The Sound of a Coronation

Opening Some people come to the Jewish New Year feeling heavy. Very heavy. They know what they did this year. They remember. A voice inside them says: How dare you show your face? Who are you to stand before Him? So they walk into the synagogue feeling that they are about to be judged, and that their case is not a good one. But perhaps this whole idea is the mistake itself. First Step: The Parable of the Coronation The Talmud says it simply. Hashem tells us: “Say before Me the verses of Kingship, so that you will make Me King over you.” This is not the language of a courtroom. It is the language of a ceremony. A coronation. Think of a human king on the day he is crowned. Who comes on that day? Everyone. Even those who fought against him. Even those who disagreed with him. Even those who rebelled against him last year. They all come. They stand in line, and they bow. Why? Because what was, was. Today is today. He is the king now. A true king, on his day of greatness, does not deal with old accounts. He is above them. The event is too great for him to stop over yesterday’s insults. The Bible gives us a living story about this. King David returned to Jerusalem after the revolt of his son Absalom. A man named Shimei son of Gera came out to meet him. This was the same Shimei who had cursed David and thrown stones at him. Avishai son of Zeruiah wanted to put Shimei to death on the spot. But David said: No. Not on this day. On the day a king returns to his throne, his greatness shows in how he rises above the past, not in paying everyone back for what they did. Second Step: The Lesson, the New Year as a Coronation The Jewish New Year is the coronation day of the King of all kings. It is not a day of judgment in the sense of a court going through a case file. It is the day when His kingship is renewed and set up again. As the Bible says: “Hashem rises up amid the trumpet blast; Hashem, with the sound of the ram’s horn.” And here is the turning point. Picture the person standing there on the New Year with a sea of regrets in front of him, a whole year of failures. What is he asked to do? Not to present a defense. Not to list the reasons that might excuse him. He has one job: to show up. To stand there. And to declare: You are the King. This is the very heart of the blessing of Kingship. In the words of the Hasidic discourse, it says: “You are the King.” It is not a plea for mercy. It is a declaration of loyalty. A Word about the Ram’s Horn What is the sound of the ram’s horn really about? Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, author of the Tanya, explains in his book Likkutei Torah that the blast of the horn is tied to the idea of Kingship. It is the sound that announces that the King is rising to His throne. It is a royal fanfare, not only a cry of regret. As the verse says, “Hashem rises up amid the trumpet blast.” Rising up, appearing, His kingship revealed. So the sound of the ram’s horn is not a sound of “Forgive me.” It is a sound of “You are King.” These are two completely different things. Closing: Forgiveness Is Not the Goal, It Is the Result And here is the new idea that sets you free. Forgiveness on the New Year is not something you have to achieve, or earn, or buy with enough begging. It comes on its own, as a result of the act of crowning the King. When you make Him King, the past loses its weight. Not because it was erased, but because it is no longer the subject on the table. The subject is His kingship. And when His kingship is present, everything else falls into place from there. Rabbi Schneur Zalman writes in his Letter on Returning to Hashem, part of the Tanya, that there are different levels in the wiping away of sins. One of them comes precisely through the revealing of a higher light. By its very presence, that light makes the opposing forces of darkness fade into nothing. Not a cleaning away, but a dissolving into nothing. That is what happens on the day of the coronation. So come to the New Year. Not as someone accused, arriving for a hearing. Come as a loyal subject who has come to proclaim his King. Forget for a moment your own “I” and all its accounts. Stand there. Blow the horn. The King.

Concepts: sukkos