Reminding G-d

G-d says: "...Recite verses of remembrance before Me, that memory of you shall rise before Me."

Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 16a

Why do we need to remind G-d?

Because G-d is infinite. Being infinite, He is capable of creating infinite worlds, each of infinite capacity with infinite beings of infinite intelligence. And according to the sages, He has done exactly that. If so, what significance could us very finite creatures have that He should bother with us at all?

Only because, at the very onset of creation, this Infinite G-d determined He would delight in a wondrous blend of opposites: Light and dark, the very big and the very small, confusion and harmony. Little creatures of a finite and confusing world that completely hides His presence, acknowledging the Infinite One as their Creator and connecting to His light from their dark place. That is something that can only happen in a world such as ours. And so, He delights in our world. And it is this delight that keeps Him engaged, sustaining the flow of life-giving energy.

At times, however, such as the awesome day of Rosh Hashanah, the power lines are all but shut down. G-d is re-determining how He will relate to this world. His Divine Presence shifts into transcendent mode. "The Throne of Judgment," our sages call it. The universe at that time is like a person asleep -- the mind and emotions have gone on their own journey, leaving the body at its most basic level of function.

Our mission: To re-awaken that flow of energy and bring new life to the cosmos. To re-engage G-d.

To accomplish this, the Torah prescribes multiple strategies. Blowing the shofar is prescription #1. The verses of remembrance we say in the Musaf prayer are another. How do they work?

One secret of the ancient tradition is that of the "cosmic mirror":

All that happens on our material plane is only a reflection of the dynamics of a higher, spiritual realm. When the rain falls, trees grow tall, birds fly south, nations make war and peace -- all is a reflection of the movements and songs of higher beings on a plane of reality far beyond our own. Those beings, in turn, only reflect even higher entities. And so on, until we reach the ultimate Prime Mover of All Things.

We, standing at the very bottom, are in a unique position. Just as the One at the Top is free to do as He pleases, with nothing beyond Him forcing His hand, so, too, we here at the bottom: We are also granted free choice to break out of the box and initiate new, unprecedented dynamics. When we do that, our actions are mirrored in reverse, reverberating all the way up -- even at the very top.

This is the secret power of all our mitzvahs, good deeds and study of Torah -- everything in our lives that involves free choice. It is also the clue to understanding these verses of remembrance: The words we say are spoken in the heavens. As we say the words from G-d's own Torah in which He remembers His affection for our world, so, above, He turns His Divine focus back towards our earthly plane.