Now after a person has successfully utilized Rosh Hashanah to gain the feeling that Hashem is a Melech, but still there remain some stains on his neshamah which he has to remove yet, some sins. After all, who doesn’t commit some misdeeds in the details? And so Yom Kippur comes to take off the spots. Yes, Yom Kippur is vital for a Jew but if he didn’t succeed in the most important function of Hashem Melech, then Yom Kippur is a failure for him. It’s like taking spots off a meis; a dead body has some spots. What good is it to clean them off?
So first you have to be a chai! You have to be alive! And how do you do that? You have to blow the shofar and shout with all your heart all day long that Hashem is a Melech. You’ll shout and blow and shout and blow and maybe you’ll listen a little bit to what your mouth is shouting, that you’re crowning Hashem as Melech.
Stop Blowing It
But there’s a question here. Because it seems like the Am Yisroel goes a bit overboard with this mitzvah. After all, how many tekios are required to coronate Hashem as King? According to the Torah a few short blasts are sufficient to fulfill the Torah obligation. And yet we do much more than that.
The Gemara in Rosh Hashanah (16b) asks that question. ... Why do we blow shofar again and again on Rosh Hashanah? Besides for the tekios before mussaf – that’s already enough to fulfill our obligation – we blow again more tekios during mussaf; and then again another set of tekios after mussaf. The seudah is waiting for us at home but we keep going strong. ‘Let the food wait,’ we say, ‘we’re busy blowing shofar.’ And so the question is, why is this so? Why do we blow so much?
The Confused Angel
And the answer given there is we do it in order to confuse the satan... On Rosh Hashanah the satan wishes to accuse the Am Yisroel and in order to throw him off balance and counter his accusations, we blow the shofar again and again, much more than required.
Now that’s not so simple because the satan actually is not going to be confused by any amount of noise that we make. You can’t fool him because he is nothing but svarah. He's a malach whose function is to present facts to Beis Din shel maalah. That’s his job, to present the facts of the past and thereby deprive the accused of their future. And so no matter what we do, nine blasts or a hundred, he’s going to present his case and say, “So and so doesn’t deserve another chance.”
A Wild Future
So pay attention now to the answer. If the satan is trying to deprive us of our future – that’s his job after all – so our chief function on Rosh Hashanah is to convince Hakadosh Baruch Hu that we do have a future, that it does pay to give us another chance. And that’s what we intend when we blow the shofar again and again; that’s what we intend when we make even more noise than is required. We’re not only proclaiming Hashem the King but we’re making a ra’ash about it; we’re getting excited about it.
That’s what it means רָפֹוׁ ̆ עַ ̃≈ ̇¿ בּ הוּ לו¿לַה - You should be m’hallel Hashem with a shofar. Now, many people make a mistake and they think that hallel means ‘to praise’; you should praise Hashem with the shofar. But it’s a mistake. Hollel is someone who is excited. And רָפֹוׁ ̆ עַ ̃≈ ̇¿ בּ הוּ לו¿לַה means go wild over Hashem with the shofar blasts; to go all out.
And that’s the promise we’re making when ... We’re not just going to anoint You; we’re going to be excited about it. We’ll do it again and again until it finally runs off on us that you’re Hashem Echad. We won’t do it quietly. “Hashem Melech!” we’ll shout.
You know in some places they do it wildly. If you walk in, you’d be amazed. They’re screaming at the top of their lungs. “Hashem Melech!” You’d think maybe it’s not proper, but for them that’s the way to do it.
Insanity in Slabodka
I remember in Slabodka as Rosh Hashanah was approaching the air was saturated with gravity, a seriousness. All of our thoughts were, “We’re approaching the Day of Judgment.” But when Rosh Hashanah finally came, all of that preparation, all of that pent-up emotion, exploded in the excitement of ‘Hashem Melech!’ I can’t forget the sight. I remember when they got up to say Borchu Rosh Hashanah night, it was actually wild.
It was something to see. The shatz got up and said, “Borchu es Hashem hamivorach”, and a roar rose from the yeshivah people, raising the roof. “Boruch Hashem hamevorach li’olam va’ed!”
Then they sat down and then all together they started the first brachah before Kriyas Shema. “Boruch, oy yoy yoy oy yoy oy yoy.” And they were weeping and shouting. Not saying the words. Shouting! What a noise! They were raising the roof and stamping with their feet. They actually went wild – but it wasn’t vildkeit; it was wild with thought. Every word they said took a long time. And finally it quieted down and the shatz said like this, “Boruch atah Hashem hama’ariv aravim,” and then there was an amen, a roar of an amen! “Amen!”
I’m sure a stranger would come in and say, “It’s a madhouse here. A lunatic asylum.”
And we’d say, “Mister, you’re right. You come in here a lunatic and you go out sane. This is a place where you learn to have intelligence.” Because what’s the purpose of intelligence? To understand the truth of the world. And the truth of the world is that there’s nothing worth making noise about except Hashem.
The Missing Word
The world keeps quiet about Him. In the street we don't hear the Name of Hakadosh Baruch Hu among the umos haolam or irreligious Jews. The newspapers, all the media, they don’t speak about Hashem at all. They ignore that subject entirely.
