Tefillah - 097 The Best Advice on Meriting A Good Judgment

Three Levels of Justice

In the blessing ofהשיבנו in Shemoneh Esrei, we ask,ומלוך עלינו מהרה אתה ה' לבדך – “And rule over us speedily, You, Hashem, alone (with kindness and with compassion, and treat us with righteousness and with justice).”

First in this blessing, we ask Hashem to restore our judges, and then, we ask Hashem to restore His kingship. What is the connection between the first part of the blessing and the second part of the blessing? It is because we want to be ruled by proper justice, as opposed to being ruled by the jurisdiction of the nations of the world.

There are actually three levels of proper rule which we are asking for in this blessing of Shemoneh Esrei. The first level is that we are asking Hashem to restore our judges,השיבה שופטינו. The higher level is that we ask Hashem to restore His rule over us, ומלוך עלינו מהרה לבדך and finally, we ask Hashem to rule over us with chessed (kindness), rachamim (compassion), tzedek (righteousness), and mishpat (justice) – בחסד וברחמים וצדקינו בצדק ובמשפט. We are asking that Hashem should be the Judge over us.

Judgment By Hashem Himself

There is an argument in the words of our Sages about what we are judged for on Rosh HaShanah. Although a person is being judged every second of the year, the main judgment takes place on Rosh HaShanah, where “all pass before Him like sheep before their Master.”

There are different levels of judgment – there is judgment on this world, and there is judgment of Heaven. Rosh HaShanah is not just the time when the entire world is judged; it is a judgment in which all creations pass before Hashem in scrutiny, and Hashem Himself is the Judge. During the rest of the year, there is also judgment, but Hashem lets the judgment be delivered by other means. On Rosh HaShanah, Hashem is the Judge Himself, so to speak, with no intermediaries to mete out the judgment.

(There are sefarim hakedoshim that apply this difference between the first and second days of Rosh HaShanah – that on the first day, Hashem is the Judge, while on the second day of Rosh HaShanah, He lets the judgment be meted out by the Heavenly Court, thus it is less direct.)

What indeed is the difference if Hashem Himself is judging us, which is Rosh HaShanah, with the ordinary level of the rest of the year, in which Hashem does not directly judge us? What difference does it make if it’s directly or not from Hashem Himself?

The description of Elul is, “Ani L’Dodi, V’Dodi Li” – “I am to my Beloved, and my Beloved is to me.” It is a time in which we can “seek Hashem where He is found.” This continues into the Aseres Y’mei Teshuvah (The Ten Days of Repentance) in between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur as well. During the rest of the year, when it’s not Yomim Noraim, we can’t be as close with Hashem as we are during Yomim Noraim. Therefore, we are not judged directly by Hashem Himself during the rest of the year, because there is more of a distance. On Rosh HaShanah, we are much closer with Hashem, thus Hashem is the Judge Himself on Rosh HaShanah.

Even In Death

If a person always made sure during his life to connect himself with Hashem and have a relationship with Him, a life which was “nochach”, facing Hashem – then even as he is dying, he will also remain close to Hashem. At death, such a person will merit to be judged by Hashem Himself, and since he lived a life of closeness with Him, he merits a good judgment over the way he has lived his life.

Only a person who placed Hashem’s existence in front of him all the time will merit this.  But if a person didn’t make sure to live with Hashem in his life, if he didn’t live a life of nochach p’nei Hashem (facing Hashem), of him Chazal say, “Remember where you come from, and before Whom you will have to give an accounting.”

In other words, a person who lives without feeling Hashem in his life will have reason to be very afraid when he dies one day, for he will have to give an accounting before Hashem, and since he did not live a life of closeness with Him, who knows what will be with his judgment.

Most people in their life might know that eventually we all give an accounting to Hashem one day, but it is often not revealed in a person’s life on a level of awareness.  Only someone who lived a life of a relationship with Hashem and spoke with Him on a regular basis, “as a man talks to a friend” (to quote the words of the Mesillas Yesharim) will merit a calm feeling at the time of death; he will feel that Hashem is with him, even as he is dying, and he will feel Hashem no less at the time of death than when he was alive.

Such a person realized that although his physical body is here on this earth, he can still live with Hashem in his life, and he views the Heavenly Court as a mere messenger of Hashem, Who is behind everything. Because he recognized in his life how Hashem is the Judge behind it all, he merits to be judged by Hashem Himself, and understandably, he will merit a good judgment, for he is already bound up in closeness with Him. And because Hashem is the Merciful King, the person will surely merit a good judgment - if he has bonded with Him already during his life on this earth.

But if a person did not reveal Hashem in his life – woe is to him from the day of judgment!

If a person made sure during the rest of the year to be close with Hashem, he gets even closer to Hashem during Elul, which are days of closeness with Hashem. He merits to be judged from Hashem Himself on Rosh HaShanah, thus he will have a favorable judgment. If a person did not develop his bond with Hashem during the rest of the year, though – for example, if he didn’t feel that Hashem is in front of him when he says the word “Attah” (You), then he never felt that Hashem is directly in front of him, and he does not merit a direct judgment from Hashem Himself during Yomim Noraim.

