Last Minute Preparations
The end of the year is rushing towards us and so it pays for us to take time now to talk about Rosh Hashanah. Of course, there’s so much to say, so many important ideas, but what can we do? We don’t have ten hours now to sit together and talk – and even if we did, it wouldn’t be enough time to prepare. We need days and days for that, hours upon hours.
I remember how we got ready for Rosh Hashanah in Slabodka. Already from Rosh Chodesh Elul they began saying a shmuz every day; instead of three times a week, now it was every day. The entire month was spent in preparation for Rosh Hashanah and we, the yeshiva men, spoke constantly about the Yom Hadin. As Rosh Hashanah was approaching the air was saturated with gravity, with a seriousness. All of our thoughts were, “We’re approaching the Day of Judgment.”
Maariv in Slabodka
You have to understand what that means; when Rosh Hashanah finally came, it was something to see. I can’t forget the sight. We’re sitting there in the beis medrash. All of us are filled with emotion, with thoughts, with trepidation. A whole month of intense preparations and now it’s finally nighttime; it’s Rosh Hashanah.
And when the chazan said “Borchu”, a roar rose from the yeshiva people, raising the roof: “Baruch Hashem hamevorach l’olam va’ed!” Then they sat down quietly. When they sat down it was quiet, perfectly silent. And then all together they started the first bracha before Kriyas Shema, the word boruch. “Baruch, oy yoy yoy, oy yoy, oy yoy.” And they were weeping and shouting. Baruch means blessed, but you have to put all that you can into these words now. Baruch means, “We’re thanking You. We bless You. We love You Hashem.” And then “Atah – You! You! You!”
It was an experience. You davened Maariv in the yeshivah on Rosh Hashanah, and you were a new person when you came out. The other tefillos, the whole yomtov, it’s hard to describe what the davening did to us. You had a different mind after Rosh Hashanah than beforehand, no question about it.
Our Preparation
Now, we can’t do anything like that; the time is late and anyhow we couldn’t match such a thing. That was something, an experience, that couldn’t be duplicated here in America. But that doesn’t patur us; we’re obligated to do what we can – and there’s a lot we can do. We also, to a great extent, can create for ourselves new minds for the new year.
And so we'll choose at least a few ideas, things that we can grab onto, that will help us be ready for Rosh Hashanah. And if we have time at the end we’ll talk also about motzei Rosh Hashanah – that’s Shabbos. This year Shabbos comes right after Rosh Hashanah and that’s an especial opportunity that we should make use of.
Reminding Hashem?
Now, the day of Rosh Hashanah is introduced in the Torah in terms that explain almost nothing. עָ ה יִהְיֶה לָכֶם יוֹם ת– It should be for you a day of blowing on the shofar (Bamidbar 29:1). That's all; it doesn't tell us anything more. And then in another place it tells us something about the purpose of the blowing: It says זִ כְ רוֹ ן עָ ה ת which means, ‘You will be remembered by your teruah’ (Vayikra 23:24). When you'll blow shofar so Hakadosh Baruch Hu will remind Himself about you; He'll have you in mind to give you His blessing for the new year.
Now that immediately brings us to a question because what kind of procedure is this that we remind Hashem? He needs reminders from us?! Is He absent-minded chas veshalom and He forgets? Of course not. He's thinking about us at all times; He doesn’t forget about us for a second.
That's a yesod ha’emunah. We have to believe and understand and always think that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is looking at every one of us. עֵ ינָ יו כָל הָאָ רֶ ץ מְ שׁ ֹטְ טוֹת ב – Hashem looks everywhere all the time (Divrei Hayomim II 16:9). Not for a moment does He remove His thoughts from you. And so, what are you saying that you’re going to blow a shofar and say certain pessukim of zichronos and that way you’ll remind Him about you?
Reminding Ourselves
And so we'll begin with the following foundational principle, a yesod hayesodos – and it’s especially important for Rosh Hashanah when we’ll spend a lot of time in the beis knesses. The principle is like this: Why do we ask Hakadosh Baruch Hu in our prayers for the things that we desire? If it's necessary, He'll do it anyhow. And if He decides that He doesn't want to give it to you, that it’s not necessary or that it’s not good for you, so He won’t give it. Why should your prayers accomplish anything? The whole thing seems entirely superfluous.
And the answer is in the meaning of the word lehispallel. We say ‘pray’ in English but that’s not what lehispallel means. Listen now to the definition; it’s important. We find in the Torah that Yaakov said to Yosef, לְת א פִ ל ל רְ אֹה פָ נֶיך – “I didn't think I would ever see your face again” (Bereishis 48:11). Pillel means ‘to think’ and lehispallel means ‘to make yourself think’.
