It’s scary, but it’s safe. These words have a deep meaning for my wife and myself. We lived in Maalot Dafna, Yerushalayim for the first six years after we got married, a few decades ago. One night, in the month of Elul, a terrorist planted a bomb underneath the gas tank of a tractor trailer that was parked a few buildings away from our apartment. The bomb was scheduled to detonate as people were walking early in the morning to daven Selichot. Miraculously, it detonated a half hour before Selichot! The sound was frightening, but the gas tank remained intact and only a few windows were broken.
Our neighborhood consisted mostly of young American couples who were part of the Mir Yeshiva, so you can imagine all the phone calls coming in from America, with parents pleading for their married children to come back. Amidst all the fears, Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel, rosh yeshiva of Mir Yerushalayim, addressed our community. His words touched our hearts and gave us great encouragement. He quoted the Gemara which tells us that Torah study saves us both when we are studying and even when we are resting. Since our neighborhood dedicated itself to facilitating the learning of Torah full time, “It’s scary but it’s safe.” We and the other American couples stayed in Eretz Yisrael and felt much more at ease.
“It’s scary but it’s safe” is a most appropriate mindset for Rosh Hashanah, the Day of Judgment.
Our very lives and the welfare of our families are determined on this awesome day. As it states in the prayer of Unetaneh Tokef, “On Rosh Hashanah it is written who will live, who will die, who will become wealthy or poor and who will have tranquility or be stressed.” Yet, we are told by the Shulchan Aruch to wear nice clothing and eat festive meals on Rosh Hashanah, because it’s a time of rejoicing! We even find pesukim describing the Day of Judgment as a joyous occasion: “Yismechu hashamayim… yiram hayam—the Heavens will rejoice…as Hashem is coming to judge the world.” But how can one be joyous when one’s entire fate is being determined on this day?
Rav Shimshon Pincus explains that Rosh Hashanah is the day Hashem, with His infinite kindness, created Adam, which was the completion of the creation of the world. Every year on Rosh Hashanah, Hashem showers the world with a tremendous amount of kindness and compassion. Hashem chose to judge the world on the day He relates to us with an abundance of goodness.
I would like to offer an additional explanation regarding this aspect of joy on Rosh Hashanah. When the Jews came back to Jerusalem after the first exile, their adherence to mitzvot was in a very pitiful state. Many Jewish men were married to non-Jewish women! Ezra and Nechemia called an assembly and addressed the nation. It was Rosh Hashanah, and Ezra taught the assembled people various portions of the Torah. The people broke down crying, as they felt such remorse for their wayward actions. Ezra and Nechemia told them not to cry, but to go home and eat a festive meal and drink delicious drinks. They said not to be sad, since Hashem was rejoicing in their renewed commitment.
Why should they be joyous when they were first feeling remorse for their straying from Hashem?
Rosh Hashanah is the day man was created, and on that very same day Adam and Chava sinned by eating from the Eitz haDa’at—the Tree of Knowledge. Yet, on that very same day, Adam and Chava had remorse and asked Hashem for forgiveness— they did teshuva and Hashem judged them favorably. The Ran says this is why Hashem made our judgment day on Rosh Hashanah—because Adam and Chava were judged favorably on this day, it was a precedent for Hashem to judge their children favorably in future generations.
Rosh Hashanah represents a second chance for us. There is reason to be happy, as Hashem wants to accept our teshuva and judge us favorably on this day.
No doubt, Rosh Hashanah is a scary day, but it’s safe if we use it to re-commit to Hashem and His mitzvot. The frightening aspect is the fact that the entire world’s fate is being determined. We need this awe to do some real introspection and commitment to change. We may have faltered in the past year, but a renewed commitment on Rosh Hashana to follow Hashem’s mitzvot assures us that Rosh Hashanah will be a truly happy day.
With teshuva and a re-commitment to Hashem, it’s scary, but it’s safe. May Hashem inscribe us all in the Book of Life for a good, sweet New Year.
