Once again arriving at a new year, we begin the familiar movements inwards and outwards. We ask ourselves how we would like to improve as Jews, and we ask Hashem to forgive us for our past transgressions and let us continue to serve him for another year. We have so much to worry about, both personally—our families, our livelihoods, our connection to God—and as a nation—with antisemitism seemingly coming from all directions and unprecedented turmoil in Israel. But what does Hashem want at this time?
One mitzvah on which we should reflect on Rosh Hashanah is Kiddush Hashem, the sanctification of God’s name. When we tell our children to behave properly in public, our regular refrain is to “make a Kiddush Hashem” by acting with courtesy and respect. However, properly, this conduct is really increasing ahavat Hashem, or love of God, in this world. As Yoma 86a explains the second verse of Shema: “You shall love the Lord your God—the name of God should be beloved due to you, as people will see that someone who learns and supports Torah is also honest in business and speaks nicely with people, and people will connect Torah observance with upstanding behavior.” Treating people with derech eretz, common courtesy while publicly declaring our Judaism certainly demonstrates the greatness of Torah and its Giver, but does not reach the level of Kiddush Hashem.
In order to better understand Kiddush Hashem, perhaps it’s easier to start with the definition of its antonym, Hillul Hashem, the desecration of God’s name. As the Aruch Hashulchan explains in his introduction to Kaddish (OH 55:1):
Kaddish is the great and awesome praise that the leaders of the great assembly established after the Hillul Hashem of the destruction of the First Temple, the destruction of the land and the disbursement of Israel to the four corners of the earth. Therefore, we pray that his name will be made great and be sanctified…
Hillul Hashem occurs when God’s greatness is absent from the world due to the Jewish people’s inability to fully worship Hashem, specifically in the Beit Hamikdash. With Hillul Hashem, the rest of the world is unaware of God’s greatness. Accordingly, Kiddush Hashem is when God’s chosen people can proudly proclaim his greatness in public, which will then bring the nations closer to Him. In our recent history, both Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik and Rav Yehuda Amital contrasted the Hillul Hashem that resulted from the destruction of the Jewish people in the Holocaust with the incredible Kiddush Hashem of the founding of the State of Israel, where the Jewish people could build an independent nation where we are free to live a life according to God’s Torah.
Our prayers on Rosh Hashanah uniquely place the worldwide impact of Kiddush Hashem at its center. We expand the daily declaration of God’s holiness to envision a world where the non-Jews turn away from their sins and see the Jewish people have honor and the freedom to praise God publicly and loudly. Every time we proclaim the sanctity of this day, we ask again and again that Hashem restore His glory to the world precisely so that the entire world—Jews and non-Jews alike, “every creature that has a soul”—recognizes Him as Creator and King. We conclude each prayer proclaiming God as King—not just of the Jewish people, but of the entire world.
This theme continues through the Musaf prayer, where each of the three central brachot pivots to a plea that God’s greatness is restored. In the Malchuyot/Kingship prayers, proclaiming God as our King is insufficient—we pray that all nations serve him. In Zichronot/Remembrances, asking God to remember the Jewish people is insufficient—we declare that God judges all nations on this day and pray that God remembers Noach, the father of all humanity, and bless all of his progeny. In Shofarot/Soundings, it is insufficient to only recall the shofar at the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people on Mount Sinai—we pray that all who have breath will praise God and that all nations will hear the shofar and recognize Him.
However, after all of this focus on all nations, for what reason should God specifically save us, the Jewish people? The answer is found in the culmination of Unetaneh Tokef prayer. After acknowledging that God has the power of life and death in His hands, after proclaiming that repentance, prayer and charity can merit us another year, what is our final prayer to Hashem? “Act for the sake of Your name, and sanctify Your name through those who sanctity Your name.” We ask that God save us so that we have the ability in the next year to sanctify his name further, as God has “called us by Your name.” The Jewish people are His messengers of Kiddush Hashem on Earth, and it is the Jewish people’s continued survival that allows for the possibility of Kiddush Hashem.
This year, as we ask God for health and success for ourselves and our families, let us commit to using these gifts to demonstrate God’s continued presence in this world by publicly observing his Torah, both in our personal lives and through the rebuilding of the Beit Hamikdash, the ultimate Kiddush Hashem.
Hesh Luber lives in Teaneck with his wife and children. He thanks his daughter Devorah for all of her insights in preparing this article.
