By Rabbi Yosef Shemtov
The Right Approach to Rosh Hashanah
A woman is in the hospital in labor with her first child, and she is very scared. Sure, she’s spoken to her mother, sisters, and friends who have already given birth, but this is a first-time experience for her. Boruch Hashem, she gave birth to a healthy baby, and her fear turns to jubilation of motherhood. B’ezras Hashem, she will merit to experience childbirth many more times during her life, but it will never be accompanied with that same fear.
There is a tefilla that compares Rosh Hashanah judgment to a woman giving birth for the first time. What is this comparison? The answer is that no one should make a mistake and feel, “I’ve been here before” in previous years. We should know every Rosh Hashanah is a brand new judgment and an experience that we’ve never had before. Everything that happened to anyone last year has nothing to do with this year. Because a new judgment means a brand new opportunity for everything, and past experiences of failures, difficulties and lack of success have no effect on what we can achieve this Rosh Hashanah. It’s a brand new דין.
Chana davened her famous tefilla asking Hashem for a son no less great than Moshe and Ahron (and she merited to give birth to the great Shemuel Hanavi). Asks Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach zt”l, how did Chana have the nerve to ask for such a child after so many years of infertility? Shouldn’t she have just hoped for any child? Rav Shlomo Zalman zt”l answers that she was davening on Rosh Hashanah, and on Rosh Hashanah there is no past—only present. Thus, it was like she was a Bride under the chuppah praying for children for the first time. He then added that this is an important message that people need to hear. On Rosh Hashanah we shouldn’t just daven for a continuation of the past. We should ask for everything anew in every aspect of our lives—in both ruchnius and gashmius, with new goals and aspirations. Yes, we tremble like a woman who’s fearful on the unknown, but we are grateful and hopeful for the opportunity of Rosh Hashanah, knowing just how much we can be achieve with our heartfelt prayers.
כתיבה וחתימה טובה
Shabbat Shalom