The time period of Yamim Noraim is one when we are personally invited to participate in the inner circle of royal staff working at the Coronation of the King. To understand what a big deal this is, we can compare it to the recent crowning of the King of England. Of the nearly 2.7 billion members of the British Commonwealth, only 15,000 staff participated in the Coronation of King Charles III in May of 2023. To be invited to staff the party, you had to have connections. And yet, in a couple of days, on
Rosh Hashanah 5787, that will be us.
How did we get so lucky?
Well, let us take this story all the way back —
back to the creation of the world.
Hashem, the King of the World, the Master of Creation, created humans and hoped that they would see how much He loved them. He wanted them to see how beautifully He had set up this whole place for them, how every detail was there for their pleasure and their happiness, and wanted them to choose to love Him back. But Adam, the first of mankind, chose for humanity to prioritize ourselves and create distance from Hashem.
For ten generations, Hashem waited for humanity to come back to its senses, to come back to Him. But we did not. We got further and further away, corrupting ourselves and the physical world so badly that Hashem wiped the world clean and restarted with one good man, his family, and a bunch of animals.
After Noach, Hashem was ready for everyone to have learned their lesson and to simply stay good, connected, kind, happy people, but they did not. Soon, they had forgotten all about Him and even tried to rebel against Hashem by building a tower to reach Him and fight against Him.
It was only when our grandfather, Avraham, showed up on the scene — ten generations after Noach — that things started to change. The Maharal, in his commentary on Pirkei Avos, Chapter 5, explains that Creation became finally complete with Avraham; up until then, the world was in a sort of spiritual development and maturation stage. Finally, a human came along who plugged into reality. Finally, a human arrived, and chose to spread awareness of Hashem to the world. Finally, Hashem had a loyal employee in His Palace.
Now the story of the world could really begin. Hashem hoped that the world would no longer self-destruct. He had an agent in the world who could represent Him and His will to a world that clearly could not be left to its own devices.
Avraham Avinu taught the men and Sarah Imenu taught the women. Those were our grandparents.
Their strength and choices — through the tests Hashem set up for them to test their loyalty — got carved into the spiritual DNA of all their descendants, forever more. Their children got the indelible insignia of the King and the eternal privilege to work in the palace. That’s who He wanted. Me and You.
And so it is. Since that day, we have been loyal staff of the King. We have the awesome task of showing the world how He wants things done. We have the great honor of emulating His behavior — vehalachta bidrachav — and showing the world that although there is a natural way of being, it’s much better to strive to be super-natural.
And we have the great privilege of knowing that, ultimately, when the world does come to its senses, it will have been through our blood, sweat, and tears, for the honor of the King.
On Rosh Hashanah, we have the chance to wave the flag, join the choir, and march in the parade that reminds the world that there is a Creator, and that He keeps this place ticking whether the world acknowledges it or not. On Rosh Hashanah, we get the zechus to proclaim: “I work for You! You are my Boss, and I am so proud! I am in pain over a world that doesn’t yet see Your greatness like I see it, and I pray for the day when they do.”
Rabbi Leib Kelemen would regularly suggest that if one has trouble tuning into what is happening on Rosh Hashanah, they can watch the coronation of a real, live king or queen and see what the day looks like. If you do, you will be among the over 2 billion people who watched the Coronation of King Charles III. A more baffling statistic is the number who watched the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II — over 4.1 billion people! That is half the world’s population!
May I suggest that humanity’s intrigue with the royal family may be coming from a deep spiritual desire to connect to Malchus. Maybe the world is ready to connect to real Malchus, and we are their only real access to it. As fellow co-workers in the palace of Hashem, this is the perfect time of year to ask ourselves: How can I bring more Hashem-consciousness into the world? Can I do my job, with the resources I have, any better?
I leave you, and all of us, with a bracha that we figure those questions out — on a personal and a communal level — for our sake, for the world’s sake, and ultimately for the King’s sake.
This article was found in Nekuda Tova Nashim Tzidkaniyos 2.