Nachal novea; makor chochma -
A flowing river; the source of wisdom (Mish. 18:4)

The world was created in Tishrei. This is the aspect of spiritual out of sequence. For if you look at the word Tishrei, tof-shin-reish-yud it is backwards in alphabetical sequence starting from the end of the alphabet. A Shin comes before the Tof in the alphabet, but in the word Tishrei, the Tof comes before the Shin out of alphabetical sequence. The same is for the other letters of the word Tishrei, all of them are out of alphabetical sequence.

The main teshuva is to nullify one’s self-aggrandizement and to lower oneself and to feel one’s true lowliness and true lack of worth compared to Hashem. It says in the Gemorah Brachos 7a that one’s self chastisement in one’s heart accomplishes more to correct a person than receiving one hundred lashes. The self chastisement which the Gemorah talks about is motivated by humility.

To illustrate further that we need humility and lowliness to do repentance, it says in Micha, perek zayin, "Hashem forgives transgression to those who are left." The Gemorrah Rosh Hashannah, daf yud zayin, comments on this verse that anyone who makes himself like leftovers will be forgiven his sins. So we see from the Gemorrah and from Tenach, that the main repentance is humility and lowliness in comparison to Hashem. The cause of all sin comes from a person making himself great in his own eyes. By doing this, one makes oneself spiritually out of balance and disconnected from Hashem. Then the yetzer hara and the forces of evil have a hold on this person to cause this person to sin. All sin comes from gaiva, haughtiness. It says in the Gemorrah Sota, daf daled, that anyone who is haughty is as if he had worshipped idols. It says in the Gemorrah in Chulin, daf hey, that anyone who admits to the validity of idols, it’s as if he denied the whole Torah. Thus, haughtiness is at the source of all sins. Through haughtiness a person throws himself and the world into spiritual chaos by disconnecting oneself from Hashem. Therefore, the main teshuva to repair the damage which has been done through sin/haughtiness is doing the opposite: to humbling oneself.

What does it mean to humble oneself? One has to feel his distance from Hashem and his lowliness in comparison to Hashem. By doing this Hashem will forgive him. Through his submission to Hashem, he returns himself to spiritual orderliness and balance, and by doing this a person nullifies all the harsh judgments against himself and nullifies all his sins. Therefore, on Rosh Hashana, which is the day that man was created, we then need to be in the aspect of sleep, which means, not actual sleep, but the nullification of one’s haughtiness—to subjugate oneself to the will of Hashem as if a person doesn’t have his own intelligence. On Rosh Hashana we cry to Hashem and crown Him King of the World. We do this in all simplicity without any sophistication at all. On Rosh Hashana, Adam and Chava were created. Adam and Chava were created as a team, one in the aspect of spiritual harmony and the other in spiritual disharmony. They were both supposed to rectify the entire world through their service, to connect all of creation to Hashem. This world, which was created intentionally in spiritual chaos, had to be connected to spiritual harmony, which is connecting this world to Hashem. Chava was supposed to take the spiritual chaos of this world which was disconnected from Hashem, and she was to bind herself with Adam who was connected with Hashem and represented spiritual harmony. Then the whole world would be rectified and would be connected to Hashem. Then evil would not exist and there would be no pain and suffering in the world because everything would be connected to Hashem. Anything that’s completely connected to Hashem is immune from the forces of evil.

