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Question: Every one else has a great time celebrating their new year. Why do we take ours so seriously? What’s this whole judgment deal? Why all the prayers? Can’t we just party?

Response:

If you would know the drama that’s going on, you would zip out of the wildest party to be there. Imagine the entire universe in reboot. Imagine a mega-surge of creative energy, enough to power the whole of reality for an entire year. Imagine a system loading parameters for every galaxy, star, planet, organism, cell, protein, molecule and atom over a 48 hours period and you’re starting to get the idea. And you? You are adjusting the input at every step.

You see, time doesn’t run smoothly. It’s not just some steady stream, like a train of cars one neatly shlepped after the other. It’s more like a pulse, with each new moment carefully and deliberately articulated through the medium of a cosmic soul that powers all life and existence. Every year, that packet of energy slips back to its primal zero-state. From this point on–the night of Rosh Hashanah–the universe is effectively on life-support. It receives just the juice it needs so that it will not utterly recede back to nothingness.

When the shofar is blown the next day, a new vitality of a higher order than any that preceded it enters time and space. Now get this: Time is also a creation. So time is also renewed. The past now exists as a consequence of the present–something like if you had rebooted in the middle of watching a video and now continued from where you left off. As far as you know, the old past may have been a very different past. But you couldn’t know. All you know is this past that was loaded into the prams at reboot. And since this vital force is a new force on a qualitatively different level than whatever came before, this new past is truly new.

Why the judgment? Well, you can’t just feed anything into the system. The energy source we are discussing is unlimited, but the target system–our reality–has discrete parameters. Rebooting without taking those parameters into account could be like plugging your laptop directly into the 22.5 gigawatt current blasting out of the power plant on the Yangtze. And infinitely worse.

So there’s gotta be an accounting made. Like your laptop, the parameters of the physical universe are set at the core level. In this case that means human consciousness. As far as the Creator is concerned, His entire universe is nothing more than a human observation. All He needs to do then, is to look into the state of that consciousness and accordingly adjust the flow of current.

That’s empowering. Because you see those parameters of human consciousness are dynamic and not determined by the system. They are determined by us. If we open them up, they contain more–and more is given. Tighten them and the conduits of life tighten along with them.

Now comes the vital information: What is open and what is tight? This is kind of counter-intuitive. In the words of the dean of the heavenly academy (cited in the Zohar, an encoded manual for system maintenance), “Big is small and small is big.” Unencrypted: Make yourself big and you can’t contain anything, make yourself small and you can contain the unlimited.

That’s what we are doing on Rosh Hashanah: Making ourselves very small. Expanding our little minds to a state of realization that, hey, there is something bigger than me–and not just elephants. And maybe even, hey, I didn’t make this place. I wouldn’t even know where to begin. It’s totally unprogrammable, undecodable and ungeekly. And here I am, just another artifact of the system observing itself from inside of it. I could be re-scripted or even deleted from the code altogether at the whim of Whoever Is Running This. And now that Whoever is asking me to discuss with Him the plans for the coming reboot.

In a state of utter awe and wonderment, the Reboot finds its most fertile soil.

The Slonimer Rebbe in Nesivos Shalom points out the Medrash that says that the Torah was given with fire, water and in the desert. Fire surrounded Har Sinai, the Torah teachings nourished and revived us like water and all this happened as the Jewish Nation stood in the wilderness.

The metaphor is clear- fire represents serving Hashem with passion, energy and striving upward. It also represents Yir’at Hashem- fear of losing His closeness, awe of His greatness.

Water represents the concept of serving Hashem with love. It also contains the element of humility, since water, as opposed to fire, tends to go from a higher elevation to a lower one.

In the physical world, fire and water are opposites. In the world of the spirit, they don’t cancel each other out, but they complement and complete each other.

These weeks of Sefirat HaOmer were meant to be a time of elevation, of self correction, of preparation for the yearly spiritual adventure of Kabbalat HaTorah, receiving of the Torah. We are beginning the last week of Omer.
So, what if your Sefirat HaOmer has not been a time of growth, of self correction or a time of inspiration? What if you’ve just been concerned with ‘regular’ life, and have not felt an upgrade in your spiritual life?

The Rebbe says that the answer is to go to the third element of Kabbalas HaTorah- the desert. We might not be in awe or in love with Hashem and His Mitzvos right now, but we can be Mevatel ourselves to Hashem and His Mitzvos.

Mevatel means to put your own apparent desires aside when they conflict with Torah. It means to stay committed to the actions of Torah. It means to humble yourself to commit to Torah life, despite the lack of inspiration.

Bitul is about a decision to commit yourself to the Torah. It is about recommitting to thousands of years of Jewish history, to your Land and destiny. Bitul reminds us that the body is the vehicle of the soul, that which allows the soul to manifest and express itself. The body and soul made a pact to serve each other- the soul enlivens the body and the body allows to soul to perform physical actions.

Putting the ego first is the opposite of Bitul. Committing to acting the right way, the Torah way, is the key for any Jew, inspired or not, to receive his or her portion in the Torah on Shavuous.

This is an interesting time in world history. Not a day goes by without some global change. The economy of the world, particularly Europe has been hit. It is not a coincidence that the Icelandic volcano began to disrupt Europe on Yom HaShoah, Holocaust day. It is not a coincidence that Europe is covered in ashes.

The ashes of our brothers and sisters were also scattered by the Europeans just a few decades ago. Hashem is great and His justice is great.

May we see the true and everlasting Geula BeRachamim in these days.