Rosh Hashana is the first day of the ten days of repentance, but the repentance of Rosh Hashana is different than on the other days. There is no Viduy recited, no confessional prayer and no selichot. It is a day of Malchiyot, the acceptance of G-d’s kingship; we focus not on ourselves but on G-d. So, if there is no overt repentance on Rosh Hashana, how is it part of the ten days of repentance? What is the teshuva of Rosh Hashana?
Rav Eliyahu Lifschitz, in his “Selichot Mevu’eret,” questions the very nature of the mitzvah of teshuva. It is, indeed, a strange Mitzvah, for what does it really add to the Torah? It is a fascinating entry-level question to the Yamim Noraim: I may want to eat a cheeseburger, but the Torah says I may not. The Torah says I have to observe Shabbat, so I must. If I breach the Torah’s norms, I have sinned, and must comply next time. So what then does teshuva accomplish?
He explains that the Torah’s mitzvot are focused on the future. There is always something to do or not to do. In fact, mitzvot are generally rooted in objects or actions that demand the appropriate response. But teshuva is less concerned with the future than it is with the present. Of course, we regret the squalid past and commit to a more virtuous future, but repentance is oriented in the present.
Said another way, if we sin and do not do teshuva, what have we really lost? We are still obligated not to sin again or to perform the proper positive commandment. So, just do it, or don’t do it! There is always another mitzvah to do and another sin to eschew. What, then, does teshuva add?
Teshuva presupposes that at present there is a new obligation on the sinner: to repent. The gavra (individual) now has the status of a sinner, and that status has to be uprooted. The fact that the sin is over and in the past only has meaning in terms of the future, but in the present, the status of sinner has to be removed.
If Mitzvot can only be done in the future, and Teshuva is a phenomenon of the present, what about the past? Is the past really past, and what happened in the past is irredeemable and unrectifiable? Should we just not cry over spilled milk? No.
The past, too, can be undone, which is important if only because the past remains an integral part of our personality. How can we change the past?
We cannot, but G-d can, and this is what is called kapara, atonement. Human beings live within limitations; there really is no time machine in which we can travel to the past and reverse bad decisions. Only G-d, who is infinite and beyond time and space, can do that. G-d can change the past, and that capacity alone strengthens our resolve to return to Him.
But man is only able to access that divine attribute by surrendering to Him, to anoint G-d our King in every facet of our lives. And this elicits G-d’s boundless compassion that enables us to continue in His service. An avaryan (literally, a sinner), someone once said, is a person who is too rooted in the avar, the past, obsessing over what was and thus paralyzing himself for the future. Those who think the past cannot be undone harm both their present and their future.
This, then, is the purpose of the Kabbalat Ol Malchut Shamayim, the acceptance of the yoke of G-d’s kingship that is at the heart of Rosh Hashana and the Yamim Noraim. It is the only way to change the past and redeem the present so that we can be worthy of the glorious future. Mitzvot perfect the future, teshuva perfects the present, and kapara perfects the past. And the only prerequisite is to join in the coronation of G-d, and then we will be the beneficiaries of His blessings for a year of life, good health, prosperity and peace, for us and all Israel.
On behalf of Karen and our entire family, I wish all of us a Ktiva vachatima tova!
Rabbi Pruzansky's Blog 
Daniel Greenfield said:
“The Democrats have made it clear that
if they win the presidential election, they
will restore the flow of cash to the terrorists.”
SOURCE: Loyal and Disloyal Jews
by Daniel Greenfield, 2019 September 1
http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2019/09/loyal-and-disloyal-jews.html
==================================
Jonathan S. Tobin said:
“At its core, the Democrats’ conception of the
U.S.-Israel relationship is that of a great power
and a client state that must do as it’s told.”
SOURCE: Trump discarded the
carrot-and-stick approach to Israel
by Jonathan S. Tobin, 2019 June 20
http://www.jns.org/opinion/trump-discarded-the-carrot-and-stick-approach-to-israel/
==================================
Jeremy Rosen said:
“We were fooling ourselves if we thought that
anti-Semitism had disappeared.
And if the left wing of the Democratic Party
achieves dominance, you can be sure it will increase.”
