By Rabbi Yosef Y. Jacobson
In a 1974 sermon, Rabbi Yosef Dov Soleveitchik (1903-1993), related about when he was a young child learning in cheder (Jewish school), in the Russian village of Chaslavitch.
“Our teacher, who was a Chabad Chassid (disciple), said to us: ‘Do you know what Rosh Hashanah is? The Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek would call the night of Rosh Hashanah – ‘Coronation Night’.
“Do you know whom we will be coronating?” the teacher asked. The young Soleveitchik responded in jest: “Nicholas”. (This was when Nicholas still served as the Russian czar).
And the teacher responded: “Nicholas? He was coronated years ago, why do we need to coronate him again? Besides, he is not a real king...”
“Tonight, my dear children, we coronate G-d; we place a crown on G-d...
“And do you know who places the crown?” The teacher continued. “Yankel the Tailor, Berel the Shoemaker, Zalman the water-carrier...”
Rabbi Soloveitchik concluded: Over the years I have written many discourses on the concept of Rosh Hashanah, but nothing ever made me feel the true depth and power of the day as the words of my childhood teacher.
WHY BOTHER?
But why does G-d need us to coronate Him? If G-d created us, does He really need us to declare Him king?
Imagine you assemble 1,000,000 ants and declare yourself king over them. When 50,000 of them then turn left instead of right, you kill them in a single instance. Does that make you king over them? G-d gave us our entire existence; relative to Him we are far smaller and far less significant than an ant in the presence of a human. Can He then said to be our king? Is that not an insult for Him?
Yet here lay one of the great and daring ideas of Judaism. G-d, the perfect endless One, desired to be king not through power. He wanted a relationship with someone distinct of Him who would freely choose to construct a bond with G-d.
So an infinite, omnipotent G-d suspends His infinity, in order to allow space for an intelligent, independent and self-oriented human being who is then capable of choosing G-d as his or her king.
THE NIGHT
This, the spiritual masters explained, is the meaning of Rosh Hashanah, the day when the first human was created. It is the day when small, vulnerable and lowly human beings invite G-d to serve as their King.
Rosh Hashanah is the most moving day in the Jewish calendar. More than any other day, it embodies the meaning of human existence and the vulnerability of a G-d who linked His fate to man’s.
Happy Coronation Night.
24 Elul, 5784
September 27, 2024
