We all know that one of the main things that takes place on Rosh Hashanah is that this is the day that we crown Hashem as king. As the Chazal say in ראש השנה דף ט״ז עמוד א׳ and דף ל״ד עמוד ב׳, that Hashem says that on Rosh Hashanah he wants us to say פסוקי מלכיות, say pesukim that talk about him being king because he asked, כדי שתמליכוני עליכם, in order that we should make him a melech, a king upon us. So Rosh Hashanah is a day that we crown Hashem as king. And this is the first reason for the mitzvah of shofar, as the Rav Saadia Gaon says, brought down in the Abudraham, that it is because we crown Hashem as king, and the custom is when you crown a king, you blow trumpets. As the pasuk says, בחצוצרות וקול שופר הריעו לפני המלך השם, trumpets, with a shofar you should blow in front of the king Hashem. And that's why in the tefilot of Rosh Hashanah, we constantly say מלוך על העולם כולו בכבודך, please be the king over the whole world with your glory. We say מלך על כל הארץ, that Hashem is the melech, etc., because that is the day when we crown Hashem as king, we nullify ourselves, we are mevatel ourselves to Hashem, because we feel that Hashem is our king. Now based on this, it is hard to understand how does this fit with the fact that on Rosh Hashanah is a time when we are supposed to be mitpallel to Hashem, daven to Hashem, Hashem should give us all our needs for the whole year. We daven to Hashem he should give us banei, chayei, umezonei. He should give us children, he should give us life, and he should give us food, he should give us parnasah. We daven to Hashem that he should pasken, he should write down, and he should seal for us a good and a happy, healthy year in gashmiyut and in ruchniyut. Because on Rosh Hashanah, it's the day when Hashem judges us. It is the יום הדין. It is mainly the יום הדין for the gashmiyut, for the physical needs of the person throughout the next year, as it says in the Hagahot Maimoniyot in Hilchot Teshuvah in the beginning of the third perek in the name of the Ramban. But it is also a day where Hashem judges our ruchniyut. There is a דין ומשפט how much ruchniyut, how much spirituality Hashem should give to the world and give to כלל ישראל and give to the individual Yidden throughout the year. As it says in sefarim, based on the pasuk where it says כי חק לישראל הוא משפט לאלקי יעקב, that this is a chok for the Yidden and a משפט for the God of Yaakov. So it says in sefarim, mainly in Likutei Torah, written by the Alter Rebbe, the Baal HaTanya. So he writes there that this pasuk tells us both parts of the דין ומשפט on Rosh Hashanah. The word chok, he says, means gashmiyut, because the word chok means bread, as the לשון הפסוק in משלי, קפיטל ל׳ פסוק ח׳, הטריפני לחם חוקי. So the word chok means bread. We also find in Parashat Vayigash, where it says the word chok and it means the bread, the food. So when the pasuk says כי חק לישראל הוא, it means that that's the day where Hashem judges our bread, our parnasah, our gashmiyut for the future, for the whole year. And then the second part of the pasuk, where it says משפט לאלקי יעקב, it means that there is also a דין ומשפט on that day לאלקי, for the אלקות, for the godliness of Yaakov, how much godliness, how much ruchniyut, how much kedushah, and how much Shechinah should come down to the world to the Bnei Yisrael during that year. So on the day of Rosh Hashanah, when we are judged for our gashmiyut and for our ruchniyut, throughout the tefilot, we constantly think of asking Hashem to give us all our needs beruchniyut and also all our needs begashmiyut for the whole year, banei, chayei, umezoni, and we ask that they should all be revichi, they should all be in a very full way, in a very broad way, he should give it to us to the most possible.

