As it is written: “Who do I have (besides Hashem) in the heavens, and besides for You (Hashem) I do not desire anything on earth.” (Tehillim 73:25)
Meaning, he will want to nullify any desire or yearning for anything besides for his yearning for the One Hashem.
This deep desire to only connect to Hashem with great joy and passion, is called the “shining face” of a Jew, when his face is lit up with an inner desire to connect to Hashem, just as Hashem has an Inner Will to connect to us.
The Time to Awaken the Shining Face
Now, the time to awaken this “shining face” of yearning for Hashem described above is on Rosh Hashana, when Hashem “sits on the Throne of Mercy.”
Regarding that time, it is written (Shir HaShirim 2:6): “His (Hashem’s) ‘left hand’ is under my head (to pick it up to look towards Him),” which is the beginning of His showing His closeness to us, until on Yom Kippur and Simchas Torah “His ‘right hand’ embraces me.” (ibid.)
On Rosh Hashana, Hashem begins the process of bringing us close to Him on the deep level of “shining face” of inner joy and delight in connecting to us. However, the process is only completed on Yom Kippur and Simchas Torah, when His love embraces and envelops us in a revealed way.
The Analogy of the Father and Son
In the first maamar in Likutei Torah for Parshas Ki Savo, entitled היום הזה, the Alter Rebbe explains this with an analogy:
A father is away from his home for a long time. His son yearns to see him, but after some time his feelings begin to subside.
Then one day the father comes home. But instead of immediately visiting his son, he hides himself in his house. He wants to see his son’s reaction when he realizes that his father is home but is hiding from him.
When his son reacts by crying and screaming for his father, his father comes out of hiding and hugs him. The purpose of the hiding was to bring out the deep feelings of the son even stronger.
Similarly, the whole year we yearn to see Hashem, but His Presence is hidden, and we lose the intensity of the yearning over time.
On Rosh Hashana, Hashem “comes home,” as it were, but He is “hiding.” When we realize that He is present more strongly that the rest of the year, but we don’t feel it, we cry and scream in teshuva, in yearning to experience Hashem’s closeness.
At the conclusion of the Ten Days of Teshuva, we do experience that closeness of Hashem on Yom Kippur, and even more strongly on Simchas Torah. This is like when the father comes out of hiding and hugs his son.
His Left Hand Picking Up My Head
This is the idea of “His left hand picking up my head”:
Hashem’s Gevura-Severity (the left hand) is expressed on Rosh Hashana, by coming close to us, but at the same time “hiding,” as it were, so that we should pick up our head to look for Him.
Since the purpose of this “hiding” is only to bring out our deep feelings for Him, it is also considered Hashem’s “shining face,” in a certain sense, since He delights in our revealing our deep feelings for Him.
When Hashem’s “shining face” is more obviously revealed on Yom Kippur and Simchas Torah, this is called “His right hand embraces me.”
