Rosh Hashanah - Parshat Ha'azinu

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By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron

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Returning to the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land

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"Let us now relate the power of this day's holiness, for it is awesome and frightening. On it Your Kingship will be exalted; Your throne will be firmed with kindness and You will sit upon it in truth…On Rosh Hashanah they will be inscribed and on Yom Kippur they will be sealed… And Repentance, Prayer, and Charity avert the severe Decree!"[1] It is on the kindness of God, "Who remembers the kindness of our Forefathers"[2], that we put our trust as we enter the Day of Judgment. Therefore, one of the primary ways of seeking compassion and atonement on this day is connecting to our Holy Land, "altar of atonement" in general, and to Hebron, "City of the Forefathers", in specific. The Holy Land is called an "altar of atonement" by our Sages[3] based on the end of our title quote which ties "His Land" to the concept of "atonement". Similarly, the special link between the Land of Israel and atonement may be seen in a halachic context as well, as in the "offering of atonement for mistaken rulings" offered in the Bait HaMikdash. "The offering for mistaken rulings" ("he-elem davar") pertains to an offering of atonement for mistaken rulings of the Sanhedrin executed by the majority of the people (or tribe) living in the Land of Israel.  While, generally speaking, such an instance in the Diaspora would require each person to give a personal offering of atonement, in the Land of Israel only the Sanhedrin, who delivered such a ruling, is liable to bring one offering for the collective whole.[4] Thus, the "collective whole" and compassion/"atonement" are integrally part of the Land of Israel in general, and of Hebron, 'city of the Patriarchs of kindness' and bastion of 'unity[5]', in specific. Thus, by connecting to Hebron especially at this time, we connect to both spiritual advantages ordained by our sages, both connecting to the collective whole in their prayer and doing so specifically between Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur, which upon both it is said: 'seek HaShem when He is present, call out unto Him when He is near.'[6]

Real Stories from the Holy Land #34: "I had set a specific price with movers who were supposed to move my belongings to a different neighborhood of Kiryat Arba. When we arrived at the destination, the movers wanted to hike up the price another 800 NIS, claiming that we had told him that the truck could arrive next to the doorstep, which was not the case. After arguing a bit, instead of settling for a different price or some other agreement, the mover offered that in 'compensation' he would take my belongings to the first floor only (there are two floors to the house). Originally, we agreed to two floors, but it 'turns out' that the tiler, who was supposed to finish, had not finished the second floor, and we couldn't put things there any way. (The mover of course did not know this)."