The Work of Rosh Hashanah

Rosh Hashanah is serious business! The entire next year is determined for every human being on the planet over these two days – if they will live or die, and how they will live or die – with plenty or famine, how much rain there will be, how much money will be made or lost, literally everything that will unfold over the coming year is determined NOW. 

After Rosh Hashanah, we can try to fix the new judgement, but we can’t change it. If we repent, then the amount of rain determined will be used for blessing and not curse, but it remains the same. If we repent, then the income determined for us will be used with blessing and not curse, but it remains the same. Rosh Hashanah is the critical day – not even Yom Kippur comes close! 

Before a big court date, we would prepare everything well in advance. So too, before Rosh Hashanah we are supposed to prepare, pray Selichot, and add extra Torah study and mitzvot. 

Rosh Hashanah is not supposed to be terror, fire, and brimstone. It’s very serious yes, but doing the work is actually light and easy! The key is that you have to do your work – you can’t run away from this judgement! Hence, the only thing that is terrifying is not preparing properly. 

First off, Rabbi Nachman of Breslev stresses the critical importance of doing a pidyon nefesh – a redemption for the soul, literally – just before the holiday begins on Erev Rosh Hashanah. Rabbi Arush will do a pidyon for you in Uman Erev Rosh Hashanah – time is running out to send him your names! Click here to learn more and make all the arrangements! You can also contact me to make sure your names get to Harav – rachel.avrahami@breslev.co.il.  

Rabbi Arush also discussed the importance of praying at the grave sites of tzaddikim if possible – Israel is filled with them, in New York you have the Ribnitzer Rebbe and the Lubavitcher Rebbe. The idea is that the tzaddik will try to help you, much like a good lawyer, to get a good judgement on Rosh Hashanah. 

Now here is the secret – someone who has a representative in Uman on Erev Rosh Hashanah, gets included in Rebbe Nachman’s working on his judgement for that year.  

Rebbe Nachman said in his lifetime that while other tzaddikim work on the judgement for their followers on the first morning, he already takes care of everything during the first evening prayer on the first night! So, wait, did you do that pidyon yet to make sure the Rebbe is going to include you and yours when he is arranging everyone’s good and sweet judgements in Heaven?  

After that, Rebbe Nachman says, just sit back, relax, and be very happy, knowing that everything is good! 

It sounds easy, but I find that this is the hardest part! 

For the better part of two days, I simply must be happy, knowing that serious business just went down, and I really have no idea what happened. It’s scary! And it’s definitely anxiety-producing. Personally, I struggle with it every year. 

But for the first time, now this year – Rabbi Arush has given us the key to make sure we can fulfill Rebbe Nachman’s instructions to the tee and really earn that a good, sweet judgement can be finalized!  

Rabbi Arush’s focus during this past year has been on his new definition of emuna. Emuna: Hashem always loves me, and everything is only good, and it’s only going to get better and better. I wrote about this new definition in The Root of Our Suffering. 

Now Rebbe Nachman’s instructions to relax and be happy make sense. Even though it sounds simple, it’s not so easy to do at all, in function. But now that we know that emuna means that it’s all good and it’s only getting better is the focus and the goal, it’s so much easier to succeed to really relax and let ourselves be in Hashem’s Good Hands without any anxiety or worry whatsoever.  

As Rabbi Arush explains, the anxiety and worry are exactly what causes the stern judgements, G-d forbid. These negative emotions are an insult to a loving Father for His children to wonder what bad He might do to them next, or to be afraid of something terrible happening, as if such a thing exists? So even though it’s hard to know that such a big court case is happening literally over our heads and not to tremble, our simple emuna that it’s only getting better, along with our strong emuna in the tzaddikim whom we look to for help (in this case Rebbe Nachman, and also Rabbi Arush), are exactly the merits that enable us to bring that to fruition! 

Never forget that what matters the most is ratzon, your desire. Ask Hashem already now, and through Rosh Hashanah, to fulfill this advice and be happy and relaxed, to pray with sincerity but without anxiety, knowing that everything is great! Ask Hashem for emunat tzaddikim, to believe in and connect yourself to the tzaddik! Ask for complete emuna so that you really are happy all through Rosh Hashanah, and all the holidays, and the entire year! Pray for it! 

Don’t forget to carve out time Erev Rosh Hashanah for personal prayer and introspection. Rabbi Arush is very strong on the importance of doing everything possible in advance – cook in advance, even freeze, clean the house, set the table, everything you can! Leave Erev Rosh Hashanah open for teshuva, for repentance. Review the year in general and repent. Even a woman should have at least an hour set aside! 

And the most important: Review the year and thank Hashem! Appreciate everything good in the year, your achievements physically and spiritually, the mitzvot Hashem enabled you to do, and that you’re alive to face another Rosh Hashanah! Stop and thank Hashem!  

For those of you who support Rabbi Arush’s organization, Harav said you have to say lots of thank You’s for the amazing things Chut shel Chessed managed to do this year, including thousands of books and tzitzit which were distributed. We’re all part of this incredible enterprise together, and none of us could do it alone! A hidden tzaddik said that Chut shel Chessed is helping to bring the Geula, the full redemption, more than anyone else. You’re a part of it! Say thank You! If you want to join us, click here to spread emuna, and then forward me your names to send to Rabbi Arush to pray for you! 

On behalf of Breslev Israel, I wish all of you a ketiva v’chatima tova, you should be signed and sealed for life, health, blessing, and everything good. Shana tova u’metuka, you should have a sweet and good year! 

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Rachel Avrahami grew up in Los Angeles, CA, USA in a far-off valley where she was one of only a handful of Jews in a public high school of thousands. She found Hashem in the urban jungle of the university. Rachel was privileged to read one of the first copies of The Garden of Emuna in English, and the rest, as they say, is history. She made Aliyah and immediately began working at Breslev Israel.   
  
Rachel is now the Editor of Breslev Israel’s English website. She welcomes questions, comments, articles, and personal stories to her email: rachel.avrahami@breslev.co.il.