiness — but he remains
eternally unable to reach it.
Modern man is never satisfied, always weary, because his true
life motive — "It is our duty to praise the Master of
all, to attribute greatness to the Shaper of Creation"
— has been taken from him. Someone who does not know or
who has forgotten to Whom to offer true praise, and instead
tries to give it to himself, who turns himself into a "Master
of All," is deprived of all pleasure, since he can never be
satisfied. Someone who understands what the truth really is,
has climbed to the summit: tendering the crown of royalty to
the Ruler of the World.
This is Judaism's message to us, and through this message one
reaches the heights of Rosh Hashonoh. Man elevates himself to
the level of mal'ochim, the highest level he can ever
reach. This is contrary to heretical philosophies that
deceive man into thinking that he can reign over the world.
How devastating those philosophies are!
Judaism, on the other hand, awards man with the apex of his
freedom by letting him know that his purpose in life is that
"all the world's inhabitants will recognize and know that to
You every knee must bend."
*
Judaism's power reaches through the entire world. It is,
however, not like an empire conquering other nations; not
even does it have impassioned missionary designs to persuade
others into embracing its faith.
Judaism hopes for the true delight of faith, faith in the
Unique Supreme Power, to extend over all of who live. It
aspires to a state when the entire Creation unites to
recognize His light and truth, and in that way the great
tikkun for the world will come.
External enemies have attacked Judaism, and no few domestic
enemies too. These household foes have denied their origin,
their faith, and the foundation of our nation. They picture
the Torah as limited and restrictive, expressive of a ghetto-
type perspective, as if it is concerned only with itself.
Even that, they claim, it cannot do properly: it is man's
permanent enemy they say, intended for his harm, aimed at his
ruin.
The essence of Rosh Hashonoh, the most elevated day in the
year, is the complete opposite of that evil accusation. The
characteristic mark that runs through all of the
tefillos on Rosh Hashonoh is that the Creator is King
over the whole world. Our objective: "to perfect the universe
through the Almighty's Sovereignty, that all of humanity may
call on Your Name" (Musaf Rosh Hashonoh and
Oleinu).
We beseech Hashem to "reign over the whole word in Your
glory, be exalted over the world in Your splendor . . . Let
everything that has been made know that You are its Maker,
let everything that has been molded understand that You are
its Molder, and let everything with life-breath in its
nostrils proclaim: `Hashem, the Elokim of Yisroel, is
King, and His Kingship rules over everything.'"
This nation has the unique Torah with its mitzvos that it
accepted upon itself with the announcement, "We will do and
we will hear."
The Torah has mapped out the boundaries for the Jewish Nation
which, since matan Torah, has for thousands of years
had a singular history unlike any other nation. It has
outlasted other peoples who were greater and mightier than
it. This nation on its great day, the Day of Judgment, has
only one exalted wish: "that all of humanity may call on Your
Name" and that "You, Hashem, may reign alone over all Your
works."
Our tefillos do not exclude any people or creation
from this aspiration. We are not requesting good only for
ourselves. We are ready to recognize everyone's need for
good, that all that breathes should be privileged to reach
the recognition of "Hashem Who is the Elokim of Yisroel is
King."
Is this a "ghetto-type" Judaism? Is this a narrow-minded
nation thinking only of itself?
For thousands of years this nation has asked Hashem to help
the whole of Creation and humanity. It sees as the apex of
its duty to bring it about that "those from far away will
come and hear and present You with a royal crown."
Jewry is not trying to accomplish this aspiration through
force. It has no such ambitions. Furthermore, it does not
even try to influence anyone to recognize Hashem's Kingdom.
It only asks of Hashem that from Above He open gates of
radiant understanding, so that people can understand and
digest this singular eternal truth by themselves. This is a
condition for the redemption of the world and of man.
*
The Jewish aspiration of Redemption has always been that "the
earth will be full of knowledge of Hashem as the waters cover
the sea" (Yeshayohu 11:9) — redemption without
any limitations or restrictions.
However, the world's redemption is dependent upon the
redemption a Jew first makes for himself, i.e. that he should
quickly return to his Source of life. For a Jew, the way is
more open and paved, and he only needs to walk once again on
the same road his fathers and fathers' fathers went, ever
since this nation saw its first light. This is the first
aspiration that we must have on the Yom Hadin.
Am Yisroel has known more suffering than all other
nations and has been persecuted viciously more than any other
nation. Its greatest misery is, however, that many Jews have
gone astray from Hashem's light and the true Torah. How
tremendous, therefore, is its request, "Let them all become a
single band to do Your will wholeheartedly."
We pray that Jewry all over the world will become one united
band doing the will of their Maker. Today everyone can see
what those Jews who have gone astray have lost, what those
who wanted to bring a worldly "redemption" have in fact
reached. They have not freed us from the hatred of the
nations and have not brought us any independence. Because of
them we have only been afflicted with more oppression and
greater antisemitism.
Perhaps the time has already come for them to reach the
conclusion that redemption is not dependent upon our coming
nearer to those who do not follow the Torah but rather on
distancing ourselves from their ways and concentrating on our
eternal truth.
In this way we can radiate beams of light and truly be "a
light for the nations." We should not follow the misleading
light of non-Jews but bring it about that "nations will walk
by Your light and kings by the brightness of Your rising"
(Yeshayohu 60:3).
