The First Station On The Path To Correction—Rosh HaShanah

The holidays that come with the beginning of the Jewish New Year symbolize a person’s entrance to spiritual work. The truth is that this entrance starts much earlier, during the period of preparation. Therefore, the month of Elul means “I am for my beloved, and my beloved is for me.” That is, a person begins discovering that he has a connection with the Creator.

When a person begins studying Kabbalah, after a few years, he discovers that he experiences ascents and descents in his mood, understanding, and the perception of the texts. Then, after some time, he realizes that spirituality really can be attained only through connection; that is, he starts believing in what he is reading about, he connects to the material.

He understands that there is no choice, he needs to join a group for practical work. After all, it is not enough to speak about it with nice words, he should open his heart and awaken his feelings. This is necessary for his spiritual advancement, feeling, and realization of life. He does not want his life to pass between his birth and death and to end meaninglessly; he wants to rise above it and continue living. Then he understands that he must correct himself, acquire the force of bestowal above the force of reception. The realization of the need for inner change is the beginning of the month of Elul.

Elul is the month of self-analysis: what can I do with my soul to begin approaching the first contact with the Creator. I wait for revelation of the upper force not in order to enjoy it, but in order to surrender to it.

Let my egoism surrender and allow me to become a servant of the Creator. I will be happy to give myself to the rule of the upper Light and to feel its perfection, eternity, and greatness. My desire to enjoy is ready to submit before such revelation, to lower itself, and give itself to the rule of the upper force.

This is how we reach the New Year, Rosh HaShanah, the essence of which is to crown the Creator to be the King of the entire world. The upper force is at the beginning of everything, at the end, and in the middle, governing everything without exception. All we need is to feel ourselves under the control of the upper force, like slaves of the Creator, His faithful servants: to receive faith above reason, the force of bestowal above the force of reception, and to begin to work on our desire with its help.

All this work relates to the holiday of Rosh HaShanah—the first station on the way to the correction of creation.¹

In fact, a person’s whole life can fit into a segment from the New Year, Rosh HaShanah, until the next New Year. It does not matter which properties he was born with, good or bad, the main thing is their change, and this is in his power. Together with certain qualities, he receives opportunities to use them correctly. The goal is for all to reach equivalence with the upper force.

Therefore, there are no absolute righteous or wicked among us. Everything can be changed, everyone has the freedom to choose. No one can complain that he was not given an opportunity to correct himself and to become closer to the Creator— he just did not use it correctly.

To be a righteous or a wicked does not depend on intelligence. It is possible to be smart and wicked, or foolish and righteous. Spiritual work does not require any exceptional abilities. The main thing is not to miss the chance given to you to awaken and to follow this path all your life with persistent consistency—then you will succeed.

Rosh HaShanah means that a person clings to the first point of connection with the upper system, with the Creator, and he never lets go. After all, in all his life, there will be no other point of connection between him and the upper world.²

Natural qualities are given to a person according to his place in the common soul of Adam HaRishon so that he could perform his function. From his point, from one cell of the body of Adam HaRishon, through connection with others, he reaches the understanding of the entire common body, of this entire system in its perfection.

Therefore, there is no sense in changing your base point, the spiritual “stem cell.” If a person connects to the system, then all of it is placed at his disposal according to his place.

The righteous and the wicked exist within one person. The Torah speaks about one person only and everything else is an imaginary world. Thus, all the righteous and all the wicked, all the impure forces and the sanctity, the whole system is inside a person. We just need to figure out this system and calibrate it to the target.³

Rosh HaShanah is the revelation of the perfection and the force of the Creator, of his complete governance: “I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God besides Me.” This is how a person imagines the King of the world, and his spiritual path starts from there. After all, this is just a potential revelation. Then he needs to develop it by identifying himself with each quality and with each individual revelation of the Creator, and gradually, starting from Rosh HaShanah and onward, he should acquire the full degree of the Creator.

Rosh HaShanah is just the first contact with the upper force, the first attainment of the King of the world, the realization that the Creator governs everything. We have no way of interfering with Him or changing anything; we can only agree with His plan. All changes occur only within a person.

The Creator does not change His governance relative to us, but we ask for such a change that makes us feel how the governance of the Creator changes, becomes kinder.

But really I am changing, not the Creator. There are no changes at the top. The upper Light is just increasingly revealed to the created beings so that they will attain Him in all His depth.⁴
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/21/18, Lesson on the Topic: “Rosh HaShana”