We are now in our special miniseries of pesukim of the Musaf prayers. We are up to pasuk number five, Tehilim 24,7-10.
שְׂא֤וּ שְׁעָרִ֨ים ׀ רָֽאשֵׁיכֶ֗ם וְֽ֭הִנָּשְׂאוּ פִּתְחֵ֣י עוֹלָ֑ם וְ֝יָב֗וֹא מֶ֣לֶךְ הַכָּבֽוֹד
Lift up your heads (open the gates) and let there be open the portals of the world (As if were asking the gates to) allow the Melech Hakavod to come in
מִ֥י זֶה֮ מֶ֤לֶךְ הַכָּ֫ב֥וֹד יְ֭הֹוָה עִזּ֣וּז וְגִבּ֑וֹר יְ֝הֹוָ֗ה גִּבּ֥וֹר מִלְחָמָֽה
Who is that King, who is mighty and powerful? Hashem is the mighty at war..
and the gates don't open..
שְׂא֤וּ שְׁעָרִ֨ים ׀ רָֽאשֵׁיכֶ֗ם וּ֭שְׂאוּ פִּתְחֵ֣י עוֹלָ֑ם וְ֝יָבֹ֗א מֶ֣לֶךְ הַכָּבֽוֹד
Open up the portals…
And again we have the same question…
מִ֤י ה֣וּא זֶה֮ מֶ֤לֶךְ הַכָּ֫ב֥וֹד
Who is the King?
The answer is,
יְהֹוָ֥ה צְבָא֑וֹת ה֤וּא מֶ֖לֶךְ הַכָּב֣וֹד סֶֽלָה
God of the hosts is the King,
and with that, the gates open.
What is this referring to? Rashi tells us in the times of Shlomo Hamelech, when he came to bring the Aron into the Holy of Holies, the gates locked themselves, until he mentioned David Hamelech.
The Midrash adds that the gates didn't want to open. Shlomo Hamelech said Hashem is mighty and powerful, but it didn't work.
It says that the gates were ready to crush Shlomo. They would have crashed down on him, and when he said Melech Hakavod, referring to God, that God is the King and the God of the hosts, then they opened up. And since he gave respect to Hashem, God said, Although I'm going to one day to destroy My house, these gates will never be destroyed, And that's why it says, in Eicha 2,8 The gates swallowed up.
The Rabbis explain that part of the messaging of this pasuk is that when one accepts upon himself to glorify the Melech Hakavod, he will have a guaranteed existence. Of course, Rosh Hashanah is when we're trying to evoke our lasting survival, so therefore we want to invoke this concept.
But what is this difference between first saying Gibbor Milchama, and then Hashem Seva'ot?
The Chatam Sofer says that Hashem Sevaot refers to how God calls the Jewish people His army. When we realize that we are just privates in the army of Hashem, and that it's not about our own self-aggrandizement, we're not coming for our own glory, or our own fame, we're just soldiers in God's Army, and the honor is for Him, like a foot soldier who goes out there and is fighting for his country- that is what God wants. And that's what opens up the gates says, the Chatam Sofer.
Furthermore, he says that in the beginning, it says Vehinasu/they should be open from the outside- when you finally realize this higher-level, the gates open up themselves. Rav Wolbe says the gates here also refer to the gates of our hearts. The gates of our hearts need to be open to allow God in.
Just like there are gates of the Bet Hamikdash, there are gates of our hearts, because our heart is like a Bet Hamikdash. We have to give the magical password, the open sesame, if you may, to open up our heart and allow God in.
The sefer Masat Hamelech has a very interesting explanation as to what this back-and-forth was. He says, of course, Shlomo Hamelech said to let in the Melech Hakavod, he didn't mean himself, or he would've said, "Let me, the king in." But God of the war could mean that God was showing, "through my success, I was successful at war. I was successful and therefore, that's the respect of God," but that's not clear enough. We want the glory of God to be exclusive to God. We don't want God's honor to come through people. God's honor is solely Gods honor, with no reflection of anybody's involvement. This is similar to the famous midrash that says each king ask for a different thing. One king said Let me catch and kill my enemy. Another king said, Let me chase my enemy. Another king said, Let me sing a song, and another king said, I'm just going to go to sleep. What does that mean? I'm just going to go to sleep means I'm not able to realize God's glory when I have any involvement in it. I want to make it clear that it's only God and that's what the sefer Masat Hamelech says; that we need to realize that everything that happens really, is without any human input at all. It's only God, all the glory goes to God. And when we realize that, it opens up our hearts. Our hearts are clogged with our own self, our own ego, that we've believe that we're doing something. Therefore, we have to open up the gates, remove all of those external barriers, and realize that God is the true God of Glory. This is all on the message of God's Kingdom as we going through the Musaf prayers