Article by Rabbi Fine

A Message for Rosh Hashonah 2002

A sudden hush stilled the Beth Medrash of the Yeshiva at Kfar Chassidim, nestled in the hills outside Haifa. It was Rosh Hashonah, the Ark was open and the voices of the Rebbe and student were poised to invoke “Avinu Malkeinu”, “Our Father our King”. Unexpectedly, their legendary Rebbe, Rabbi Elya Lopian, of blessed memory, spoke:

“Aveinu – a father loves his son so much. There isn’t anything in the world he wouldn’t do for him, especially in his time of need. But, alas a father may not be able to help because he lacks the ability, the wealth and influence to do so.”

“Malkeinu – a King has the power and ability to help his people. Indeed, a benevolent monarch may respond positively to the reasonable requests of his loyal subjects. Yet, there are times when His Majesty may become estranged from the common folk, turning a deaf ear to their pleas.” “But,” Rabbi Elya cried out, “You, G-d, are Our Father and King. You love us and have the power to help us….Avinu Malkeinu...”

Perhaps the two most powerful images of the Days of Awe are the visions of G-d as both our Father and King. Each image evokes special feelings within us, as we stand in judgement during this fateful time: the unconditional love of a father and the uncompromising commands of a king.

What then is the nature of our special relationship with G-d?

Our Father recognises our human frailties and limitations. He realises that, ultimately, if we disobey His wishes, it is not to spite Him, but simply because our desires overwhelm us.

Our Father knows that deep down we really love him and so, time and time again, He overlooks our faults and forgives us. His love is unconditional. He extends favours to us, even though we are truly undeserving.

Our Father has great confidence in us. He recalls our “Yichus”, reminding us we come from good stock. We have “Zchut Avot” – the good merits of our forefathers, our spiritual DNA- besides, Our Father, too, is a partner in our creation and has a vested interest in our success. Our Father is aware of our unique talents and abilities and wants to give us every opportunity to realise our potential.

Our King provides us with everything we need to succeed in this world. He offers us food, clothing and shelter. His Majesty may on occasion lavish us with wealth, but he looks after our health and well-being. Our King directs us to growth opportunities because He has all the right connections.

In return, our King demands complete and undivided loyalty. His every wish is our command. We stand before Him in awe and fear because we recognise that He has the power to deprive us of our most basic needs and deny us every comfort. What’s more, if we disobey His command, we are insubordinate and deserving of reproof. By violating His orders we reject His authority and, in the process, demonstrate our ingratitude for all the favours He has bestowed on us.

Mussar [ethical works] suggest that we imagine the Almighty as a kindly, generous millionaire, who knows our family well and, thus befriends us. He supports us in style, making sure that all our needs are met and often surprises us with that little bit extra that makes a difference. In return He requests that we follow His guidelines for success and fulfilment in life. Even though we do not always fully understand and appreciate His requests, we know that He truly has our best interests at heart.

He stands to gain nothing by our commitment because He already has it all. Imagine rejecting our Benefactor’s requests or ignoring them, and then, adding insult to injury, attributing our good fortune to other sources – our own talents, hard work or luck. What sheer audacity, what blatant Chutzpa! Yet, isn’t this what we do when we sin? We refuse to honour the wishes of our Benefactor and, then, shamelessly deny that He helped us at all!

On a more profound level, the metaphors of King and Father personify the two major manifestations of G-d in our world- Justice and Mercy. Indeed, these attributes are reflected in G-d’s very names: the Four-Letter Name symbolising Mercy and “Elokim”, [literally powers] representing Justice. It is during these Days of Awe, in particular, that we appreciate the counterbalance between G-d’s Justice and Mercy. For if justice were to predominate, none of us would escape punishment: “There is no saint on Earth who does good and does not sin” [Ecclesiastes 7:20]. There would be no plea-bargaining or probation, no opportunity for repentance. Conversely, if Mercy were all-pervasive, man would inevitably be forgiven. He would not be held accountable for his actions. Anarchy would prevail.

On these days of Judgement, G-d strikes the perfect balance between these two poles. He tempers His Justice with Mercy, enabling His subjects to prove their loyalty to Him once again. As the Midrash observes, at the moment of repentance when the Shofar is sounded, “ G-d arises from the throne of Judgement and descends to the throne of Mercy.”

During these days of Judgement, we face a most critical challenge: Our mission is to unite with our King our Father, so that He who has the power to pardon us will be filled with the love to forgive us.

He can only achieve this mission – on which our very lives depend- if we direct our goals to realising our Father’s hopes and our King’s expectations. These goals define all our priorities and determine future commitments. They are the New Year Resolutions for the rest of our lives. Our Father has endowed us with unique abilities and talents, which He hopes we will dedicate to Torah and our people. He is our role model, teaching us Torah and inspiring us with love for our people by his example: healing the sick, feeding the poor, comforting the widow and the orphan… He loves us because, in a very real sense, we are part of Him: our Neshamot, our spiritual essence, is “a part of G-d above.” And so our Father hopes that we will follow in His footsteps by realising our full potential and dedicating our special talents to His Torah and our people.

Our King provides us with all our basic needs- food, shelter, clothing and so much more. Indeed there is so much that His Majesty does for us morning, noon and night – that we cannot even begin to thank Him. Thus, our King has every right to expect total loyalty.

We must be at His beck and call, performing our services for Him with zeal and enthusiasm. His wish is our command and each command must be carried out with care and precision. No matter how high we rise in life we must remember that we, like Moshe are no more than His servants.

As servants and loyal subjects, our Master’s priorities become our own. We mist prioritise His Torah and Mitzvot in our lives and set them as the focus of our daily agenda.

“Avinu Malkeinu” – our Father our King be gracious to us and answer us, even though we have no worthy deeds; treat us with charity and kindness, and save us.

I wish you, your families and all of our congregants a Ketivah Vechatanim Tovah.

Rabbi Yisroel Fine.