A Broken Heart
The Gemara (Rosh Hashanah 16:) writes, שנה כל בסופה מתעשרת בתחלתה שרשה, "Every year that (the Jewish nation) is poor at the beginning, it will prosper at the end." Rashi explains, "They act like they are poor on Rosh Hashanah and daven in a pleading manner, as it states (Mishlei 18), רש ידבר תחנונים, 'A poor man speaks with supplications.'" If they do so, the following year will be a prosperous one.
I know a yungerman who earned a lot of money before Rosh Hashanah, enough to marry off all his children, according to the standards of his kehillah. That Rosh Hashanah, he felt a sense of self-sufficiency. However, that year didn't turn out well for him. This is because one must enter Rosh Hashanah with a feeling that he has nothing and is entirely dependent on Hashem's chesed. That attitude will bring him a good year.
Similarly, the Gemara (Rosh Hashanah 26:) says that on Rosh Hashanah, we blow a shofar that is curved because “on Rosh Hashanah, the more one bends his heart [with humility], the better." He should feel unworthy, pleading for mercy. That attitude will help him receive a favorable judgment.
One year, it took a long time before the Chozeh of Lublin zt'l came to the beis medresh, for tekiyas shofar. Everyone was waiting for him to come. The Chozeh explained that he didn’t want to hear shofar before he found some good deed in himself, but he couldn't find any qualities. All he found were faults. Then he remembered that there was a day that he wanted to perform a particular mitzvah, and he asked his gabai to wake him early in the morning. But the gabbai overslept, and the Chozeh couldn’t do the mitzvah. The Chozeh felt like rebuking his gabbai for his negligence, but he reconsidered. He told himself, "Why did I want to wake up early? It is because I wanted to do Hashem's will. Now, it is Hashem's will that I shouldn’t become angry." When the gabbai came in, the Chozeh spoke kindly to him, as usual. He didn’t show any signs of anger. When he reminded himself of this merit, he felt ready to come to tekiyas shofar. This story demonstrates the Chozeh's humble, broken heart. He felt that aside from that one good deed, he had no merits. It is with such feelings of humility that we should approach the tekiyos and tefillos on Rosh Hashanah.
Before starting the tekiyos, Reb Yissachar Dov of Belz zt'l shouted, "Hashem! Only You know my broken heart," and then he began Min HaMeitzar and tekiyas shofar.
Reb Volf Kitzes zt'l was the baal tokeia for the Baal Shem Tov, at the Baal Shem Tov's minyan. One year, before Rosh Hashanah, the Baal Shem Tov zy’a taught Reb Volf Kitzes deep kabbalistic thoughts to concentrate on while blowing the shofar. Reb Volf wrote down the ideas the Baal Shem Tov taught him, to remember when he blew the shofar... but he lost the paper! That year, he blew the shofar amidst tears and with a broken heart, regretting that he couldn’t blow the shofar with the kavanos the Baal Shem Tov taught him.
Later, Reb Volf told the Baal Shem Tov that he feared that the tekiyos didn’t accomplish what they needed to achieve because he lost the kabbalistic thoughts. The Baal Shem Tov replied that he had wanted him to lose the paper so that he would have a broken heart. The Baal Shem Tov explained, "The kabbalistic thoughts (called kavanos) are keys that open the locks of heaven. Each kabbalistic meditation opens another lock. But a broken heart is an axe that opens all doors. Your tekiyos with a broken heart went straight up to heaven and accomplished everything."
The baal makri (the one who calls out tekiah, shevarim, etc.) asked my grandfather, Rebbe Dovid Biderman zy'a, what kabbalistic kavanos he should have in mind when he calls out the tekiyos. Reb Dovid replied, "I don’t know kavanos, and you also don’t know them. But one kavanah I will tell you. The shevarim is a small broken heart, and teruah is a big broken heart."
Reb Velvel Eisenbach zt'l was from the elders of Yerushalayim. He was niftar a few years ago on Rosh Hashanah at the ripe old age of 106. He repeated what he heard from his grandfather, who was in the beis midrash of Reb Aharon Chernobyler for Rosh Hashanah, when he was a young child.
