884. The Rosh Hashanah Prayer
In the Rosh Hashanah prayer, we say, “Happy is a man who does not forget You, and the son of man who exerts in You.” We should ask what, if he does not forget about the Creator, what is the meaning of the exertion?
In the prayer “Help of Our Fathers,” we say, “Happy is a man who hears Your Mitzvot [commandments] and places Your Torah [law] on his heart.”
We should understand the meaning of obeying the Mitzvot of the Creator. We should say, Happy is a man who does, or observes Your Mitzvot, and not “hears Your Mitzvot.” Also, what is “Your word” and what is “Your Torah”? What is the meaning of “word” and what is Torah, what is “place on his heart”? How does one place Torah and words on the heart, and why is there a need to place on the heart and not in the mind?
Also, what does it mean that in the Rosh Hashanah prayer we say, “Malchuiot [kingships], memories, Shofarot [pl. of Shofar (a festive horn)] ”? Our sages said, “Malchuiot [kingships], so you would crown Me. Memories, so the memory of you will come up before Me. And with what? With a Shofar.” What is the connection and what reason is there for the Shofar to cause kingship and memory?
Also, Rosh Hashanah is called “the day of judgment.” Also, what is the month of Elul, and the matter of the repetition and the order of the prayer prior to Rosh Hashanah?
The thing that is the most important is not to forget about the Creator for even a moment. How can we be rewarded with this? By exerting each time more fiercely and with more power and might. By this we are rewarded with the quality of “remembering.” This is why the phrasing is in the manner of an advice.
Also, “Happy is he who hears Your Mitzvot,” meaning that there is doing and there is hearing. “Hearing” means that we are rewarded with hearing from the mouth of the Creator, which is called Dvekut [adhesion] of spirit with spirit. This is regarded as Dvekut, meaning that we hear the Giver of the Torah.
He interprets that the way to be rewarded with it is to “place Your law on his heart,” and not in the brain, which is the intellect, for the intellect only serves man; it is but an external force. This is why man is called “the heart,” as it is written, “For the inclination of a man’s heart is evil from his youth.”
“Your word” means that one must believe that all the words that one utters from his mouth are only by the power of the Creator, and this is called “Your word.” If a person believes this, he will certainly not say idle words, or lie, or gossip, or slander, since the light in it reforms the bad in his heart to be good, and then he is rewarded with hearing the Torah.
Concerning “Malchuiot [kingships], memories, Shofarot [pl. of Shofar],” so the memory of you will come up before Me, meaning all the power of memory that is within you will be only before Me, meaning before the Creator, meaning for the Creator.
Also, there is the matter of accepting the burden of the kingdom of heaven, which is on Rosh Hashanah, since this day is the beginning of the month, and then we need a new arrangement, meaning accepting the burden of the kingdom of heaven, and we might forget this. This is why he says “memories,” that we must always remember the acceptance of the burden of the kingdom of heaven. The way not to forget is the Shofar. The Shofar is called “the beauty of Rabbi Yochanan,” Shufra [Aramaic: beauty] of Adam HaRishon, and beauty is called…