Sep 8, 2026 · 7 min · 4 segments
Rosh Hashanah is a serious day, a time of din and mishpat (judgment), when the Holy One, Blessed be He, REMEMBERS and JUDGES each of us. Sounds quite hairy and scary...But it shouldn't be. Because…
Yosef EdelsteinHost
But anyway, so yesterday we talked about some words that are associated with Rosh Hashanah, Chaim, life, melech, king.
And we read together one of the additions for the holiday period, which we say every time we daven or pray the Shemona Esrei, we say, Remember us for life.
And as I alluded to, that can mean, it does mean both physical life in this world Maybe more importantly, spiritual life.
Write me in the book of those who want to be spiritually connected and growing in the year to come.
is something that doesn't, it's a concept that doesn't really, you know, speak to us too much, obviously in the modern era.
So melech haolam, king of the world or universe, really the ruler and director of our lives and of everything in creation.
Now Rosh Hashanah is a day when Hashem, the king, the king of kings, judges us, right? Our oral tradition spells out quite clearly that though it's a new year and that's a time of hope and of happiness and of wanting to connect to life in a deeper way, but it's a day of judgment, din, mishpat, day of judgment.
That's pretty scary to stand in front of, or it can be, right? To stand in front of the king or the president or the magistrate or whoever in judge, even in front of the fourth grade teacher, if you're a fourth grader who was, you know, doodling in class or whatever, that can be kind of scary.
But we have to remember that, yes, Hashem is melech, but He's primarily something else.
It's not what we're going to focus on today, but one of the prayers that is associated with the 10 days of teshuvah is a very famous prayer spoken by Rabbi Akiva, the great sage of the Talmudic period, And it says, blank, our king.
Our father, who is our king, whom we relate to as a king, but he's primarily our father, the one who gave us life, the one who loves us like a parent loves a child.
That makes the judgment of Rosh Hashanah and the whole nature of it much less frightening, I think.
And in fact, the second edition in the Shemona Esrei, in the Amidah, that we add on the 10 days of return, in the second blessing, which talks about the resurrection of the dead, that's one of the themes of the second blessing, which we say every day, three times a day, but the edition for Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, the 10 days, we say, mi chamocha av harachamim, who is like you, Av, Father HaRachamim, merciful.
But anyway, so yesterday we talked about some words that are associated with Rosh Hashanah, Chaim, life, melech, king.
And we read together one of the additions for the holiday period, which we say every time we daven or pray the Shemona Esrei, we say, Remember us for life.
And as I alluded to, that can mean, it does mean both physical life in this world Maybe more importantly, spiritual life.
Write me in the book of those who want to be spiritually connected and growing in the year to come.
is something that doesn't, it's a concept that doesn't really, you know, speak to us too much, obviously in the modern era.
So melech haolam, king of the world or universe, really the ruler and director of our lives and of everything in creation.
Now Rosh Hashanah is a day when Hashem, the king, the king of kings, judges us, right? Our oral tradition spells out quite clearly that though it's a new year and that's a time of hope and of happiness and of wanting to connect to life in a deeper way, but it's a day of judgment, din, mishpat, day of judgment.
That's pretty scary to stand in front of, or it can be, right? To stand in front of the king or the president or the magistrate or whoever in judge, even in front of the fourth grade teacher, if you're a fourth grader who was, you know, doodling in class or whatever, that can be kind of scary.
But we have to remember that, yes, Hashem is melech, but He's primarily something else.
It's not what we're going to focus on today, but one of the prayers that is associated with the 10 days of teshuvah is a very famous prayer spoken by Rabbi Akiva, the great sage of the Talmudic period, And it says, blank, our king.
Our father, who is our king, whom we relate to as a king, but he's primarily our father, the one who gave us life, the one who loves us like a parent loves a child.
That makes the judgment of Rosh Hashanah and the whole nature of it much less frightening, I think.
And in fact, the second edition in the Shemona Esrei, in the Amidah, that we add on the 10 days of return, in the second blessing, which talks about the resurrection of the dead, that's one of the themes of the second blessing, which we say every day, three times a day, but the edition for Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, the 10 days, we say, mi chamocha av harachamim, who is like you, Av, Father HaRachamim, merciful.
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