Change My Mind
Oh, that’s a different story then; davening is a different function than we thought. We were thinking that the function of tefillah is to twist Hashem's arms. Like a poor man says to the rich man, “Have pity on me!” He tries to give a tug on the rich man’s heartstrings. Same thing here, we think. We want to influence Hashem to change His emotions, His mind.
No, no. Forget about changing His mind. His mind is just fine; it’s a perfect mind. Tefillah means that you’re changing your mind. It’s your mind that needs changing. And how do we do that? By being מִ תְ פּ ַ ל – ‘making ourselves think.’
Now, don’t think it’s nothing. To get a mind, that’s one of our primary achievements in this world. It’s an acquisition, a real accomplishment. Instead of being an animal mind, a megusham, you change over your mind by filling it with Torah patterns of thinking. And that’s the foundation of tefillah – to understand what you're saying first of all, and then to believe it and to convince yourself as much as possible of the principles of the truth.
True Truths
What truths? All kinds. Number one that He listens; that He’s a Chai v’Kayam Who hears us and listens to us. כִי אַ תָ ה שׁ וֹמֵ עַ – You are listening. And if you keep on saying it to yourself and thinking about it, after a while you'll come to have that attitude.
Also, the truth that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is in charge of our fate. By asking Him always to heal us, to help us with parnassah, with children, with health, with this and that, so we’re reminding ourselves that He is the Author of our fate, not us.
And so tefillah is a lifetime of achieving true ideals, true attitudes, true ideas. It’s emunah, bitachon, ahavas Hashem, yiras Hashem; to be a mispallel means many things because every word is another gem. Atah! Boruch! Michalkeil chayim b’chessed! Morid Hageshem! Modim! Rifaeinu! Bareich aleinu! You’re filling your mind with the most important yedios and each one is made stronger and stronger each time it’s repeated. If you’re thinking, you’re acquiring a mind. That’s the real purpose of davening; to gain all those ideas in our mind.
Tefillos Answered
So why are our prayers answered sometimes? Because Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants to encourage us by doing what we ask Him to do. “Oh,’ Hashem says, ”if you really think I'm listening then I’ll listen. You’re accomplishing in this world by acquiring a new mind and I’m going to encourage you in that.”
Now, He’s not necessarily going to give us exactly what we want because who said it’s good for you? It’s like the boy who needs an operation; he has to remove his tonsils or his appendix, whatever it is. So the doctors are about to strap him onto the operating table. But this boy has other ideas and as soon as the doctor turns his back, he leaps off the table, streaks through the door straight to the candy store.
Now he’s buying a big ice-cream a mile high, walking in the street, licking it. Oh, this is called living! Who needs an operation when you can be licking ice-cream?
What happens? His father finally collars him and says, “You think this is good for you?! I’ll show you what’s good for you!” And then comes the potch. He smacks him and the ice-cream goes flying into the gutter. And the father drags him straight back to the hospital. So that potch is going to save his life; he’ll be able to eat a lot of ice-cream cones later in life because of that potch.
Sometimes the Answer is No
So Hakadosh Baruch Hu is not necessarily going to give us exactly what we want. We’re not the physicians to be able to write our own prescription. He knows better what’s good for us! But this you have to know – that your tefillah helped. You’re never a failure when you daven because the more you do it right, the more of a mind you achieve.
And you can never tell – maybe Hakadosh Baruch Hu is waiting for your prayers and He’s going to say to you, “My boy, since you prayed to Me, I’m going to tell the doctors to take you off the operating table.” And then they’ll take a look at your chart and they’ll say, “It was all a mistake. It was a wrong diagnosis. Out to the candy store you go!”
Sometimes the Answer is Yes
It happens sometimes that way. Many times it’s a wrong diagnosis. Sometimes it’s a fatal disease and people survive. And when the patient gets well after the doctor said he wouldn’t live – the doctor said he could live only three more weeks and this man kept on living for thirty more years; it happens again and again – so when the doctors are confronted with that, they say, “Well, it was the wrong diagnosis. It was a mistake in diagnosis.”
So you keep on praying and Hakadosh Baruch Hu might make that diagnosis turn out to be wrong. And whether or not Hashem has answered your request according to what you hoped, you have gained a much more valuable gift – the gift of a mind. And that gift, that success, will accompany you much further than anything you might have asked for!
