“The King is in the field.”
A Chabad Chasidic tradition, from its founder Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, teaches us that in the days leading up to Rosh Hashanah G-d “comes out” like a king strolling the fields where He is approachable to anyone who reaches out to Him. This year in particular, many of us are eager for an opportunity to bend the Divine ear.
And come Rosh Hashanah, I imagine the heavens will swell with the prayers of a nation in pain.
Our hearts ache for the orphans in Israel who will be going to shul without their fathers, for the young mothers left to raise their children without their husbands. For them we call out to “the father of orphans, the champion of widows”: Our Father, our King, have pity on us, our children and our infants.
We cry with the parents mourning their sons and daughters. For them, for whom the honey-dipped apple will be more bitter than sweet, we plead: Our Father, our King, avenge before our eyes the spilt blood of your servants.
And for the hostages taken, forsaken, we call out to the One who redeems from death and ransoms from hell.
I think of the heroes who shielded their friends with their own bodies, jumping into the line of fire or into devouring flames to save their brothers and sisters. What greater act of kindness is there?
Do you, dear G-d, not call these people kedoshim, “holy ones”?
For them we pray, Our Father, our King, act for the sake of those who went through fire and water to sanctify your name.
Our Father, our King, write us in the book of merit, we demand. Because though dispersed to the far corners of the earth, the children of Israel transcended every divide in a resounding, collective response to the attack against our people in the Land of Israel.
Our Father, our King, write us in the book of merit, we demand . . . Though dispersed to the far corners of the earth, the children of Israel transcended every divide in a resounding, collective response to the attack against our people in the Land of Israel.
Dear G-d.
Your children demonstrated that no Jew is an island, but that every Jew is a world. You saw as the pain of every loss cut deeply across the Jewish world. You saw the joy with which we celebrated each turn of kindness You showed.
You saw Am Yisrael unite in strength with defiant love and holy unity.
What greater merit, dear G-d, can you ask for?
The King is in the field. Our Father, our King, may this moment be a moment of compassion and a time of favor before You.
May each of you dear readers be inscribed and blessed for a good year. K’tivah v’chatimah tovah, l’shanah tovah u’metukah.
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