Traditionally, among Ashkenazi Jewry we spend a week or more of reciting Selichos in preparation of Rosh Hashana. Our Sephardic brethren have been at it since the beginning of Elul.
This collection of verses from TaNaCh, various prayers, and piyyutim are called סליחות — literally translated as 'forgiveness' in the plural.
It would seem to imply that we are begging repeatedly for forgiveness for our failings to live up to G-d's expectations.
Yet, a cursory glance at the text reveals that there are only a sparse number of requests for forgiveness. The bulk of the sentiments expressed therein acknowledge our having sinned and consequently having been downtrodden by our enemies, yet pine to return in restoring the glory days of being G-d's emissaries to the world at large.
There is no apology, nor any begging for forgiveness or mention of regret, merely a sincerely expressed desire to reunite to our former elevated roles.
In what way can that be termed סליחה — forgiveness?
The Talmud reveals that Yosef was released from his twelve year prison sentence on Rosh Hashana.
It was also the anniversary of the dreams of the Chamberlain of the Cupbearers and the Chamberlain of the Bakers exactly two years earlier, that Yosef so accurately interpreted.
The day of Yosef's release also marked the day when Pharoah awakened agitated from his dream, sharing it with his attendants desperate for an interpretation. The Chamberlain of the Cups finally remembered Yosef, sharing his personal experience with Pharoah, which resulted in Yosef's eventual rise to becoming his viceroy.
The Zohar tells us that dreams we experience on Rosh Hashana are more likely to be accurate.
What is it about this special day, that links it to dreams?
The famed sage, Rav Yehuda HaLevi, in his Kuzari, when describing the character of the pious one, adds the following aspect.
He directs the organs of thought and imagination, relieving them of all worldly ideas mentioned above, charges his imagination to produce, with the assistance of memory, the most splendid pictures possible, to resemble the divine things sought after. Such pictures are the scenes of Sinai, Avraham and Yitzchok on Moriah, the Tabernacle of Moshe, the Temple service, the presence of G-d in the Temple, and the like. He, then, orders his memory to retain all these, and not to forget them; he warns his fancy and its sinful prompters not to confuse the truth or to trouble it by doubts; he warns his irascibility and greed not to influence or lead astray, nor to take hold of his will, nor subdue it to wrath and lust.
The purposeful use of our imagination is a vital instrument to powering our journey back towards G-d.
Rav A.Y. Kook in Orot expands so poignantly on this idea.
Great dreams are the very foundation of the universe.
Dreams come in many forms. They are the prescient dreams of prophets. The conscious dreaming of poets. The idealistic dreams of great visionaries for a better world. And our national dreams of redemption — “When G-d will return the captivity of Zion, we will be like dreamers.”
Life immersed solely in materialism is coarse and bleak. It lacks the inspiring grandeur of expansive horizons. The imaginative faculties of people preoccupied with self-serving pursuits will be limited — like their waking thoughts and actions — to personal matters. What great truth could be revealed in imaginings that never succeeded in rising above the vain thoughts and desires of a self-centered individual?
Those who are truly servants of G-d concentrate their aspirations and efforts on rectifying the world. When one’s thoughts and actions are devoted exclusively to perfecting all of creation, then one’s imagination will only be stimulated by matters that relate to universal reality. Their dreams will naturally be of great significance, reflecting the inner truth of reality, to its past, present, and future.
We are only able to free ourselves from these shackles through the power of dreams.
It is our dreams that accurately reveal the inner truth of the universe.
As that future reality is revealed, we merit an increasing clarity of vision. Our perception begins to approach the aspaklaria hame'irah, the clear vision of Moshe, with whom G-d spoke “face to face, in a vision not containing allegory, so that he could see a true image of G-d.”
The Malbim points out that word Selichah is only used throughout the Written Torah in the context of G-d conferring it, never between man and man. He writes:
Man cannot fully be סולח, for this word refers to a former state of failed being totally removed from its new reality, as if it never existed. Only G-d can recreate a relationship as a new existence.
The great grammarians among our sages align the word סליחה as a more intensified expression of the term שליחה — to permanently dispatching with something, with no remnant of its former presence.
Even before we ask for forgiveness we 'dream' of our former nobility, hoping to regain that image of a 'true and boundless world' of being in G-d's presence, never limited by the petty desires and pursuits of a bleak and coarse world of materialism.
The Chamberlain of the Cupbearers sees in his dream a restoration of his noble and dignified service to royalty, pressing the glorious grapes into a cup he places into the king's palm.
The Chamberlain of the Bakers dreams of himself lugging three baskets of bread upon his head, no king in sight, unabashedly allowing the birds to eat from the king's fare. This man is still imprisoned to his dim view of a world of survival, missing out on the expansive panorama of a world of opportunity and dignity.
Yosef was not simply an interpreter of dreams, he was a בעל החלומות — a possessor of dreams. He dreamt healthily, even whilst awake, of the grandeur that is in store for those who dream of greatness and the restoration of the Honor of Heaven in this world.
On Rosh Hashana we will be judged whether we are dreamers of opportunity for greatness, or dreamers of empty fantasies and illusionary temptations.
If we cast off the chains of materialism and don a cloak of royalty, we are assured that G-d will in turn start afresh, offering us endless opportunities for His closeness and exquisite joy!
Rosh Hashana is indeed the most auspicious day to have our inspired dreams come true!
בברכת כתיבה וחתימה טובה
באהבה,
צבי יהודה טייכמאן
