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Okay, so let's bring this back home to
Rosh Hashanah, which arrives on Friday
night on Shabbat.
You know, here's the thing that
surprises people who didn't grow up with
it. Rosh Hashanah is the day of
judgment, but it's not primarily about
sin. It's not a day about sin. We don't
talk about it. We don't focus it. We
don't have confession. You know, open
the machzor, the Rosh Hashanah prayer
book, look for confession, for the long
list of wrongdoings, you won't find them
on Rosh Hashanah. Those come 10 days
later on Yom Kippur. That's a different
story. Rosh Hashanah is about one thing,
really. Malchut.
Kingship.
The prayers are built on three pillars.
Malchuyot,
which is kingship, zichronot,
remembrance, and shofarot,
the horn.
The whole day is a coronation. We're not
primarily just, you know, we're not
apologizing on Rosh Hashanah.
What are we doing? We are crowning him
king. And that is the service of the
day. That's the mission of the day.
And a king in our tradition
differs from a tyrant in one primary
way.
A tyrant rule A tyrant rules you.
Right? A king is one whom the people
accept with their free will and their
desire. There is no coronation without a
nation showing up to do the crowning.
Ain melech elo am. There's no king
without the nation.
So, what actually is it
that crowns him?
I don't believe it's just the prayers or
the shofar. You know, a person can stand
in synagogue for two full days, say
every word, and not crown anybody. I
think I've had my share of Rosh
Hashanahs like that, if I'm going to be
honest about it.
You know, and and anybody can accept a
king who gives them what they asked for.
That's not really acceptance, that's
just agreement. You find out whether
someone is really your king on the day
the decree seems to go against you.
When the year takes
When the year takes something from you.
When you don't understand and you're not
going to understand and you say anyways
Gamzu Letova.
This too is for the good. Not because it
doesn't hurt, but because he is the
king. That is the coronation. Everything
else is ceremony.
And that's why I think the four-year-old
saying
Thank you Hashem little Shilo saying
thank you Hashem Gamzu Letova as his
emergency protocol is not just a cute
story.
It's also in a very real way
a coronation.
>> [music]
