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Why No Wild Party on Rosh Hashanah?


Question:

Everyone else has a great time celebrating their New Year’s Day. Why do we take ours so seriously? What’s this whole judgment deal? Why all the prayers? Can’t we just party?

Response:

If you would know the drama that’s going on, you would zip out of the wildest party to be there. Imagine the entire universe in reboot. Imagine a mega-surge of creative energy, enough to power the whole of reality for an entire year. Imagine a system loading parameters for every galaxy, star, planet, organism, cell, protein, molecule and atom over a 48-hour period, and you’re starting to get the idea. And you? You are adjusting the input at every step.

You see, time doesn’t run smoothly. It’s not just some steady stream, like a train of cars one neatly shlepped after the other. It’s more like a pulse, with each new moment carefully and deliberately articulated through the medium of a cosmic soul that powers all life and existence. Every year, that packet of energy slips back to its primal zero state. From this point on—the night of Rosh Hashanah—the universe is effectively on life support. It receives just the juice it needs so that it will not utterly recede back to nothingness.

When the shofar is blown the next day, a new vitality of a higher order than any that preceded it enters time and space. Now get this: Time is also a creation. So time is also renewed. The past now exists as a consequence of the present—something like if you had rebooted in the middle of watching a video and now continued from where you left off. As far as you know, the old past may have been a very different past. But you couldn’t know. All you know is this past that was loaded into the PRAM at reboot. And since this vital force is a new force, on a qualitatively different level than whatever came before, this new past is truly new.

Why the judgment? Well, you can’t just feed anything into the system. The energy source we are discussing is unlimited, but the target system—our reality—has discrete parameters. Rebooting without taking those parameters into account could be like plugging your laptop directly into the 22.5-gigawatt current blasting out of the power plant on the Yangtze. And infinitely worse.

So there’s gotta be an accounting made. Like your laptop, the parameters of the physical universe are set at the core level. In this case, that means human consciousness. As far as the Creator is concerned, His entire universe is nothing more than a human observation. All He needs to do, then, is to look into the state of that consciousness and accordingly adjust the flow of current.

That’s empowering. Because, you see, those parameters of human consciousness are dynamic and not determined by the system. They are determined by us. If we open them up, they contain more—and more is given. Tighten them, and the conduits of life tighten along with them.

Now comes the vital information: What is open and what is tight? This is kind of counterintuitive. In the words of the dean of the heavenly academy (cited in the Zohar, an encoded manual for system maintenance), “Big is small, and small is big.” Unencrypted: Make yourself big, and you can’t contain anything; make yourself small, and you can contain the unlimited.

That’s what we are doing on Rosh Hashanah: making ourselves very small. Expanding our little minds to a state of realization that, hey, there is something bigger than me—and not just elephants. And maybe even, hey, I didn’t make this place. I wouldn’t even know where to begin. It’s totally unprogrammable, undecodable and ungeekly. And here I am, just another artifact of the system, observing itself from inside of it. I could be re-scripted, or even deleted from the code altogether, at the whim of Whoever Is Running This. And now that Whoever is asking me to discuss with Him the plans for the coming reboot.

In a state of utter awe and wonderment, the Reboot finds its most fertile soil.

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By Tzvi Freeman   More articles...  |   RSS Listing of Newest Articles by this Author
Rabbi Tzvi Freeman, a senior editor at Chabad.org, also heads our Ask The Rabbi team. He is the author of Bringing Heaven Down to Earth. To subscribe to regular updates of Rabbi Freeman's writing, visit Freeman Files subscription.

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Reader Comments
Latest Comments:
Posted: Sep 27, 2011
Peace: out of Eden
I believe that if you make of your life a masterpiece, that is, live as best you can according to the principles of tikkun, meaning love, support, caring, reverence for the environment, then you will have created something of vast importance because we are all of us, deeply ONE. And if we all do this, together, in accord, a chord, as ONE, we can make of life a master peace.

Shana Tova!

there are core principles to life and the apple itself has its core. I believe this entire story is about a journey of soul.

