BS''D
Tizku leShanim Rabot Ne'imot veTovot,
Here is a letter I wrote to HaKadosh Barukh Hu in anticipation for Rosh HaShanah. It is my hope that by reading it, one will acquire the proper mindset necessary for these upcoming holy and precious days. May HaShem grant us all a wonderful year filled with Berakhah, Simhah, spiritual growth and closeness to Him, Amen!
Riboni Shel Olam, today I stand in immense trepidation before You, wondering if this is a day of joy and elation or one of solemnity and seriousness. Today is 5773 years since You have created the world and declared Your Sovereignty over it. Today is the day You will consider whether we will make it to witness the 5774th year from Creation. Today, we pass in front of You one by one as herds of sheep, waiting to be judged for the forthcoming year. Am I not to be afraid?
Yet, today we declare You as our King.
Today we will commit ourselves once again to conform with Divine Sovereignty, that Your Will will become our will. We submit to You, HaShem. We accept your Kingship fully. As it says 'Make that His will should be your will, so that He should make your will to be as His will. Nullify your will before His will, so that He should nullify the will of others before your will'. HaKadosh Barukh Hu, I acknowledge that this world runs under Your Sovereignty alone. Everything that has happened in the past year was Your Will and Your Will only. In the same vain, what this upcoming year will yield is also Your Will and Your Will only. I accept your decrees with a full and content heart, knowing that you want the best for your beloved subjects. For this I rejoice.
A king of flesh and blood is coronated by a single, trusted subject, but You HaShem, You are coronated by the entire Kelal Yisrael; the pauper and the prince alike. Today, we all place a crown on Your Head. Today we all declare You our King. And just as each one of us is a partner in your Coronation as King, You reciprocate this relationship, being involved in our lives completely, supervising even the smallest creatures to the greatest of Sadikim. From the breeze that ruffles the grass, to each drop of rain that falls from the Heavens, each fruit that ripens on its time and each flower that germinates, to the beasts of the fields and the birds of the sky, to each and every member of Kelal Yisrael, You oversee us all; We declare You our Beloved King.
We sound the Shofar to declare your Coronation. The Shofar blasts are akin to the reverberations of trumpets blown when a king is cornoated. One hundred and one times do we declare You as King this way. One hundred and one moments we have to focus on Your Kingship. One hundred and one wake up calls to do Teshuvah. We have one hundred and one opportunities to take upon ourselves Ol Malkhut Shamayim, the responsibility of being your subjects and yielding to Your Sovereignty.
These one hundred and one permutations of cries will allow me to refocus on how I can improve myself in preparation for the upcoming year. I will conjure the moments I regret not taking advantage of the Torah and Missvot to help me do so. I will strike up the moments I compromised commitment for comfort and prayer for pleasure. I will commit to deal with others more lovingly and with more patience. I will realign my Emounah and Bitahon as well as take on a steadfast commitment to Torah and Missvot. From now on I will operate with utmost Ahavat and Yira'at HaShem.
HaShem, consider my newfound dedication to You and pardon my past wrongdoings. Just as when a new king is coronated, he grants amnesty to all his subjects, overlooking their wrongdoings, so too, when we Coronate You as King once again, we are certain that You will grant us amnesty, pardon our sins, and help us start anew. In this way, today we can rejoice. In this way, we can truly say 'Yismehu beMalkhutekha', 'We will rejoice in Your Kingship', with heartfelt meaning.
If that is not enough, if I have no merit of my own to evoke, please HaShem do this for Your sake. On Rosh HaShanah we are called to a din Torah, a court of Jewish law, where You are the plaintiff and we are the defendants. The halakhah tells us that if a poor person and a wealthy person appear at a din Torah, they both must be perceived by the judge as having equal stature. If the wealthy person is dressed in elegant attire, the judge may look at him more favorably than the poor person dressed in rags. Therefore, the wealthy man either has to purchase a similar prestigious garb for the poor person, or must dress rags similar to the poor person so that a fair ruling can be made. HaShem, we are dressed in rags, we are clothed in our sins and You, in Your Purity and Holiness, are not fitting to wear such clothing. Therefore, please share with us your clothing of purity, which can only be vested if our sins our forgiven. Allow us to don your pristine garb.
HaKadosh Barukh Hu, I call out to You in a heartfelt Tefillah. May You accept our sincere Teshuvah in turn for a wonderful year ahead of us. May this be a year of Berakhah for all of Kelal Yisrael. May You always judge us favorably and with immense Rahamim, Mercy. May You inscribe and seal us in Sefer Hayim Tovim, the Book of Good Life, so that we may continue to propagate the beauty of Your Torah in this world. May we continue to elevate ourselves higher and higher with Your Divine assistance and grow spiritually each and every day. May we always become a better person than we were the day before. May we be successful in our Avodat Middot and cultivate ourselves into more refined, patient and forgiving beings. May we gain clarity to Your Truths and thereby become even closer to You. Please help us increase our Emounah and Bitahon in You, and to always have the proper Ahavat HaShem and Yira'at Shamayim. May we be zokhim to feel Your Shekhinah at every moment.
HaShem, May there be Shalom Bayit in every single Jewish Home and may Your Shekhinah always rest there. May all of us, Your children, be in a constant state of Simhah. Please grant us all Menouhat Nefesh and Yishouv Daat- free us from our distress and worries, comfort us, protect us. May You grant all of us health and vigor to serve You better and may all the holim have a Refuah Shelemah beKarov. May all the singles find their zivoug hagoun beKarov with ease, clarity and happiness and may they be zokhim to build a Bayit Kadosh veNe'eman beYisrael. May all the childless be blessed with an abundance of healthy and righteous children. May all those off the Derekh please come back rightfully. May You also bless each and every one of us with Parnassah Tovah beShefa so that we can increase our Sedakah and Torah learning. May we only have Bessorot Tovot to share this year and every year after. MAY THIS BE THE YEAR THAT WE WILL WITNESS THE COMING OF MASHIAH BEN DAVID, AMEN!
HaShem, I want to thank You for all you have blessed us with thus far. May You keep and add to these Berakhot and may we always be appreciative of them. Thank You HaShem. I love You very much.
Ketivah veHatimah Tovah! Wishing everyone a Shanah Tovah uMevorekhet!
(Information and inspiration based on the works of Rabbi Avraham J. Twerski, M.D.)
Although I wish I could do this face to face, I would like to personally ask a sincere mehillah (forgiveness) from each and every special person that is part of the FlyingSoul-o group. I deeply apologize if I have ever hurt, offended or embarrassed anyone, or if I have done anything else that would warrant a mehillah, whether it was by speech, thought or action, whether it is known to you or it is not, whether intentional or unintentional. I hope that you could forgive me. BH I am mohelet (forgiving) everyone in advance. I wish upon each and every one of you a Shanah Tovah uMevorekhet full of Shalom, Berakhah ve'Simhah! May HaKadosh Barukh Hu bless us with all that is good and may our beloved FlyingSoul-o group continue to grow more and more! You are all very dear to me. Kol Tuv!!
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