16 Sep A NIGHT TO REMEMBER: ON THE ESSENCE OF ROSH HASHANAH

“Coronation Night” –
that is how one of the
great spiritual masters
would define the
night of Rosh
Hashanah.
In a 1974 sermon,
Rabbi Yosef Dov
Soleveitchik (1903-1993), one of the great
Jewish thinkers of the last century, related that
when he was a young child learning in cheder,
in the Russian village of Chaslavitch, in the
days preceding Rosh Hashanah, he could
recognize in his teacher an extraordinary
sense of trepidation.
“Our teacher, who was a Chabad Chassid, said
to us: ‘Do you know what Rosh Hashanah is?
The Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek would call
the night of Rosh Hashanah – ‘Karanatzia
Nacht’ (‘Coronation Night’).
“Do you know whom we will be coronating?”
the teacher asked the children.
The young Soleveitchik prodigy responded in
jest: “Nicholas”. (This was a number of years
before the 1917 Russian Revolution, when
Nicholas still served as the Russian czar).
And the poor teacher of Chaslavitch
responded: “Nicholas? He was coronated
years ago, why do we need to coronate him
again? Besides, he?! He is not a real king…”

“Tonight, my dear children, we coronate G-d;
we place a crown on G-d…
“And do you know who places the crown?”
The teacher continued. “Yankel the Tailor,

Berel the Shoemaker, Zalman the water-
carrier, Yossel the painter, Dovid the

butcher…”
Rabbi Soloveitchik concluded: Over the years
I have given many sermons and written many
discourses on the concept of Rosh Hashanah,
but nothing ever made me feel the true depth
and power of the day as the words of my
childhood teacher. Every year, when I recite in
the Rosh Hashanah prayers the words, ‘Rule
over the whole world in Your glory,’ I
remember my teacher in Chaslavitch.
The Essence
How much of Judaism is compressed in this
brief conversation between teacher and
students? In a few words, a poverty-stricken
Jewish teacher in a small shtetl in Russia gave
his seven-year-old students the core, the
essence, the very marrow of Jewish existence,
of Jewish thought.
Now he needed not explain to them why they
should marry Jewish girls, continue living as
Jews, be proud of their Jewishness, as so
many teachers and educators today. It was
more than obvious: Who would want to miss
out on the opportunity of coronating G-d…

Why Bother?
But why does G-d need us to coronate Him? If
G-d created us, does He really need us to
declare Him king; He is the boss regardless?
And what does it mean that G-d is our king
Imagine you assemble 1,000,000 ants and
declare yourself king over them. When 50,000
of them then turn left instead of right, you kill
them in a single instance. Does that make you
king over them? G-d gave us our entire
existence; our entire being and life force are
from Him. Relative to Him we are far smaller
and far less significant than an ant in the
presence of a human. Can He then said to be
our king? Is that not an insult for Him?
Yet here lay one of the great and daring ideas
of Judaism. G-d, the perfect endless one,
desired to be king not through power or by the
dictates of nature. He desired to be chosen as
king; He wanted a relationship with someone
distinct of Him who would freely choose to
construct a bond with G-d.
So an infinite, omnipotent G-d suspends His
infinity, suppresses His endlessness and
concealed His omnipotence, in order to allow

space for an intelligent, independent and self-
oriented human being who is then capable of

choosing G-d as his or her king.

The Night
This, the spiritual masters explained, is the
meaning of Rosh Hashanah, the day when the
first human was created. It is the day when
small, frail, vulnerable and lowly human
beings invite G-d to serve as their King.
G-d could place His own crown on His head,
but then He would be a dictator, not a king; the
relationship would be coerced not chosen. So
G-d waits all year for this great moment for
which the entire universe was created – the
moment when you and I coronate Him as our
king.
Rosh Hashanah is the most moving day in the
Jewish calendar. More than any other day, it
embodies the meaning of human existence
and the vulnerability of a G-d who linked His
fate to man’s.
Happy Coronation Night.