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The Rosh Hashana Audit

One of the most central concepts in Torah is the essence of yiras shamayim, the fear of heaven. What's the purpose of a Jew? To elevate consciousness, to become aware of something that normally you're not aware of. We must become aware of the Presence. How does one accomplish this awareness? If the world worked in such a way that good people received good things and bad people received bad things, then G-d's presence would be obvious. However, in our world we see bad people receiving good and good people receiving bad - it's no wonder then that logical thinkers cannot perceive G-d. When we see things in our lives that don't make sense, we begin to get angry whether we realize it or not. That puts up a wall between us and G-d. During the creation of the world, there was a disagreement between the attributes of justice and of lovingkindness over how to create the world. In the end the two were able to compromise with the concept of madrega, or spiritual levels. A sin therefore causes a person to drop a level, instead of to drop out of existence. G-d will only allow this descent of levels for 6000 years, by which we will have dropped as far as is possible. At that point Mashiach must arrive or everything would be lost. Rosh Hashana is the ultimate audit of the end result of all of our actions, good and bad. How do we survive it? G-d created a special period of time, the month of Elul, in which the attribute of mercy outweighs the attribute of justice, in order to give us a chance to do teshuva. Why do we blow the shofar on Rosh Hashana? And why is justice suspended on Shabbos? How does the holiday of Sukkos make sense? What does camping have to do with Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur? The sukkah represents what the world will become when the Mashiach arrives. The whole process beginning in Elul and going through Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur culminates on Sukkot. We aren't camping outside; we have arrived at our destination.

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