Shalom Aleichem Rabbosai. Religious life is often characterized by paradox. Rosh Hashanah provides a very striking example of that. On the one hand, Rosh Hashanah is a Yom Hadin, מי יחיה ומי ימות, and yet on the other hand, according to some of the Geonim, according to the Rambam, there's a Mitzvas Simcha on Rosh Hashanah. It's certainly paradoxical. That combination of Din and Simcha is profoundly paradoxical. At first glance, the way we would describe the paradox or formulate the paradox is that somehow or other, despite Din, אף על פי כן, nevertheless, there is a Mitzvas Simcha. And yet, upon reflection, that's not a correct understanding. The Mishnah in Rosh Hashanah tells us that Pesach is nidon al hatvuah, baAtzeres, Shavuos, נידון על פירות האילן, and beChag, Sukkos, is nidon al hamayim. So what emerges is that mideOraisa, there's never a day of Simcha which isn't linked to Din. The Shalosh Regalim that we associate with Mitzvas Simcha, v'samachta bechagecha, each one of the Shalosh Regalim is a Yom Hadin. So it's not the case sort of that Rosh Hashanah as a Yom Tov and Rosh Hashanah as a Yom Hadin sort of combine and because of that the Simcha and Din coexist. No, Simcha and Din are always wedded. They're always combined, they're always juxtaposed. So apparently the pshat is not that there's Simcha despite Din. Apparently the pshat is that there's Simcha because of Din. How do we understand that? On many levels, but let's try briefly to understand two. Din in the world represents a hisgalus. We're familiar, באשרי העם שהקדוש ברוך הוא עושה דין, so yishmo yiskadesh. The emes of Din, the projection of yosher, is a hisgalus of kavod shamayim. And that is the occasion, not an occasion, not an occasion par excellence, but that is the occasion for Simcha. Be'emes, we say the pasuk all the time. Bemes, we say the psukim all the time. Havu lashem, we say in from Pesukei D'Zimrah: Pitzchu ve'ranenu u'zammeru. Sing, Ranenu u'zammeru. Zamru lashem be'chinnor, be'chinnor ve'kol zimrah, instrumentation, vocal, בחצוצרות וקול שופר הריעו לפני המלך השם. Yiram hayam u'mlo'o, Tevel ve'yoshvei vah, Neharos yimcha'u chaf. Metaphorically, the rivers are clapping to the beat, clapping in rhythm. Yachad harim yerannenu, all the mountain chains join in the song, in the celebration. What's the tremendous, what's the occasion for the tremendous celebration? לפני השם כי בא לשפוט הארץ. Din by definition means that the Melech is present. The Din, the imposition of Din, the imposition of what's right is a projection of Kvod shamayim and that Hisgalus is the occasion for Simcha. On this level, the Simcha of Rosh Hashanah is a selfless Simcha. It means that we're called upon to not define Rosh Hashanah so narrowly and parochially in terms of what's going to be with me. We're called upon to focus on what Rosh Hashanah represents within the Beriah. But when you think about it, Rabbosai, A: isn't that always the definition of what genuine Simcha is? Something selfless. And B: isn't that the ultimate definition of Malchiyos, that it's not about me? So a person can rejoice in the Malchiyos, he can rejoice in Din, and in so doing, the person is transcending that self-centeredness which all too often the rest of the year defines our existence. And that's one element of the Avodah of Rosh Hashanah. One element of Malchiyos is that it's not about me. I have my obligations, I have my Shibbudim, I'm Kofuf to the Ribbono Shel Olam, but it's not about me. But there is another level on which this combination, this symbiosis of Din and Simcha should be understood. משל למה הדבר דומה. Say you have a child, maybe he's already, maybe he's still elementary school age, maybe he's older, maybe he's a teenager or an adolescent, and one thing leads to another and there's been a downward spiral. Maybe he's fallen in with a wrong crowd, Rachmana litzlan, maybe it's drug use. And then his father, he becomes aware that his father is aware what's going on. And his father tells him, 'Tomorrow, we're going to sit down and we're going to have a talk.' What's happening internally if a CAT scan could show us the range of turbulent emotions, what would it reveal about what's going on inside this boy's head? We'd see thoughts and a thought pattern consistent and reflective of someone who's zittering, someone who's quaking in his boots. He's scared. He's being held accountable. It's pachad. He's scared. But somehow when we would look at that CAT scan, it wouldn't be so monolithic. Somehow or other it would also show that he's looking forward to it, that he's embracing this meeting, this sit-down he's going to have, because as much as he's afraid of being held accountable, he also knows that in his father holding him accountable, it's going to press the reset button for him. Maybe the entire reset process due to the combination of his preparation for the meeting and the actual meeting, or maybe he's going to walk away with a blueprint, a path of how to start anew. So there's going to be a very unique mixture in terms of what his feelings are. On the one hand he's going to be held accountable for things that he cannot defend, things that are indefensible. And there's a stern side to his father; there's a side to the father who's a disciplinarian. And yet m'idach gisa, he's looking forward to it because on some level he recognizes that he's been lost. On some level he recognizes that he's lost his way and that he needs to reset. And as difficult as the sit-down with his father is, he also realizes that that's what's going to press the reset button. He's gearing up for that sit-down; the experience of that sit-down has the potential to press the reset button for him. And he knows that that's something that otherwise isn't going to happen but will happen because he's preparing himself for that sit-down, for what he's going to say, for what commitments he's going to make, for the page he's going to turn. And he knows that although his father has a stern, strict side of a disciplinarian, simultaneously there's a loving, benevolent side which really defines that first side, that's looking not for retribution rachmana l'tzlan and not for punishment rachmana l'tzlan, but to help him. The prospect of being omeid badin מי יחיה מי ימות is a terrifying prospect, and yet simultaneously, knowing that we have to stand before Hakadosh Baruch Hu, we realize that that galvanizes us in a way that otherwise we wouldn't be. And we realize that the combination of the preparation for the Yom HaDin with the experience of the actual Yom HaDin is what we really need to be able to reset and redirect ourselves and refocus and reprioritize, which is why we tremble and we rejoice. And that's the avoda and the opportunity of a Rosh Hashanah, of a Yom HaDin. The Ribbono Shel Olam should help that we should all be able to experience Rosh Hashanah in its richness, in its fullness, to experience the eima v'pachad of the Yom HaDin, but an eima v'pachad which generates a simcha, generates a selfless simcha, but also a selfish simcha. And that we should bizocheh that our tefillos should be niskablos and to be inscribed with לכתיבה וחתימה טובה לשנת חיים ושלום שנת ישועה ונחמה בריאות הגוף ומנוחת הנפש.
Kol tuv rabosai.