You Are All Standing This Day

Bs”d Rosh Chodesh Elul 5783
Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, Rabbi of the Western Wall and Holy Sites

The month of compassion and selichot begins the year in the midst of the summer vacation. The streets are still filled with students enjoying their summer break, and tourist sites in Israel are packed to capacity. However, through the hustle and bustle, you can already hear the ancient sound of the shofar emanating from the synagogues, calling us to awaken and prepare for the upcoming Rosh Hashanah.
The Babylonian Talmud describes in Tractate Rosh Hashanah, “The Blessed be He said: Say before Me on Rosh Hashanah verses that speak of kingship, remembrances, and the sounding of the shofar. Kingship, so that you will coronate Me over you; remembrances, so that your remembrance will come before Me for good, and with what? With the shofar.”
The blasts of the shofar, first mentioned in the Torah at Mount Sinai during the giving of the Ten Commandments, form the soundtrack accompanying the moment when we once again crown the Blessed be He, our Father and our only King, and He once again embraces our remembrance with love and a favorable eye.
In a special and emotional moment, a few days before his passing, Moses addresses the children of Israel: “You are standing today, all of you, before the Lord your G-d—your tribal leaders, elders, officials, all the men of Israel, your children, your wives, and the foreigners living in your camps, from the woodchopper to the water drawer.” In his words, he addresses those standing before him and all future generations. Everyone is standing in this moment.
The Holy Zohar teaches that whenever the Torah uses the term “standing” (nitzavim), it refers to Rosh Hashanah, the day when we stand before the Blessed be He. The Rosh Hashanah prayers return us to the great covenant moments at the foot of Mount Sinai and in the plains of Moab. It is no coincidence that Moses lists all the participants in this event – from the tribal leaders to the woodchoppers and water drawers, men and women, children, and foreigners. This standing before the Blessed be He is not of an individual but that of an entire congregation, a moment when no one stands alone.
Throughout the trials of history, even under the worst and most wicked regimes, our forefathers and foremothers stood together. They established magnificent institutions of charity and kindness, provided education for all, redeemed captives, and cared for the orphan and the widow. Every individual in the Jewish nation knew that even if they sinned and made mistakes, G-d forbid, on Rosh Hashanah, they could stand together with their brothers and sisters for judgment and, together, their merits would count for them to be inscribed in the Book of Good Life.

This Rosh Hashanah, especially this Rosh Hashanah, we must do everything in our power to stand together as one man with one heart, intermingled with one another, responsible for one another.
We shall count each other’s many merits—especially those who may differ from us on one matter or another. We shall look upon each other with a favorable eye, with kindness and mercy, and we will ask the Judge of all the Earth to gaze upon us, standing together before Him, to look upon us with the same favorable eye, and may we be inscribed and sealed for a good year.