Chassidut sobre Deuteronômio 29:8

You stand: In the Yalkut (Yalkut Shimoni 940:11) - Moshe said to them, "Do you want to stand [firm] in the world? Occupy yourselves with Torah." What is written above? "So you are to take care regarding the words of this covenant" (Deuteronomy 29:8). And afterwards, "You stand." To here are its [words]. As behold we always read this section before Rosh Hashanah, since it hints to all of the Jewish people [that] you stand and are prepared and positioned before the Lord, your God, from the great to the small, such that each person of Israel must ready himself before the great and awesome day of judgement. And this is, as has become the custom, to arise at the [last] watch [of the night] to say penitential prayers the week before Rosh Hashanah. That is that when Rosh Hashanah comes out on Thursday, it is sufficient to [begin] on the Sunday before it. But if it comes out on Tuesday, we then precede to arise from Sunday of the past week. And behold the Magen Avraham forced himself to give a reason and wrote that there needs to be four days before Rosh Hashanah so that there be ten days of fasting. To here [are his words]. But one can also say [another] reason. It is because the world was created on the twenty-fifth of Elul. For Adam, the first man, was created [on the first of] Tishrei and he was [then] judged. So the Holy One, blessed be He, said to him, "Behold this is a sign for your children, etc.," as if found in Midrash. And even though we say on Rosh Hashanah, "Today is the creation of (harat) the world," and the Ari, may his memory be blessed, wrote that charat is an expression of pregnancy (hirayon) - and, if so, it is possible that it implies that the creation of the world was [only] in a hidden thought, just like the pregnancy of one's mother - nevertheless, the truth is like its simple meaning, that the world was created in Tishrei, and like the words of the Midrash mentioned above. It is only that the aspect of Kingship (Malkhut) was in an aspect of pregnancy and hidden thought. So His Lordship and Kingship was not recognizable until the Jewish people went out of Egypt in Nissan. And that is the 'beginning of the year for kings,' meaning the time though which it was revealed that God is the only King over the whole world. But the truth of the matter is that the world was created in Tishrei, but its beginning was on the twenty-fifth of Elul. Hence the Sages, may their memory be blessed, ordained to arise at the [last] watch [of the night] to say penitential prayers in order to sanctify the days of the creation up until the sixth day [of creation], which was the day sanctified [with] the creation of man - Rosh Hashanah. For everything is aroused in its time. And we have already prefaced earlier that the angels that said, 'What is man that You should remember him,' were prosecuting angels that are aroused every year on Rosh Hashanah, since the Jewish people did not fix their ways or their misdeeds towards God. 'And, if so, should You not act measure for measure and - God forbid - not be called the God of Israel?' So behold the Children of Israel below fast and sound the alarm below with the sound of the shofar and accept upon themselves the yoke of the kingdom of God through repentance and good deeds, until the kindness of God, may He be blessed, is aroused to bring out their righteousness like the light. So He [then] shows their merit in front of the angels above and justifies them in the trial. That is until they all concede that He is our God, and we are His people, Israel. And so is it fit to be always. So they all agree about all the goodnesses, salvations and redemptions. And all of it comes to us because of our faith, since we trust in His great mercy, and His great kindness. So we bathe and cut our hair in honor of the day of judgement. And they 'rejoice in trembling' and in the arousal of repentance in joy. And the words of our master, our teacher and rabbi, the Gaon, the Master, the Rabbi Dov Ber (of Mezeritch) are well-known - that the explanation of the writing for life in the book is that it is etched into the thought of a person. For the wicked one, when he remembers his iniquities, he becomes afraid and trembles and he is not in control of his heart to repent to God - 'this one is inscribed immediately for death.' This is a sign for the matter that [these] thoughts confuse him and weaken his heart with fear of death. But this is not the case with the righteous - even though they squirm and tremble from the fear of God, may He blessed, there are certain of His salvation and His kindness. So they strengthen themselves and repent to God, and 'they are immediately inscribed for life.' So the inscription for the good is etched into their hearts. And even though some thoughts come to [the righteous] that remind him of his iniquities that signal to the prosecution above, [righteous people] nevertheless steer their minds to the greatness of repentance and the abandonment of sin from that day onwards, and about the acceptance of the Kingdom of Heaven, and to have faith in His great kindness; and they focus on [God's] name [made of letters, the numerical count of which is] 72, which indicates the kindness of the Creator, may His name be blessed. To here are his [words]. And behold we draw forth the great kindness that is called Long (Arikh) to the aspect of the God of Israel, which works with us measure for measure. That is why the trumpet blasts in the Temple would be short and the shofar blasts would be long (ma'arikh). As the trumpets (chatzotzerot) hint to the expression of half forms (chatzi tzurot), as I have written in another place - meaning either the whiteness or the redness. As the full form is called that which is made up of whiteness and redness, as it is written (Song of Songs 5:10), "My beloved is clear-skinned and ruddy. "And we do not want half forms on Rosh Hashanah, as I wrote above, but rather the appearance of a man that includes everything and the aspect of the God of Israel, and to draw forth the aspect of Arikh with the shofar. And the Yalkut hints to this also - Moshe said to them, "Do you want to stand, etc? Occupy yourselves with Torah." For the root of the Torah is the twenty-two letters, which hint to the number of the name [of God], tet-dalet heh-dalet (the numerical count of these four letters being twenty-two). As tet-dalet hints to the thirteen words of mercy. For the numerical count of tet-dalet is thirteen. And also since the understanding of ted (the word formed by the letters, tet-dalet) is an expression of modesty, as was written by the Tosafot Yom Tov in Tractate Middot 1:3, see there. And the number of heh-dalet is nine, which hints to the nine attributes of the Small Face (Zeir Anpin). And hed (the word formed by the letters, heh-dalet) is an expression of revelation and and uplifting, from the usage, heidad (an uplifting shout). But they need to be connected though occupation with the Torah of twenty-two letters. And when they are connected, they form the name tet-dalet heh-dalet mentioned above, which is the name [of God] that precedes the essential name [of God] in the letters of the alphabet (the letter tet precedes the letter yod, the letter dalet precedes the letter heh and so forth). And that is why the Yalkut placed this statement adjacent to the verse, "You stand before the Lord." Meaning to say, "If you want to stand before the Lord" - meaning before the essential name, and that would be the name, tet-dalet heh-dalet - "occupy yourselves with Torah," which is based on twenty-two letters. And that is why we say the thirteen attributes [of mercy] in the penitential prayers. And one should focus on 'and His throne shall be established upon kindness and He shall sit upon it in truth (emet).' This hints to the exact image, man (adam), for he is the tithe of Him (the numerical count of adam without the alef is a tenth (tithe) of the count of emet without the alef), as it is written in the Tikkunim. And also because emet contains the twenty-two letters: Alef is at the head and tav is at the end of the letters, and mem is in the middle. But the essence of the matter is to repent and to draw down the thirteen words of mercy into oneself. That is as the Sages, may their memory be blessed, said, "'And you shall walk in His ways' (Deuteronomy 28:9) - just like He is merciful, you too should be merciful, etc." And this is hinted to in that which was written by the Magen Avraham in the name of the Levush, "One must wrap oneself at the time that we say the thirteen attributes, etc." That is that he must truly wrap himself and make himself similar to God, may He be blessed, to be merciful and gracious and that which is similar to them. And he must distribute charity to the poor, so that he arouses charity and kindness Above to all of Israel. And the repentance must be joyful and trusting of the kindness of the Creator, may He be blessed. 'For the Lord will not forsake His people. Hence it is possible to give a reason for that which one does not need to lower the head (in supplications) on the eve of Rosh Hashanah - it is to show that there is no need to lower the head, but rather to stand with love and joy before the Omnipresent. And behold, that which is written in the Shulchan Arukh (Orach Chaim 582:9), to pray out loud on the Days of Awe, the intention is not like people are accustomed to doing, to yell out during the prayer of the 'eighteen benedictions' (shmoneh esreh). About this it has been said, 'She raised her voice against Me.' Rather the essence is that the heart should cry to God out loud and that one should raise his heart to God. And [the Shulchan Arukh] said [further], "and we are not concerned about causing himself to err" - meaning that he will certainly not cause himself to err in the thing - "since they have a machzor (prayer book) in their hand." That is to say that everyone brings themselves back (machzirim) to God and prays. The essence is that He comes back to being the King over all of the world and that His mercy appear in the world, so that His name be known throughout the world. And through that, He will impact with the holy bounty of children, life, sustenance and all that is good upon us and upon all who seek refuge in Him. Amen.