SOURCE:
The One Easy Answer: Blame the Jews
by Jeremy Rosen, 2018/11/27
http://www.algemeiner.com/2018/11/27/the-one-easy-answer-blame-the-jews/
==================================
QUESTION:
“Will the Democrats choose a Jew-hating leader like Corbyn?”
ANSWER:
The Democrats have ALREADY
chosen leaders like Jeremy Corbyn:
Keith Ellison, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Bernie Sanders
[self-hating Jew with no love of Israel], Hillary Clinton
[accused Israel of being an occupying force],
and ex-President Barack Hussein Obama [who for 8 years
did everything possible to weaken and humiliate Israel.
Mark R. Levin (a lawyer and best-selling author) said:
The examples of the [New York] Times’
and mass media’s hostility toward the Jewish State is not
even a matter of indifference, as it was during the plight of
European Jews in the 1930s and 1940s, which was horrifying.
Instead, there is frequently open and affirmative hostility toward the Jewish State, despite the fact that the small country, a democracy and an ally, faces daily threats of extermination from terrorists groups and surrounding terrorist states, including, if not especially, nuclear-weapons-obsessed Iran.
After examining more than a year’s worth of recent coverage by the [New York] Times, Gilead Ini of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America [CAMERA] concluded that the [New York] Times:
“consistently flouts the rules of ethical journalism.
And it does so as part of a campaign to protect anti-Israel
activists and steer public opinion against the Jewish State.”
SOURCE: The ‘Times’ and Israel:
A Review of 2018 by Gilead Ini, February 2019
http://www.CommentaryMagazine.com/articles/the-times-and-israel-a-review-of-2018/
SOURCE: Unfreedom of the Press (chapter 6, page 163) by Mark R. Levin, published by Threshold Editions, year 2019, NYC, ISBN 9781476773094 * ISBN 1476773092
Mark R. Levin (a lawyer and
author of the best-selling book
Unfreedom of the Press) said:
“The media’s Progressive ideology and Democratic
Party bias are in full bloom as evidenced by their
frenzied obsession with ‘getting’ President Trump…”
“…the constant media refrain is trying to convince
the American people of a demonstrably false narrative…”
SOURCE:
Deconstructing where American media has
gone wrong by Deborah Fineblum, 2019/6/14
http://www.jns.org/deconstructing-where-american-media-has-gone-wrong/
Abdul Hameed al Ghabin
[Saudi writer and political analyst] said:
“How can we achieve peace if the Palestinian people
remain without a place to call home? The answer is simple:
Jordan is already 78% of historical Palestine.
Jordanians of Palestinian origin constitute more than 80% of the population according to U.S. intelligence cables leaked in 2010.
Jordan is essentially already the Palestinian Arab state.
The only problem is, the King of Jordan refuses to acknowledge this.”
SOURCE: A new Saudi perspective for peace
by Abdul Hameed al Ghabin, 2019/8/21
https://www.jns.org/opinion/a-new-saudi-perspective-for-peace/
Major General (res.) Gershon HaCohen,
[who] led the IDF 36th Division that was
responsible for the disengagement [from Gaza]
[said this to Jewish News Syndicate]:
“…No one in his right mind in Israel will
now agree to a disengagement from Judea
and Samaria [also known as The West Bank]
except for a few Left-wing radicals.”
SOURCE: Disbanding Gush Katif a failed
experiment, says general who helped carry out evacuation
by Avrohom Shmuel Lewin, 2019 August 12
http://www.jns.org/disbanding-gush-katif-a-failed-experiment-says-general-who-helped-carry-out-evacuation/
Thane Rosenbaum [author of many
books and a Distinguished Fellow at
the NYU School of Law] said:
“In this universe of automatic virtue
bestowed upon anyone with a history
of oppression, Jews are, bizarrely, kicked
off the team, their privileges suspended,
all because of their ostensible White privilege.”
SOURCE: ‘Fiddler on the Roof’
reminds us of age-old Jewish truths
by Thane Rosenbaum, 2019 August 7
http://www.algemeiner.com/2019/08/07/fiddler-on-the-roof-reminds-us-of-age-old-jewish-truths/