Sundown is still a bit late for R' Schwimmer's Friday night chumash shiur at the Tessler home, but we are getting close. We are also between Rosh HaShannah and Yom Kippur, which is an excellent time for some honest and significant soul searching. That being the case, R' Schwimmer graciously agreed to give a short shiur last Friday night on Shabbos Shuva. If you were there, you may want to just move on, as my summary is not going to approach the inspiration you have already received. If you were not there, then I hope this sparks your interest enough to make going to the shiur a regular part of your winter Shabbos evenings.
The shiur started with two questions on the time in which we now find ourselves. One is something I have contemplated for years and I believe is a relatively famous topic. Namely, why do we have the Day of Judgement first and then 10 days later the Day of Atonement. Any reasonable person would much rather work out a deal before going to court. Going to court, when you know you are guilty as sin (great expression, no? and fitting), and only after hearing the judge's verdict start crying about how sorry you are does not seem like a recipe for success.
The other question is something I had never considered, but is really at the core of our service. For whatever reason (we'll see why shortly), we spend our time on the Day of Judgement declaring that HaShem is our King and we are His nation. Ok... but then we express that in our prayers by two significant changes. One, we change from "the G-d of Holiness" to "the King of Holiness." That seems reasonable. (I know, I know... Chazal are thrilled that I agree; but you know what I mean.) The second change, though, is to change "the King who loves righteousness and justice" to "the King of Justice." The judicial branch and the executive branch have distinct duties, with little overlap. Moreover (and I just thought of this while writing), at first glance, changing to "the King of Righteousness" would seem to be a better fit, no?
[Note: This is not part of the shiur; just my thoughts on how to couch the question] No. First, how did Rosh HaShanna become a day of judgement anyway? Rosh HaShanna, the day on which the world as a functioning entity was, so to speak, born -- with the creation of Adam and Eve. It should have been nothing but a celebration of HaShem's sovereignty. Instead, Adam and Eve made a mistake -- an act of insurrection, actually. Every year now on that anniversary, we both declare HaShem the King and submit ourselves to scrutiny if the project should be continued. [End of my added thoughts. Do with them what you like.]
Our job is to not only declare HaShem as our King and we as His nation, but also to express that to the world. The best possible way to do that is to show that HaShem acts with the world in a way that is unique to a King. That is to judge with mercy, even -- maybe especially -- when there are no mitigating circumstances. No one in the world can stand in front of HaShem and declare he is completely righteous and hasn't sinned. No one. But all of us -- the entire Klal Yisrael -- can proclaim HaShem is the King. In fact, only an entire nation can do that. Without a nation, there is no sovereignty. We then go to our King and beg for clemency. That is something that, in the Torah system of justice, only a King can grant.
Now the order is perfectly clear. We can't get atonement from the court. We are guilty. But we can renew our commitment to being His nation, an entire nation of people dedicated to serving HaShem. We can then approach our King for clemency. We know we are guilty, but we renew and redouble our efforts, in spite of the renewed and redoubled challenges. Our continued existence as His nation, dedicated to our Father and King, brings out the splendor of HaShem's sovereignty in the most glorious way possible.
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