The people listened intently, surprised at what the speaker was saying. Here was a man, sitting without a yarmulka, speaking in a slow and reserved voice: “It was the most profound spiritual experience in my life. His face turned stark white. Watching him, I understood what awe and reverence for G‑d meant. Suddenly, his color turned bright red; the intensity he was investing in the activity was palpably evident. The tone in which he recited the blessings seemed to echo across the entire span of time. When he lifted the shofar to his lips….”
He was recalling what had happened over 30 years before. A relative had invited him to Crown Heights for Rosh HaShanah and managed to find him a place where he could see the Rebbe sounding the shofar. Though decades had passed, the imprint of the experience was still vibrantly alive, stirring his very core.
Chassidim would say that any difficulty understanding a maamar explaining the spiritual significance of the sounding of the shofar was resolved through the Rebbe’s sounding of the shofar, for then the concepts were not abstract; they became manifest before your eyes.
The converse is also true. Studying these concepts as explained in the Rebbe’s maamarim can make the sounding of the shofar – and, similarly, all other elements of our religious lives – an intensely vibrant experience.

What Man Can Achieve

The maamar that follows focuses on the concept that Rosh HaShanah does not commemorate the anniversary of the first day of creation, but rather the anniversary of man’s creation. The Hebrew name for man, Adam, is derived from the phrase, E’dameh l’Elyon, “I resemble the One Above.” Implied is that the potentials existing within man’s soul reflect different dimensions of G‑dliness:
a) the dimension that is memale kol almin, the G‑dly light that permeates all existence and enclothes itself in the created beings according to their individual characters,
b) the dimension that is sovev kol almin, the G‑dly light that transcends all existence and enables it to appreciate that all being has no existence apart from Him, and
c) the Essence of G‑dliness, which defies all definition; it is not limited, nor is it transcendent, nor can it be said that either limitation or transcendent are beyond it.
All three of these dimensions are drawn down through the Jews’ Divine service on Rosh HaShanah. More particularly, sounding the shofar is the mitzvah of the day which elicits these dimensions of G‑diness.
The purpose of man’s creation is not only to realize these powers within his own being, but to draw them down into world at large, making the world a dwelling for G‑d, a place where His Essence is revealed.
The maamar explains these concepts through the interpretation of the verse from the Mussaf liturgy, “This day is the beginning of Your works, a remembrance of the first day”: “This day is the beginning of Your works” is associated with man’s service to call forth the light that is memale kol almin. “A remembrance of the first day” recalls the unlimited Divine light drawn down on G‑d’s initiative, the light that is sovev kol almin. And the fact that “the beginning of Your works” is mentioned before “a remembrance of the first day” alludes to the essential Divine pleasure aroused by man’s Divine service.

Towards the Ultimate Kingship

Similarly, these three rungs are reflected by the blessings of Malchiyos, Zichronos, and Shofros. Malchiyos relate to G‑d’s light that is memale kol almin (that “fills all the worlds”), as reflected by our Sages’ statement1 that on Rosh HaShanah, G‑d instructs the Jewish people: “Recite verses before Me that highlight sovereignty to make Me King over you.”
Zichronos relate to the essence of Or Ein Sof before which all existence is of no importance whatsoever; it is necessary to remember and call to mind, as it were, the world’s existence. And Shofros call forth G‑d’s essential pleasure, pleasure that does not derive from anything external, but rather is His essential delight. The ultimate manifestation of all these three levels will come in the era of Mashiach when G‑d’s sovereignty will permeate all existence.