Who Blesses the New Year?
The divine energies that are generated on any given Holiday are dependent on our actions to make them more revealed and pronounced. When there is no prior announcement on our part on the Sabbath before Rosh Hashanah, the spiritual energies that are in effect on Rosh Hashanah remain so subtle, that the Satan does not realize that Rosh Hashanah is coming. The spiritual energies of Rosh Hashanah are very subtle and only we the Jewish people are aware of it, not the Satan. LIGHT FORM THE FUTURE – PARSHAS NITZAVIM-VAYEILECH LIGHT FORM THE FUTURE – PARSHAS NITZAVIM-VAYEILECH
Source of All Blessings
Every Jewish month is prefaced by a Sabbath known as Shabbos Mevarchim, the Sabbath that blesses the new month. At that time, a special prayer-blessing is recited, that blesses the new month.
The reason for this tradition is that Shabbos is the source of all blessings, and every Shabbos bestows blessing on the forthcoming week. The Shabbos before the new month, bestows a special measure of blessing on the entire month. The Shabbos before a wedding is the Aufruf, or the time when the bridegroom is called up to the Torah, because, both the Shabbos and Torah are the source of all blessing.
It would follow then, that the special month of Tishrei, the beginning of the New Year, would certainly want to be blessed on the Shabbos before. Yet, the custom is that we do not bless the new month of Tishrei on the preceding LIGHT FORM THE FUTURE – PARSHAS NITZAVIM-VAYEILECH Shabbos. This omission begs for an explanation. There are several reasons for this anomaly.
Confusing the Satan
One of the reasons offered by a student of Rashi (Machzor Vitri) is that there is a desire on our part to confuse the Satan – the prosecuting angel – who waits for Rosh Hashanah to present all of our transgressions before the heavenly courts. If we do not publicly announce the upcoming month and its Holidays in Synagogue, the Satan won’t know on which day Rosh Hashanah falls.
To better understand this explanation, it should be noted that the Satan – contrary to misconceptions about Satan that have their roots in non-Jewish sources – is a spiritual agent – an angel like any other – whose sorry (albeit G-d given) job happens to be to dole out judgement and serve as an obstacle for the Jewish people. As such, the Satan is attuned with the spiritual energies that are generated at certain times of the year similar to all angels. It would then be natural for the Satan to sense when Rosh Hashanah occurs. However, the divine energies that are generated on any given Holiday are dependent on our actions to make them more revealed and pronounced. When there is no prior announcement on our part on the LIGHT FORM THE FUTURE – PARSHAS NITZAVIM-VAYEILECH Sabbath before Rosh Hashanah, the spiritual energies that are in effect on Rosh Hashanah remain so subtle, that the Satan does not realize that Rosh Hashanah is coming. Rosh Hashanah is therefore described in the book of Psalms as the festival that is “b’keseh” which means concealed. This means that the spiritual energies of Rosh Hashanah are very subtle and only we the Jewish people are aware of it, not the Satan.
G-d’s Blessing
The Ba’al Shem Tov – the founder of the Chassidic movement, whose birthday we just celebrated on the 18th of Elul – gave the following explanation s to why we do not bless the month of Tishrei:.
“The seventh month (Tishrei), first of the months of the year, is blessed by G-d Himself, on Shabbos Mevarchim – the last Shabbos in the month of Elul. With this power (i.e.: the power of G-d’s blessing of the seventh month) Israel blesses the other months eleven times a year.”
The Ba’al Shem Tov adds that the content of G-d’s blessing is encapsulated in the opening statement of this week’s Torah portion of Netzavim: `Atem nitzavim hayom, You stand this day’ This day refers to Rosh Hashanah, the day LIGHT FORM THE FUTURE – PARSHAS NITZAVIM-VAYEILECH of Judgment … Yet you remain standing firmly upright, meaning – you will be vindicated in judgment.
On the Shabbos preceding Rosh Hashanah, we read the parsha of Atem Nitzavim, which is G-d’s blessing on the Shabbos-of-blessing of the seventh month. That seventh month (Tishrei) is itself sated – and in turn satiates all Israel – with an abundance of good for the duration of the (coming) year.”
Underlying these words of the Ba’al Shem Tov is the notion that the means to achieving G-d’s blessing for the new year, is Jewish unity. Thus, in the verse that speaks of our standing firmly, it continues, “all of you, before G-d your G-d, your heads, your tribes, your elders…and thy stranger that is in the midst of thy camp, from the hewer of wood unto the drawer of thy water..”
By listing all these different categories of Jews from the most prominent and influential to the (seemingly) least important, the implication is clear: The way to guarantee our victory in G-d’s judgment is through the realization that all classes of Jews are inextricably bound together and form one organic unit.
As we stand together with the realization that all of our differences unite to form one complete Jewish nation, G-d will certainly give us a year that will be characterized by LIGHT FORM THE FUTURE – PARSHAS NITZAVIM-VAYEILECH unity and harmony. Indeed, this unity will make us even more receptive to the ultimate blessing and victory in judgment – the true and complete Redemption, by our righteous Moshiach LIGHT FORM THE FUTURE – PARSHAS NITZAVIM-VAYEILECH
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Nitzavim by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