The Opportunity Of Elul

However, even if a person didn’t merit during the rest of the year to have a relationship with Hashem, during Elul, he has a special opportunity, for Elul is a time of opportunity to become very close with Hashem. Since it is a time in which we are being passing before Hashem in judgment, we are closer to Him, so we have the chance now to ignite our bond with Him. During the rest of the year we are judged by other messengers of Hashem, but during Elul, the entire world is judged by Hashem Himself, and thus Elul is a time of great mercy which one can merit.

The Heavenly Court consist of 24 courts, according to the writings of the sefarim hakedoshim. Part of the Heavenly court consists of tzaddikim who recently were niftar from our generation, and the other part of the Heavenly Courts consists of the angels. But the Heavenly court does not come near the compassion that Hashem has. Hashem has the ultimate chessed and rachamim. The chessed and rachamim of even the greatest tzaddik you have ever seen does not come near Hashem’s chessed and rachamim.

The Best ‘Advice’ For Elul

Now we can understand something deeper.

The more a person realizes the chessed and rachamim of Hashem, the closer he is to meriting it.  One of the major pieces of advice brought to merit a good judgment (besides for the many advice that there is) is that if a person made sure to place Hashem’s existence in front of him during the rest of the year, he merits a good judgment on Rosh HaShanah.

This is accomplished when a person feels during the year that Hashem is the King of all Kings; he nullifies himself to the Creator as his King, and he willingly accepts Hashem’s Kingship over himself. But a person has to want this earnestly. A person has to be ready to give up his whole will for Hashem and nullify it completely. Only in this way does a person make Hashem into his King.

Some things a person is willing to give up for Hashem, but there are some things a person has that he is not so willing to nullify…

To accept Hashem as King over you means to willingly accept Him as your King who rules over you, to nullify your will to Him completely, and not because you feel forced to so in any way. If you feel forced at surrendering yourself to Hashem, this is not called accepting Hashem’s Kingship over you. The more you accepted Hashem’s Kingship over you during the rest of the year – by nullifying your will to Him and letting His Will rule over you – this is closeness with Hashem, and this is the deep method that can merit you a good judgment.

Not For Self-Interest

But we must know a major fundamental about Rosh HaShanah: Woe is to the person who accepts Hashem’s Kingship only because he’s afraid of the judgment! Such a person is only concerned about his well-being. He is “using Hashem”, so to speak, entirely for his own personal reasons! He is using the “crown of the King” – and on a more subtle note, he is using the King Himself - entirely for his own self-interests.

The intention here is not that we have to act entirely lishmah (for the sake of Heaven); that would be too difficult. Rather, what we mean is that a person has to make sure that he is not completely immersed in shelo lishmah (self-serving motives)!

Thus, even the greatest advice to merit a good judgment we mentioned, which is to accept Hashem’s Kingship over us, must not be used for self-interest. The point is not to save oneself from a harsh judgment. The point is rather to earnestly accept upon ourselves Hashem’s Kingship, because we seek the truth – because we seek to reveal Hashem on this world. The level of this acceptance depends on each person – some people want it very much, and some people a little less.

People like to use various eitzos (advice) to merit a good judgment, such as going to graves of tzaddikim, or getting berachos from tzaddikim, or by giving more tzedakah, and by using the advice that is written about in sefarim hakedoshim. All of this advice is truthful, but if a person bases his entire Rosh HaShanah on such eitzos, he is so far from having a connection with Hashem!

Thus, our avodah in preparing for the Day of Judgment is two-fold. We must be afraid of the judgment, but at the same time, we must reveal the light of truth, the soul of a Jew which wants a relationship with Hashem. We must want Hashem’s Kingship not just because that will merit us a good judgment, but because our soul simply has a yearning to accept Hashem’s Kingship on us. This is the true way to reveal how Hashem is the King of justice.

The more a person is truthful, he views the judgment of Rosh HaShanah as a way to accept upon himself the Kingship of Hashem. He reveals his soul’s yearning for Hashem. The less a person is truthful, he views the judgment of Rosh HaShanah entirely as what will be with his fate this year and he focuses on himself alone.

Elul and After Elul

The way to prepare for Rosh HaShanah, the way to get closer to Hashem, is to instill ourselves during Elul a kind of closeness with Hashem that will last for the rest of the year as well. There must be a mark on us left from Elul.

Each person needs to think during Elul as he says the words of this blessing in Shemoneh Esrei – ומלוך עלינו אתה לבדך וכו' - that he wishes to accept upon himself the kingship of Hashem. If a person truly seeks that the kingship of Hashem be restored, saying these words of Shemoneh Esrei can awaken the soul to want it more and more, and then it will carry over into the rest of the year as well.

May we merit to prepare ourselves for Rosh HaShanah, for the King who will judge us – by revealing a sense of Hashem in our life.