Rabbenu Nissim (known as the Ran), one of the early commentators of the Talmud, tells us that the history of Rosh Hashanah dates back to the creation of man. He explains that the first day of creation was the 25th of Elul, such that the sixth and final day of creation, when Adam and Havah were created, was Rosh Hashanah.
And it was on that same day, the Ran writes, that Hashem commanded Adam and Havah not to eat the fruit of the forbidden tree. Just two hours later, they ate from the tree. They repented, and Hashem accepted their repentance, allowing them to continue living. Already on that day, Rosh Hashanah was designated as the day of judgment, because this was the day when Adam and Havah were judged and acquitted.
This early history of Rosh Hashanah sheds a great deal of light on the essence of this day, and what is expected of us as we prepare for it.
The Torah in Parashat Bereshit tells that after Adam and Havah ate from the forbidden tree, they were very embarrassed, and they hid. Hashem called out to them and asked, “Ayekah” – “Where are you”?
What kind of question was Hashem asking? He knows everything; certainly, he knew where Adam and Havah were hiding.
This question was posed to the Ba’al Ha’Tanya (the first Lubavitcher Rebbe) while he was in a Russian prison, by one of the officers. He answered that Hashem was not asking Adam and Havah to inform Him of there whereabouts. Rather, He was asking them the most important question any person was ever asked: “What happened to you?! How did you end up here?! How did you stray so far from where you were supposed to be? What are you doing here?!”
Most of us have probably had the experience of meeting somebody whom we haven’t seen in many years, and being dismayed by seeing how and where they ended up. We think to ourselves: what happened to this person? He had so much promise, so much potential! How did he end up here?
These are the uncomfortable questions that we need to ask ourselves this time of year. We need to compare where we are with where we’re supposed to be. We need to identify where we went wrong, why we aren’t living our lives the way we should.
The Gemara in several places cites the following teaching: כיון שעבר אדם עבירה ושנה בה הותרה לו – “One a person committed a sin and repeated it, it has become permissible for him.” This means, as the Gemara proceeds to explain, that once a person has made something into a habit, in his mind it becomes the right thing to do. We might call this the “rightness disease.” It’s a condition we all have – assuming that everything we do must, by definition, be correct. We like to believe that if we act a certain way, then it has to be right.
Elul and the Yamim Noraim is the time for us to recover from this destructive disease, and to stop assuming that everything we do is right. It’s very uncomfortable to admit that we do things wrong, that some of our habits and routines are against the Torah, but this is what we need to do in order to grow.
When we hear the sound of the shofar, we have to imagine that we are Adam and Havah hearing Hashem’s voice in Gan Eden, asking us, “Ayekah” – “Where are you?! Stop thinking that everything you do is correct. Stop pretending. Take a good honest look at where you are, and at where you’re supposed to be.”
Let us hear this voice, and use this season as a precious opportunity to reconsider our habits, our routines and our lifestyle, so during this coming year we will be much better people and better servants of Hashem than we were this past year.