As we enter the month of Elul . I always like to quote from the letter that was hanging in the great Yeshiva of Kelm, throughout the month of Elul. And this is what it says:
It's well known that the Gemara Rosh Hashanah 34B says,“Say in front of God, verses of kingdom on Rosh Hashanah, in order to coronate Him”
And he adds, “If we analyze the strength of a kingdom of flesh and blood, it only works when the servants are united in the service of the king. That’s what keeps the kingdom going.
If there is a breakdown in the unity of the servants of the king, the entire kingdom breaks down, and the world will be destroyed.
As it says in Pirkei Avot (perek 3, Mishan 2 )”If not for the fear of government, man would swallow his friend up alive.”
So if there's a breakdown in government, there's anarchy. The unity of the servants is what keeps the kingdom going.
Rabbenu Tam, in his Sefer Yashar, writes that through the flesh and blood kingdoms, we can understand how to serve God. And if that's the case, we understand that the main point in coronating God upon us has to do with the unity of servants.
As it says in Devarim 33, 5 (and as we say in our Rosh Hashana prayers), God is King amongst the Jewish people (and if the leaders are united then the tribes are united as well).
God knows what's going on in our hearts, as well as what is revealed, equally.
And therefore, before the great judgment day of Rosh Hashanah, we have to accept upon ourselves to involve ourselves the entire year in the positive commandment of VeAhavta LeRe’echa Kamocha.
In that way. there'll be unity among the servants, the kingdom will stand properly, we will cause the strength of the kingdom and God will remember us for the good. But if, heaven forbid, we have the sin of hatred in our hearts, how can we not be embarrassed to lie in front of God- Heaven forbid, and say, “Be King upon the whole world in Your glory,” if we ourselves are not preparing the main fundamental to keep the kingdom going.
Therefore, we should accept upon ourselves, this involvement in loving each other and unity.
Slowly but surely, we will get better at it.
And we’ll be considered someone who is returning and repenting a little bit.
Who could imagine the great merit for us, and the whole world, if there was a group of people involved, the entire upcoming year, in working on this trait .
And a person should not say, “It’s too hard..loving each other is too hard.”
First of all, it's a commandment from God and we have to do it, but it's not as hard as it seems.
If you keep on thinking about it, slowly but surely not only will it not be hard, you're going to enjoy it.
This concept should not be removed from your consciousness the entire year.
And with that, we'll all merit a great year, amongst the rest of the Jewish people.
It’s a good idea to set aside a spot during our prayers, to
think about this every day.
The suggested spot is when we say before our Amida
Al sfat hayam , yahad kulam / On the sea, we, all together, said…
That’s an indication of love and brotherhood.
And we said, “We all made God King upon ourselves.” That means the prerequisite to saying Hashem Yimloch L’Olam Va’ed/ Hashem will be King forever, is only if it's Yachad Kulam/ all together. Without that, it's not really accepting God is king. Therefore, we have to work on this constantly. We should merit, with God's help, to accept upon ourselves God's kingdom in the proper way, with all the Jewish people. Amen
This is the beautiful letter that was hanging on the front door of the Yeshiva of Kelm, to be read by everybody, every single day.
It would be a wonderful idea to print this out and insert it in your prayers every day, when you're thinking about it. That would be a great preparation for the high holidays.