Kabbalistic tradition teaches that everything which happens here in our world has its origins in the upper worlds. By the time an event unfolds here on earth, something had already occurred in the heavens that set this process into motion.

It occurred to me that this teaching may be applied to an event which we witness here in New York City each year – not coincidentally, in September, shortly before Rosh Hashanah, or around the time of Rosh Hashanah. I refer to the United Nations' General Assembly. Leaders of countries around the world come here and take the stage to rail against the world's only Jewish state. They stand up to fabricate lies and portray Israel as the cause of the world's problems.

The "heavenly" backdrop of this annual disgrace can be understood based on a teaching of Rav Shlomo Kluger (1785-1869) regarding the judgment that takes place on Rosh Hashanah. He writes that on Rosh Hashanah, not only is each individual judged for the coming year, but the entire Jewish Nation, too, is brought to trial as a single entity.

Rav Kluger explains that when Hashem disrupted the building of Migdal Babel, dividing mankind into seventy nations, he assigned an angel to each nation. Every nation that was formed came under the supervision of an angel in the heavens. There is, however, one exception. As we read this Shabbat in Parashat Haazinu (32:9), "Ki Helek Hashem Amo, Yaakob Hebel Nahalato" – "His nation is G-d's portion; Yaakob is the territory apportioned to Him." Am Yisrael is under Hashem's direct protection and supervision. There is no angel assigned to the Jewish People, because G-d cares for us directly, as His "personal" portion. However, this special status needs to be earned. Following the sin of the golden calf, even after G-d accepted Moshe's plea not to annihilate Beneh Yisrael, He was not prepared to continue keeping them under His direct care. He told Moshe, "I am hereby sending an angel before you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the land I have prepared" (Shemot 23:20). The people had forfeited the privilege of G-d's direct care through their wrongdoing. Even then, though, Moshe successfully interceded on the people's behalf, and Hashem agreed to care for the nation directly.

Rav Kluger writes that each year, on Rosh Hashanah, the angels in heaven call for a new "election," for reassessing Am Yisrael's special stature. They question and challenge the Jewish Nation's right to Hashem's special care and protection. Like the speakers in the UN, they stand up and cast aspersions against us. They claim that we are not worthy of our unique relationship with Hashem.

And the critical moment when we successfully refute this challenge is during the recitation of "Alenu Le'shabe'ah" during Musaf on Rosh Hashanah. In this prayer, we express our boundless gratitude for not having been made like the other nations, "for they bow to vanity and nothingness, and pray to a god that does not deliver, whereas we kneel and bow before the King of the kings of kings…" We loudly, proudly, and confidently avow that we do not follow the other nations' customs and practices, that we do not embrace their beliefs, that we are fully and unwaveringly committed to Hashem, and resist the lures of the "vanity and nothingness" to which other peoples devote their time and attention. It is by resolutely proclaiming our loyalty to Hashem, and our refusal to go along with the beliefs, values, customs and lifestyles of the people around us, that we earn a renewal of our contract, so-to-speak, the continuation of our special relationship with Hashem. If we steadfastly commit to refrain from the "vanity and nothingness," from the practices of other peoples, then we earn our nation's special stature, our unique relationship with the King of the universe.

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