Even in the yiddish newspapers it’s not in the headlines. It’s formalized; b’ezras Hashem you’ll find. Maybe rashei tevos for bisyata dishmaya, other stereotyped phrases. But they don’t put in the headlines ‘Hashem did this,’ ‘Hashem did that.’ Unfortunately even among observant Jews, the frumme, I’m sorry to say that to a big extent you don't hear the shem Shomayim.
A Mouthful
The old Jews did that. In the olden days it was shem Shomayim shagur b’fihem – the name of Hashem was always in the mouths of the Am Yisroel.
You remember when Yaakov Avinu saw Yosef’s little boys and he said, ... – who are these boys?
So Yosef said, ... – “They are my children.” Now he should have stopped talking – “they are my children.” But he added, ... – that Hashem gave me (Bereishis 48:9)
Naturally if you have children Hashem gave it. You don’t go out and buy them in the supermarket. Why is it necessary to add, “that Hashem gave me”?
The answer is that they were always thinking about Him. Hashem was always in the headlines for the ancient Jew.
When Rochel didn’t have any children and she complained, what did Yaakov Avinu answer her? ... – Hashem withheld from you children (ibid. 30:2). He didn’t say that ‘you didn’t have any children’. They didn’t talk that way. Only Hashem gives and takes. And so when Iyov lost his property he said (1:21) ...
You remember when Boaz was walking by his field and he saw the reapers? He said to them, “Hashem imachem”. And they answered “Yevarechecha Hashem” (Rus 2:4)
With the Sheim Hashem by the way. They used Hashem’s Name in those days because they knew how to respect the Name. He was real; He was their King. That's how they spoke in those days. Always, at every opportunity, they brought Hashem to the forefront. And not only they spoke that way, that’s how they thought.
Show and Tell
The great tragedy is when Hashem remains in the siddur or the machzor. Isn't that a pity, that Hashem is relegated only to the siddur today? That’s called a King?
So at the beginning of the year we say that we’re going to turn over a new leaf – we’re going to take Hashem out of the siddur and bring Him out into the street. That’s what we’re saying when we blow again and again. We’ll talk about Him always and mention Him always. We’ll make noise about Him.
I know it’s not stylish today to talk that way. They’ll think you're a frumak; they’ll say you're a showoff. Let’s say you walk into a kollel and you’ll say something about Hashem so they know right away you're an am ha’aretz. But Rosh Hashanah tells us that it’s not so! ... means that we should show it. We should go wild over proclaiming Hashem King with the teruah.
Make Big Noise
Teruah doesn’t mean merely noise; it means a big noise. Make a big noise about everything that has to do with Hashem. A big noise about Torah. Torah learning should always be praised. When somebody is a lamdan, praise him. When somebody is a oved Hashem, praise him.
Speak to your children. Praise to them the middah of tefillah b’kavanah. Speak about that constantly, how good it is to talk to Hashem about everything. Speak to them how good it is to make a brachah aloud. Teach your children how good it is to love mitzvahs, to kiss the sefer Torah, to kiss the mezuzah.
Speak highly of yeshivahs. Speak highly of frum Jews. Even to yourself you should speak. Speak highly of gedolei yisroel, of our manhigim; the gedolim and tzaddikim. Speak of them all the time in your homes. Constantly aggrandize everything, praise the Torah and praise the avodah. Praise good middos in the service of Hashem.
And by doing these things we are fulfilling our function of teruah, of making a big noise about Hakadosh Baruch Hu in this world.
Forget Travel and Trump
That’s what our noise has to be about, only about Hashem. Otherwise we don’t get excited at all. Sometimes you hear an Orthodox man and he says, “You know on the highway there, if you go this way and turn on that other road...”; he’s excited about the highways and how you can travel with shortcuts; take this way and the throughway. You have to know that he’s excited about the wrong subject. If he’s interested in traveling with his car Sunday, he gets into his car and he travels, then he didn’t hear the shofar yet; he’s not from the ...
If a man is interested in talking to you about business and the market and politics, if he’s excited to tell you about a baseball game and special sales in the stores, so the shofar says, “Shah! Quiet! There's nothing in the world to be excited about. Only the emes. The real emes is Hashem Melech. That's where you have to make the noise.”
The Non-Stop Resolution
And by blowing shofar once and then again during davening and then again after davening we show we mean business. And even when we can’t blow we shout ‘Hashem Melech’ again and again. We’ll make a blast of noise and another blast and we’ll keep at it, even more than required, because we’re making a commitment now. “Don’t listen to the satan,” we say, “He’s talking about the past but we’re thinking ahead. We’re telling you what’s going to be in the future. We’re going to be making noise about Hashem Melech non-stop.”
And when the satan sees that we mean business, that we’re committed for the future, that confuses the satan and makes him give up. “Oh,” says the satan, “what can I do with these people?” And he retires in confusion; he gives up.
It means that we are worthy of getting a charter for the new year, a new year of life and happiness and success, because we are committed to this program of making a big noise about Hashem always, about being excited always only about Him.
L’shanah tovah tikasvu v’seichasmu kulchem l’alter lechaim tovim b’sifram shel tzaddikim gemurim atem v’chol hanilvim aleichem.
-From end of Tape E-248, the Rav’s last Rosh Hashanah Lecture