And I also believe, the Master Storyteller, knew the outcome would be dancing in the streets, because it takes a Master to write such a story, that winds its way through all Creativity to create something of great, great beauty. In the meantime we accept the responsibility of tikkun, to love with all our heart and soul.

Even if you do this not believing in G_d, you will have done what is required, because Divinity resides in this act and in us all. And we can enjoy the climb!
Posted By ruth housman, marshfield hills, ma

Posted: Sep 27, 2011
The Vastness of Creation
Not being a computer programmer, I only understand the most basic parts of this article. But that in itself proves a point: That the Universe is beyond my ken, and constantly expanding. As someone who believes she is G-d's partner in Creation, and whose Judaism centers around that concept in addition to the Commandments and Tikkun Olam, the article illustrates that I obviously can't understand everything, but that I am surrounded by the beauty of Creation nevertheless. As a retired economist; the so-called "dismal science", Rosh Hashanah and the Commandment that I hear the sound of the Shofar makes me feel less "dismal" and awakens inside me an inner "connectiveness" to everything around me and beyond. Singing in my synagogue's choir makes my spirit soar, perhaps up into the Cosmos.
I pray that the world knows peace, and that I can stand tall and make my ancestors proud, as we "stand on the shoulders of those who went before us". L'Shana Tovah to all who read this!
Posted By Susie Kahn Parker, Northridge, CA

Posted: Sep 27, 2011
Thank you for showing us beauty.

All the best of everything for you in the coming year.
Posted By Bonnie

Posted: Sep 25, 2011
No wild party on Rosh Hashanah
Thank, Rabbi Freeman, for a very clear explanation. Hashanah tova and Chag Sameach to you and all at Chabad.org and all the Chabad centres throughout the world.
Posted By Yocheved, Jerusalem, Israel

Posted: Sep 23, 2011
In this article the connection/ inseparability of G_d and the Jewish People shines out. I may not be part of you but I feel it in my heart also.
Posted By Julie, Durham, UK

Posted: Sep 23, 2011
Just what we needed!
What a fabulous and illustrative analogy. Thank you. Is Hashem amazing, or what?! Wishing you good health, happiness and sweetness in the new year.
Posted By Leah Solomon, Woodmere, NY

Posted: Sep 22, 2011
it's all in the timing: The Tree of Life
It seems the timing of everything is just Perfect.
For me autumn means a retreat into the self, as in the word aut, and into the OM of it. Here in New England at this time of going inwards, as the light changes and the leaves about to turn colors, I am so totally aware of Moses and the Burning Bush, because I see it, everywhere. That burning, turning of color. The hues of the day. And even my bittersweet comes in colors, the little seeds in purples, turquoise, blues. I had to marvel at this and take pictures of these multi colored beads on the vine. Yes bitter, and then the honey and the apples. The orchards are filling. Sweet apple with its crunch. The wind carrying a clarity that is so different from summer. A whisper of something new, coming clear. And then the birds winging their way by the thousands overhead taking me with them, in such soaring numbers. I feel a quickening, and I know, it's about the New Year!

Yes. time to RE BOOT, to warmer shoes and comfy boots. Shana Tova!
Posted By Ruth Housman, marshfield hills, MA

Posted: Sep 22, 2011
Rosh Hashanah
Oh, what a beautiful article! Thank you.
Posted By Jean O, BATTLE GROUND, WA

Posted: Sep 21, 2011
A year later and possibly a year wiser
Haftorah Nitzavim 61:10 in the Gutnick Chumash edition page 1480 ' below the line '.

It differentiates between rejoicing which is outwardly, and being glad which is inwardly. We don't decorate outwardly as in Succot or Chanukah or Purim as in outward rejoicing. We remain more introspective on Rosh Hashana asking to be sealed in the Book Of Life for the next year.

Last year i just cast stones. This year hopefully i have actually added something in keeping with the article.

Shana Tova !
Posted By Anonymous, WC

Posted: Sep 19, 2011
Why so sad?
It is creation day. Thank God.
Posted By Eric Albertson, New Bern, NC



 


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