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Thought for the Day: The Yom HaDin Seems to be Filled Love, the Day of Atonement Seems to be Filled with Fear

The question of why the Day of Judgement comes before the Day of Atonement probably has as many answers as "why does Chanukah have eight days?" I heard and thought about a different angle, so of course I want to share it.

Our intense preparation for Rosh HaShanah just started on Sunday with slichos. Slichos have at their core the 13 attributes of mercy that were revealed to Moshe Rabeinu after the terrible tragedy of the Sin of the Golden Calf. It is interesting to note how Moshe Rabeinu started this plea for atonement (Shmos 32:30/1): First Moshe Rabeinu tells the nation that they have committed a terrible transgression and he will do his best to gain atonement for them. Then Moshe turns to HaShem and declares: Your nation has committed a terrible transgression, they made golden gods! So Moshe even magnified the sin when addressing the Creator as his opening argument!

Let's not quibble about the grammar just now. That's the way you mount a defense? Imagine an accused murderer hires a defense lawyer, and the lawyer's opening remarks to the court are: Your honor -- my client has committed a despicable crime; the prosecution doesn't even know half the story!

The short answer, and this requires much more work to understand (see the Ramban at length) is that when seeking atonement, to deny culpability at this point is worse than not admitting guilt. When the judge is The Judge, not mentioning a crime/sin is tantamount to denial. After all, nothing is hidden from HaShem. So Moshe Rabeinu wants to be sure that the nation understands -- and admits -- to the depth of the crime they have committed, and then Moshe Rabeinu wants to be declare that fact before their King. (Why Moshe needs to say anything to HaShem about what others have said/done is way, way, WAY outside the scope of this TftD.)

Ok, but still... that's a defense? Before answering that, lets address the topic that earned this TftD it's title. Rosh HaShanah -- the Day of Judgement -- is filled with positive mitzvos; shofar being the star. Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, is filled with restrictions; fasting being the star. The Ramban, on explaining  the two sides of Shabbos observance -- namely, שמור/keep and זכור/remember -- notes that שמור/keep (the don'ts) is associated with fear/awe, whereas זכור/remember (the do's) is associated with love. So why don't we have restrictions on the Day of Judgement (fear), and the positive actions on the Day of Atonement (love)?

A careful reading of the Torah reveals that Moshe Rabeinu did not say he was going to defend them; he told them he was going to seek atonement for them. There was no defense for their actions. To even suggest such a thing would have been tantamount to outright rebellion. Moreover, Moshe Rabeinu wanted to make clear to Klal Yisrael that they were beyond even making amends; their relationship with HaShem was in tatters and hanging by a thread. Moshe Rabeinu also wanted to make clear to HaShem that they were in no way seeking any excuse; they knew just how bad their actions had been.

So what is the solution? Again, the Ramban on explaining the positive mitzvos of Shabbos explains that doing things another wants makes one more beloved. Of course we need to show deep regret for our actions, of course we need to make a plan to get the relationship back to health and vibrancy. But first one needs to show what the relationship can be, what we want. So on Rosh HaShanah we don't even mention sin -- not even in passing. We even refrain from eating nuts because their gematria is (nearly) the same. We want to do one thing -- show how important the relationship is to us by living as we aspire to live. We blow shofar every possible way. We have the finest foods. We start our meal looking for bracha in everything -- even the way the name of the food sounds in English. No detail nor even hint is too small to show the kind of nation was aspire to be to our G-d.

So Rosh HaShanah is the day of judgement -- the day we are judged: Do we really want this relationship? Do we really want the Torah? We show with every action that we want that with every fiber of our being. But that's not enough. So on Yom Kippur, instead of showing how much we aspire to have that relationship, we dig deep and show that we are willing to do the work required to get there. We review every dimension of our life -- literally from aleph to tuf -- and then we review again and again, 10 times in total to be sure we haven't missed anything.

And with that we walk into our Sukkah with unbounded joy.

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