We are on the threshold of a new year, and our hearts are filled with hope that it will be a year of an abundance of goodness and brachah. “May the year and its curses end, may the new year and its blessings begin.”
We have been through a difficult year. Our enemies – and from day to day we realize how many there are – are determined to annihilate us. On the approaching Days of Judgement, let us all gather in the shuls, raise our eyes Heavenward, and pour our hearts out with the confidence that “v’Atah tishma min haShamayim, and You will hear us from Above.”
In order for our judgement to be decided for the good, we must multiply our zechusim, and our request on the night of Rosh Hashanah is “that our merits should be multiplied like the pomegranate, the rimon.” During these days, like throughout the year, it is in our hands to multiply the merits easily. And not just regular merits - but merits of amen, of which there is nothing greater before Hashem, as the Midrash says in Parashas Ki Savo (Devarim Rabbah 7 1): “There is nothing greater in front of HaKaodsh Baruch Hu than amen that Am Yisrael answer.”
There is something special about answering amen during these holy days, when we coronate HaKadosh Baruch Hu as our King. Because what more suitable merit is there ahead of the Yom Hadin than the zechus of answering amen, whose essence is coronating HaKadosh Baruch Hu, as Chazal say (Shabbos 119b): ”א-ל מלך נאמן – “What is amen
Dear Yid! Tomorrow morning, when you go into shul, open your eyes and look around at the many Jews reciting Birchos Hashachar. Why should you not also lend an ear to hear the brachos? Treasure troves of amens are scattered all around you, and with a small investment you can add merits and tip the scales in your favor because of those many amens.
If that is not enough, then the fact that you have mustered up the “oz l’Elokim,” and approached a friend to ask him to say his brachos for you, causes a great chizuk in the circle of people around you. As a result, others will be inspired to do the same, and there is no more significant meaning to the request of “sheyirbu zechuyoseinu” than this, because how many amens will be said in your merit, over the coming years – there is no end to it!
If we are all strict to answer amen with all our strength, we will merit to have the passuk “goy tzaddik shomer emunim” said about us, and through that we will merit to be sealed in the book of tzaddikim geumurim for a good and sweet year. Amen.
With wishes for a kesivah vachasimah tovah,
Yaakov Dov Marmurstein
ת.ד 102 בני ברק | פקס : 03-5055919
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