Mevakesh Lev: Rosh Hashana - Davening For True Life

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Rosh Hashana - Davening For True Life

From an email:

Shalloommmm sweeeetest friends!!!!!

These words of Torah and hisorirus should be a merit for my most beloved and faithful friend Moshe Yehuda ben Pesha Dina. He is the best and deserves the best! KB"H should grant him all of the wishes of his heart li-tova.

WOW!!!

WE MADE IT!!!!!

Another year:-)!!! Last year we stood before Hashem on Rosh Hashana and said "You are king and we want to proclaim this. Please give us more time to do so". And He did!!:-) How awesome is that?? Very.

Ahhhh - but now we once again stand in judgment. Will we be worthy? I sure hope so!! Nobody wants to die. Yet every time I find myself in an airport "terminal" or receive a "please daven for .. ben/bas/ ... who is in critical condition", I am reminded that I too am on a limited visa.

I am a citizen of two countries and a permanent resident of none.

Anyway, after those sobering thoughts - a word or 8 about Rosh Hashana. We insert into our Shmoneh Esrei the words

"זכרנו לחיים מלך חפץ בחיים וכתבנו בספר החיים למענך אלקים חיים"

I was pondering those words today and began to jot down my thoughts and all of the sudden [this is a true story] the computer started mellifluously playing the beautiful tune put to these very words. [Here is one rendition. The singer actually lives in my neighborhood and is a fine gentleman].

We ask Hashem to give us life. That makes sense. But what do we mean when we call Hashem "אלקים חיים"? All that matters for our purposes is that He gives life and we would like some more of it, so what does the title אלקים חיים add??

I would like to take an approach based on the Maharal.

What is life? Ahhhhh!!

Breathing.

Well - if one is an animal then merely existing is life. For Hashem, life is something different. There is a concept in the chumash called מים חיים - Flowing "live" waters. Water that just keeps going. The life of Hashem is unique in that He MUST LIVE, is the only ABSOLUTE, ETERNAL existence and is the source of all other existence. When we live it is a different type of existence. We could live but we could also be dead. It has happened in world history that people have died. If so, then one is never really alive in the true, G-dly sense of the term. Life must be an endless flow.

Now we understand. We say to Hashem "Hashem. We don't want to just keep breathing. Even Neo-Nazis breathe. [And, may I add - "yimach shimam:-)"]. We want to REALLY LIVE. You are the אלקים חיים - The eternal source of all life and we want to connect to THAT. Not just another round so we can consume more slurpies, takes more selfies or scroll another 10 thousand times down our ipods. But an eternal, spiritual existence that is filled with joy and vitality. About you it says עז וחדווה במקומו - Strength and joy is in His place. We want that too. You never get sick [which, according to the gemara is death in the micro]. We ALSO never want to be sick."

The way to live as Hashem lives is to cling to Hashem. The closer we are - the more we live. In both worlds. We don't want life to be just the absence of death. We want life to be full of meaning, purpose and joy. And that they should never end.

How do we get close to Hashem?

Ahhhhh!!!

Here are 2 ways [there are many but these two are key]:

One way is to DESIRE with all of our hearts to be close. אחת שאלתי מאת השם - One request. That we should sit in the house of Hashem all of the days of our lives. Everywhere we go, we should feel that we are in the house of Hashem and to see his sweetness. לחזות בנועם השם.

Another way is to GIVE. The Maharal says that when one gives s/he becomes G-dly because ALL Hashem does all day is give.

There are many thousands of people who died clinical deaths and they related that all of their lives passed before their eyes in seconds and every time they observed themselves GIVNG - they felt bliss. To be good is to be [almost] G-d. As close as you can get. Some people have this horrific disease called "miserliness". It is worse than cancer or anything else in that it kills a person in both this and the next worlds and most people who have don't even realize they have it. S-C-A-R-Y!

BELOVED FRIENDS!!!

May we all be inscribed in the book of true life. The life given by אלקים חיים and not just resuscitation.

It would be an honor if anybody would give me his or her name and those of their loved ones so I can daven for you. I can't say much about my tefillos but I am in Israel and that counts for a lot. So please send if you wish.

With much love and brachos for the GREATEST YEAR of your life.