In perek ל of Parashat Netzavim, which we read the week before Rosh Hashana, Hashem tells us
הַעִידֹ֨תִי בָכֶ֣ם הַיּוֹם֮ אֶת־הַשָּׁמַ֣יִם וְאֶת־הָאָרֶץ֒
I am warning you by thr heaven and the earth
הַחַיִּ֤ים וְהַמָּ֙וֶת֙ נָתַ֣תִּי לְפָנֶ֔יךָ
I am putting in front of you life and death
הַבְּרָכָ֖ה וְהַקְּלָלָ֑ה
Blessings and curses
וּבָֽחַרְתָּ֙ בַּֽחַיִּ֔ים
Choose life.
Rashi says that G-d is like a father that wants the best for his son and so says, Please, make the right choice
לְמַ֥עַן תִּחְיֶ֖ה אַתָּ֥ה וְזַרְעֶֽךָ
That you and your offspring should live
לְאַֽהֲבָה֙ אֶת־ ה׳ אלקיך
Love Hashem you G-d
לִשְׁמֹ֥עַ בְּקֹל֖וֹ וּלְדָבְקָה־ב֑וֹ
Listen to His voice and cleave to Him
כִּ֣י ה֤וּא חַיֶּ֙יךָ֙ וְאֹ֣רֶךְ יָמֶ֔יךָ לָשֶׁ֣בֶת עַל־הָאֲדָמָ֗ה
Because that will give you long life to dwell on the land
Meaning- choose life, love Hashem and cleave to Him. That is your life.
The Sforno says
ולדבקה בו שתהיינה כל פעולותיך לשמו:
That this is regarding whatever you do, (not just Mitzvot), it should be for His name. Hashem should be on your mind.
כי הוא חייך כי הדבוק בו הוא סבת החיי' הנצחיים:
What will your life be? Cleaving to Him is the source for ever-lasting life.
When life and death is mentioned the Torah, it does not only mean life and death in this world, it means spiritual life. A person is spiritually alive forever. We are spiritually alive here, and that spirituality continues on forever. Like it says, “The Sadik, even when he’s dead he’s alive, and the Rasha, when he’s alive, is called dead.” Because alive and dead are both spiritual. How do we measure life and death spiritually?
We ask ourselves, “Am I connected and cleaving to G-d?”
That is why, as the Meshech Hochmah says, Bitachon is Diveykut/ Cleaving.
A person that relies on Hashem is connecting to G-d. And that connection is life. As it says,
צדיק באמונתו יחיה
The righteous man lives with his emunah. This means he is spiritually alive. Our emunah and bitachon are our lifeline.
Of course, we need Torah and mitzvot, because if you’re a believer, obviously you’re connected, so you’re doing those things. But our point today is that “life” means that you’re connected to Hashem. That will give you everlasting life and
וְאֹ֣רֶךְ יָמֶ֔יךָ לָשֶׁ֣בֶת עַל־הָאֲדָמָ֗ה
Long life to dwell on the land, in this world as well
This is what Hashem wants from us.
When we say, “Give us life,” which is our main request on Rosh Hashana, the Pele Yoetz says we want life in this world because that is what gets us life in the next world. Our goal is to be spiritually alive, and excited to engage in spirituality. Bitachon is a large portion of that.
Bitachon is Diveykut. Therefore, when we work on bitachon all year, we are really working on living; being spiritually alive, with Hashem in our minds. Of course, the way to connect to G-d, as Mesilat Yesharim says, is through Torah and mitzvot. If you are constantly sinning, that creates walls between you and G-d, and prevents you from feeling anything.
So, we need Torah and Mitzvot. But the goal is Diveykut.
There’s a pasuk that we say many times in various high holiday references:
ואתם הדבקים בה׳ אלקיכם
You are cleaving to Hashem your G-d
חיים כולכם היום
You are all alive today
That’s what makes us alive. Jewish people have a different life. We say Torah is our life. We have a different life source than the rest of the world. We are not alive when we are merely breathing. We are alive when we are spiritually connected.
This is all very high and lofty. But how do we get there?
There is an unbelievable Baal HaTurim on the pasuk ואתם הדבקים בה׳ אלקיכם
“You cleave to Hashem”
which says “there are crowns on the kuf”
In the Torah, there are different crowns on the letters. There are crowns on the letter kuf (which is numerically 100) in the word Deveykim, which is a hint to the 100 blessings that one should say daily.”
This is a tremendous concept, and one that’s really from Baalei Mussar; Rav Wolbe always used to say that you need to have your feet on the ground. You have to “stand on a ladder with your feet in the ground and your head reaching up to heaven.”
So how we connect to G-d?
With our everyday activities down here. We are doing these things anyway. We are making those 100 blessings anyway. Rav Wolbe used to tell us to imagine if we had kavana 100 times a day, 354 times a year?
That would be thousands and thousands of blessings! What we are learning from the Baal HaTurim is that these aren’t just thousand of blessings, they are thousand of connection opportunities. We talk to Hashem, “Baruch Atah Hashem, Elokenu Melech HaOlam.. we say the word Atah, which means “You,” so we are really talking to Hashem. He is right there next to us. That’s Diveykut! Diveykut doesn’t mean we have to get up at midnight and roll in the snow. Cleaving to Hashem happens in our everyday activities, that we, good Jewish people do. We pray, we learn, we do things that connect us to G-d. Our job is to pay attention to the things we do. That’s what Baalei Mussar would do during the month of Elul.
I recall when I was learning by Rav Wolbe in Eretz Yisrael, that he would dedicate Elul to simple things we do anyway, like having kavanah in Shema Yisrael, to get ready for the the Malchuyot portion of the Rosh Hashana Musaf, or saying Yeheh Shemeh Rabah with a little more kavana... small things. The little things we do add up. 100 Berachot is a lot. If we pick one or two Berachot a day to devote- and say, “This Beracha is my Diveykut moment,” this will give us life.
It is a workout, that will help us reach a high point, like getting our cardio up on a treadmill. We can take one Asher Yatzar and put everything into it- the right stance, the right focus, and beEzrat Hashem we will connect to Hashem.
ואתם הדבקים בה׳ אלקיכם חיים כולכם היום
You are cleaving to Hashem your G-d, you’re all alive today.