08 Sep THE NIGHT I CHOOSE TRUST OVER DESPAIR CORONATION NIGHT: 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 (Jewish day school), 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
(disciple), 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 several 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…”
(This was the authentic Jewish internal pride a
poor Jew had in the shtetl, something sorely

lacking in so many successful and affluent
Jews).
“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 the 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 and experience.
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 15,000,000 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 be our king?
Is that not an insult to 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
from Him who would freely choose to construct
a bond with G-d. It is our opportunity
to choose trust, love, and oneness.
So, an infinite, omnipotent G-d suspends His
infinity, suppresses His endlessness, and
conceals His omnipotence, 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.
And where do I coronate Hashem? In those very
spaces where I do not feel His presence, where I
feel so detached, alone, and afraid, in the
intimate spaces of my brain and heart that do not

trust and do not feel infinite oneness with
infinite bliss. That is where G-d “can’t” do the
coronation. He, so to speak, “needs” me to
choose trust and connection. It is in that space
where I feel so separate and anxious that I, and
only I, can coronate Him.
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. May we feel the
presence and love of the Divine in every space
of our heart and life. And as we say in the Rosh
Hashanah prayers, may the entire world
experience their true oneness with the Divine,
and the world will be ONE.