Adam and Eve did tremendous spiritual damage through their sin. Their sin caused a separation between this world and Hashem, and the world was thrown into spiritual chaos, being disconnected from Hashem. The motive behind their sin was haughtiness, which motivated them to eat from the forbidden fruit because they wanted to rule the world without involving Hashem. This was the advice of the snake. The snake says in Bereshis, "Because G-d knows that the day that you eat from the fruit that your eyes will be opened and you’ll be just like G-d." Being like G-d, replacing G-d, appealed to Chava and that was the core of her sin. The rabbis further elaborate in Bereshis Rabba, perek yud tes, that the snake said to Chava that every artisan is jealous of his fellow artisan, and Hashem ate from the tree and created the world so you could do the same. That’s the reason why G-d commanded you not to eat from the fruit. In other words, the snake aroused her jealousy of G-d to rule without G-d. Why should she be subservient to G-d when she could be the G-d herself? This caused spiritual chaos, which was the disconnecting of man and creation from G-d which brought death to the world. Now G-d was disconnected from the world, and when there is an absence of G-d, evil steps in. Where there’s an absence of light, which is G-d, then darkness, which is evil, prevails. Death came to the world because G-d is life. Being cut off from G-d, a person is cut off from life which brings about eventual death, chas v’shalom. Spiritual harmony or being connected to G-d is called Chochma, as says in Tehilim, "Kulam b’chochma asisa," G-d made everything in wisdom. G-d is the source of all wisdom, which is the life force of the world. It also says "chuchma t’chaya" that wisdom will make you live. Wisdom is the life force of the worlds. Wisdom is the power of Hashem. Chochma is broken up into words, "koach ma," the power of being connected to Hashem. The true wisdom is to know that G-d is good. Because of that goodness, a person should be subservient to G-d. By being subservient to G-d, he draws life into himself from G-d. Chochma, "koach ma," is the power of ma which is "what." As Moshe and Aaron said when the Jews rebelled against them, they said "ma anachnu?" What are we?" They were saying "we are nothing." We are totally subservient to G-d, so your rebellion is not against us but is against G-d." So the power of "ma" is being attached to G-d thus creating spiritual harmony. This gives a person eternal life .

Adam had this power of "ma" which has a numerical value of 45, and Adam’s name also has a numerical value of 45. Adam and Chava did damage to this connection and they caused a separation between themselves and spiritual harmony, G-dliness, and Chochma, the power of G-d’s wisdom which gives life to the world. Since they were cut off from the life force of G-d, death came to the world. They caused the entire world to be out of spiritual harmony. That is why there are so many problems, afflictions, troubles and imperfections in the world, because the world is cut off from perfection, which is G-d. It says in Bereshis, after they sinned, "that in sorrow you will eat bread." Bread is life, the main food of life, the staff of life, and all things related to physical life. Because of the sin which caused a severance from G-d, it now became imperfect and thus the source of trouble for a person. It wasn’t enough that Adam and Chava did not rectify the world elevating and connecting the world to G-d, which would elevate the world from its imperfection to perfection. They caused tremendous spiritual damage to the entire creation since all of creation was connected to them.

The question is why did the snake try to entice Chava and not Adam? Why did he approach her? Because Chava was connected to this world, which was spiritual imperfection. Where there is spiritual imperfection evil abounds. So the snake who is the epitome of evil had more influence on Chava since she was more connected to spiritual imperfection than Adam who was connected to spiritual perfection. How do we know that Chava was connected to spiritual imperfection? If you look at the sequence of the letters of her name, Chava, ches-vav-hey, her name is in alphabetical backwards sequence, ches coming after vav the alphabet, and vav coming after hey in the alphabet. How do you know that Adam was connected to spiritual perfection? The letters of Adam’s name, alef-daled-mem, are in alphabetical sequence from front to back, alef coming before daled coming before mem in the alphabet. Adam and Chava were supposed to work as a team. Chava’s, who was connected to this world’s spiritual imperfection, was supposed to humble herself to spiritual perfection, Adam. That would make a bridge between this world and Hashem. Since Adam was connected to the spiritual harmony, perfection, he was supposed to submit and humble himself to G-d’s will. The union and team work between spiritual imperfection and spiritual perfection which was Adam and Chava submitting themselves to the authority of G-d, would then connect the whole of creation to G-d, and as a result there would be eternal bliss. The snake enticed Chava and caused the separation between Adam and Chava to the point where Chava, who was connected to spiritual imperfection, caused Adam to sin as well, and caused Adam to be dragged down to spiritual imperfection, and with him, the whole creation since all of creation was connected to him. Now Adam was no longer attached to spiritual perfection and to G-d.

