The Mishna in Masechet Rosh Hashanah teaches that on Rosh Hashanah, כל באי העולם עוברין לפניו כבני מרון – all people in the world pass before Hashem like בני מרון. The Gemara presents three possibilities as to what this refers to.
· The first explanation is that בני מרון are sheep passing through the door to the corral as they are counted. The door had enough space for one sheep to pass at a time. We, too, come before Hashem one-by-one for judgment.
· The second interpretation is that בני מרון refers to people climbing a certain steep mountain. As they near the mountaintop, the path is very narrow, with room for only one person at a time, because if two people climb side-by-side, there is a chance that one of them might fall off.
· The third understanding is that בני מרון refers to the soldiers in King David’s army, who go out to war single-file.
The obvious question is, why do we need three different explanations? All three point in the same direction – that on Rosh Hashanah, we are each judged by Hashem individually, one at a time. Why does the Gemara give us three different analogies?
The Avodat David commentary explains that the Gemara is describing the different ways in which different people approach the judgment of Rosh Hashanah.
On the lowest level stand those who go through this time of year mindlessly, like sheep. They don’t think about it at all, either because they are not aware that they are being judged, or because they prefer to ignore it. Like sheep being counted without understanding what is happening, these people are judged without even thinking about the fact that they are being judged.
The higher level is the experience of those who approach this time of year with fear, like people climbing a dangerously steep mountain. These people are really frightened, and feel very uneasy and uncomfortable with what is happening.
The Gemara is teaching us that while this experience of fear certainly has value, it is not the highest level.
The preferred way to approach this time of year is like the soldiers in the king’s army. They know there is danger, they know what might happen, but their primary emotion is not fear, but pride. They feel pride going to the battlefield to represent their king and their nation, to defend their people. Their feelings of fear are overwhelmed by their feelings of pride.
This should be our mindset as we head into the Yamim Noraim (High Holidays). We should feel proud of our royal stature, that we are Hashem’s soldiers, that we are part of the “royal family.”
Rosh Hashanah is the time when we reaffirm our membership in this family. Certainly, this can be scary, because with royalty comes great responsibility. As people of royalty, we are held to a stricter standard than others, we have more rules and regulations to follow. But we would never give up this stature for anything. We understand the great privilege that we have to be part of Hashem’s “royal family.”
The Gemara comments that we add an additional set of shofar blasts on Rosh Hashanah כדי לערבב את השטן – “in order to confound the Satan.” Tosafot explains this to mean that when the Satan hears the additional shofar sounds, it assumes that Mashiah has come, and it is thus overcome by fear, knowing that it will meet its demise at the time of the Jewish People’s final redemption. Later commentaries note that year after year, for centuries, we’ve been blowing the extra shofar sounds, and Mashiah still hasn’t come. Yet, each and every time, Satan is still afraid that this year might be different, that this might be the year of Mashiah. The reason, the Rabbis explain, is because Satan knows more than we do just how special we are, and how close we are to our redemption.
As we prepare for Rosh Hashanah, we need to remind ourselves of our royal stature, of what it means that we are part of Hashem’s “royal family,” that we are special. This is a time not only for fear, but, mainly, for pride. We should take pride in ourselves and in Am Yisrael, and recommit ourselves to embrace our royalty and reaffirm our commitment to live the way Hashem’s “soldiers” are expected to live.