B’Ezrat Hashem, in the two weeks we have until Rosh Hashanah, we will discuss topics that are related to this important day. As we know, one of the most important parts of Rosh Hashanah is our prayers. Within the prayers is the Musaf prayer, which has three units, one of them being Malchuyot, which discusses Hashem is King.
One of the ten pesukim in this section starts with the words ‘Hashem Malach/God is king Ge’ut Lavesh/He wears arrogance.’
As we’ve said many times in the past, arrogance is a bad Middah, so why refer to God as wearing arrogance? The Ramban, in his letter to his son, writes, “Anybody who is arrogant is rebelling against God.”
There’s a concept that Hashem’s Kingdom works like a kingdom down here. So for dramatic effect, we will quote Vladimir Putin. After Yevgeny Prigozhin (a confidant turned traitor) went down in a plane crash, Putin said that he mourned the crash victims and all Wagner fighters who had died in Ukraine. But he said of Prigozhin, “You could forgive mistakes and even cowardice, but never betrayal.”
You don't forgive traitors. And since this man was a traitor, he deserved to die. With that being said, we have a scary statement here. The pasuk says, “Kol HaMitga’eh/If you are arrogant, you are rebelling against God.” And if Rosh Hashanah is the day of God's Kingdom, you don't want to be a rebel. This is a heavy statement. We can't turn into humble people overnight. The Elder of Kelm used to say, Any Kabbalah you commit to, if you don't commit to learning mussar on the topic, your resolution is almost meaningless, because you can't change in a minute.
So, what are we going to do? This is one of the reasons we're trying to work on humility before the holiday.
The pasuk that the Ramban quotes to bring out this point, that whoever is arrogant is a rebel, is this pasuk, Hashem Malach Ga’ut Lavesh/God is King and He wears arrogance. And therefore, he says one who is arrogant is wearing the king's garment.
Imagine walking in to see the king. He has a certain cape, and you sneak the cape off the king and wear it. And now you come to the king with the cape? Off with your head! And what happens if you’re saying this pasuk while that’s happening? That's even worse!
So, it’s very important to appreciate the meaning of this pasuk.
What does it mean that God is arrogant? Every day in Az Yashir we say, Ki Ga’oh Ga’ah. The explanation is, as we've said many times, that arrogance is really not a bad trait. Arrogance means you're taking credit for what you did. It's only bad when you didn't do it….and we didn't do it! That is how Rav Wolbe explains it in Alei Shor, “A creation can never be arrogant because whatever he has, he received. He has nothing from himself.”
Rav Wolbe says that this is the matter that all sin comes from: Arrogance. (we have discussed this concept in the past and will review again in a future class- that every thing comes from one basic matter, which the Greek call Hilo). Man wants to forget, or deny, his being a creation. And once a person forgets that he's a creation, whether he starts feeling ‘I'm an independent existence,’ or he starts thinking he does things on his own, at that moment, he turns himself into an idol.
As the Gemara in Masechet Sotah, says, “Anyone that has arrogance, should be chopped down like a worshiped tree,” because he himself becomes like a worshipped item. He made himself into an idol, and we pray that all idols should be wiped out. That's a little scary if you put two and two together. So, he says arrogance is forgetting about God and therefore we have to work on the belief that we are not in control of our deeds.
If that's the case, we can understand the importance of what we're doing now- we need to have the proper mindset of God's control, not to bring us to arrogance, which is a litmus test. Are you putting your money where your mouth is and really believing you're not in control, or not? B’Ezrat Hashem, we will get to Rosh Hashanah, at least on some level, as humble people, and not rebels against God's kingdom.
Have a wonderful day.