After their sin, Adam and Chava did teshuva immediately. They started in the rectification of the damage that they had done. But this rectification of this sin will not be complete until Moshiach comes. Therefore, our mission on Rosh Hashana is to continue Adam and Chava’s rectification of the world in connecting the lower world to Hashem. We must do this on the very day that the sin occurred, the day of Rosh Hashana. We accomplish this by nullifying ourselves to Hashem’s service completely. By doing this, pride is nullified, which cuts one off from G-d, and we submit ourselves to G-d which connects the entire universe to G-d. We must do this annually because the damage is only partially repaired each and every year. It cannot be accomplished quickly because of the great damage which has been done and is currently being done through our sins. Therefore, slowly, slowly, every Rosh Hashana we repair some of the damage that was done until all of the damage will be repaired and then Moshiach will come to make the final repair.

So therefore, on Rosh Hashana we must put ourselves into the category of sleep, which means to totally nullify our own intelligence completely to G-d as if we do not have any intelligence at all. All we must do on Rosh Hashana is to subjugate ourselves to the kingdom of Hashem with faith and complete simplicity, without any sophistication. Because the main service of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur is that we reveal G-d’s kingship in the world without any sophistication and by revealing G-d’s kingship in the world, we connect this world to G-d. When a person is asleep, his intelligence leaves him, and this is why the whole service of Rosh Hashana is singing praises to Hashem and saying Tehillim. These are aspects of simplicity devoid of sophistication. Sophistication is in the category of haughtiness and self-pride. The reason why we have to temporarily nullify our own intelligence and be in the category of sleep, is that simplicity helps strip us of our haughtiness. On Rosh Hashana we intentionally, and only temporarily, remove our intelligence from ourselves. For the rest of the year we use our intelligence to get to know Hashem, but on Rosh Hashana, we must revitalize ourselves and reconnect ourselves to Hashem. This can only be accomplished through dismissing our own intelligence for one day. By doing this we chase away our haughtiness. As the Arizal says, haughtiness damages the intelligence, the mind, and the perception that G-d runs the world. We know this since the word for haughtiness, "ga’ava," has the numerical value of 15, which is equal to one of Hashem’s names, Kah, from which we draw our intelligence. The true intelligence is being submissive to the will of Hashem which means using your abilities and intelligence to do what Hashem wants. So therefore, temporarily on the two days of Rosh Hashana, we nullify our own intelligence and we accept the will of G-d upon us. As it says, G-d rules over everything. We’re supposed to crown G-d King and make him the ruler of everything in creation. We nullify our own intelligence, because the mind is limited. It can only grasp a limited amount of understanding. Through faith a person can reach the highest of levels which is connecting ourselves to the chochma which is connecting ourselves to G-d. Then, after we put ourselves in the category of sleep, of nullifying our intelligence, because in sleep intelligence is absent, we hear the sound of the shofar. The voice of the shofar wakes us up from our sleep. Waking up from one’s sleep, one’s intelligence returns, and one is refreshed and revitalized with a new awareness of holiness.

What is intelligence? It’s the awareness that we must do G-d’s will, that rules over all of creation. It says in the Gemorrah Rosh HaShana, daf tes, that the blowing of the shofar is wisdom and that it is not called doing work on Yom Tov. By definition that the shofar is called chochma, wisdom. Through the holy voice of the shofar , we reconnect our minds with true wisdom, chochma, which is connecting ourselves to submission to G-d. That is why the main service of Rosh Hashana is not learning Torah like on Shavuous or other times of the year , but is to praise Hashem, which shows our submission and our accepting him King over ourselves and reconnecting the world and the universe with Hashem.

This is why we have silence on the day of Rosh Hashana, and we do not confess any of our sins on Rosh Hashana. The first step of teshuva is first submitting and humbling oneself to G-d which is praising him. The second phase of teshuva is on Yom Kippur. After we’ve accepted G-d as our King and because we have reconnected with Him, then we repair the damages caused by our sins by confessing our sins to him.

Therefore, we should strive to accept G-d as our King on this Rosh Hashana and on every Rosh Hashana. May everyone have success in the rectification of the world’s spiritual damage and that will bring Moshiach closer, Amen.