Now likhorah, it seems that these two things contradict each other. On one hand, we say that Rosh Hashanah is the day of kabalat malchut, when we accept upon ourselves that Hashem is our king. And we give ourselves, we are mevatel ourselves to Hashem as the king. And the true concept of bitul to a melech, of giving yourself over to a, give you over to a king, is that you forget about your own needs, just like an eved of a melech, or an eved of any adon, a slave of a king or a slave of a person. The concept of a slave is that he has no metziut for himself. He in himself is no true being. That's why the halachah is מה שקנה עבד קנה רבו, whatever an eved owns, really is owned by his master. He doesn't have his own ownership, he doesn't own himself. His whole being is only that he is an eved to his master, he's an eved to the melech. He doesn't have his own will and he doesn't have his own needs. Certainly, at the moment he is being mevatel himself to his master, at the time when he shows his master that I am giving myself over to you, certainly that is not the time when he should think about his own retzonot, his own will, his own needs. So how is it that on Rosh Hashanah, at the time when we stand in front of Hashem and we tell him that we are now giving ourselves over to you, we are being mevatel mevatel ourselves to You, we are forgetting about ourselves and we're just looking at You as our king and You are our master. And at the same time we tell Hashem, you know, we need this and we need that, and we want You to give us banei vachayei umezoni, and want You to give us ruchniyut, we want You to give us all the things that we need. But likhorah, how does that fit together, and we do it at the same time when we tell Hashem, we now are forgetting about ourselves and all we care about is only You? But the truth is that this question is not only concerning the tefilot of Rosh Hashanah, but this is really a question that we could ask on every tefilah, every Shemoneh Esreh. Because we know that the concept of Shemoneh Esreh is that we're supposed to be standing כעומד לפני המלך, like we're standing in front of a king. And the Gemara says in Berachot, דף ל״ג עמוד א׳, that he's עומד לפני מלך מלכי המלכים הקדוש ברוך הוא, you're standing in front of the king. And that is the reason why when we stand Shemoneh Esreh, we are not allowed to make any movement. Why? Because when we're standing in front of Hashem, in front of the king, we have to stand בתכלית הביטול, with the true complete bitul, not any movement at all. Because we know, as the Gemara says in חגיגה, דף ה׳ עמוד ב׳, that if a person is מחוי במחוי קדם מלכא, if a person just makes a movement in front of a king, he deserves to die because this is considered a מרידה במלכות, a revolt against the king. And that is the reason why when we stand Shemoneh Esreh, we're supposed to stand without any movements, without looking at anything, without making any motions to other people. The reason is because that is the time when we feel the תכלית הביטול, completely batel to Hashem, we feel that we are standing like an eved, like a slave in front of the king. And this is the reason why Shemoneh Esreh comes after קריאת שמע and ברכות קריאת שמע, and before that פסוקי דזמרא, all the other parts of davenen, because they are all levels that a person reaches going higher and higher till you finally reach the point, the climax, when you actually feel like you're standing in front of the king. As it says in the Zohar concerning the dream of Yaakov Avinu, as he dreamt that there was a סולם מוצב ארצה וראשו מגיע השמימה. There's a ladder standing on the ground, and its tip is touching the heaven. So it says in the זוהר, דא צלותא, this is davenen, because davenen is a ladder that we step on till we go up. We start when we're still down here, and we go step-by-step till finally you reach the shamayim. The climax of tefilah, the shamayim that you reach in tefilah is the Shemoneh Esreh. And that is why when it comes to Shemoneh Esreh, you have to stand כעבדא קמי מריה, that you feel like you're standing in front of Hashem, in front of the king. So the same question is there, too. At the same time when we feel we're standing כעבדא קמי מריה, we feel completely batel to Hashem, we in the Shemoneh Esreh ask Hashem to give us all our needs. We say ברך עלינו, give us a good year, give us parnasah. רפאנו, give us a refuah, cure us. We ask Hashem for all our needs, gashmiyut and ruchniyut. Now how do these two things fit together? At the same time when we feel completely batel to Hashem, at the same time we feel that we have needs, and we ask Hashem to give us our needs. But on the other hand, the question concerning the tefilah of all year round is not so great, because after all, all year round the haktarah, the coronation of Hashem took place already on Rosh Hashanah, so now we are not in the middle actually of being mevatel ourselves to Hashem. We're not in the middle of the coronation of crowning Hashem as our king, so at that time we don't feel that much how much we are batel to Hashem. So therefore, even when we stand Shemoneh Esrei, and we stand ka'avda kamei marei, like an eved in front of his master, nevertheless there is still a possibility to feel that we also have needs, and we ask Hashem to give us our needs. Even though it's not so simple to understand, but nevertheless we still could, after all, have some explanation that since we are people and we do have needs, we ask Hashem for our needs because we are not in the midst of the bitul. But when we're talking about Rosh Hashanah, when we are actually in the middle of being מכתיר השם, crowning Hashem as king, in the middle when we're stressing the point that we are mevatel ourselves to You, we give ourselves over to You, how is it possible that in the middle of that bitul, we should actually feel that there are certain needs that we have and we ask Hashem to give us our needs at the same time when we tell Hashem we are giving ourselves over to You, nullifying ourselves, and we feel nothing but You?

The explanation to this is that there are two ways a person could approach asking Hashem for his needs. One way is he feels that he needs certain things. It is for his benefit, and therefore he asks Hashem that he should have it. If a person does it that way, then this is a contradiction to the haktarah, to the coronation of Hashem, because you're thinking about yourself, you're thinking of your needs, and at the same time you're being mevatel yourself, you're giving yourself over to Hashem. But then there is another way a person could ask for his needs, and this is the right way a person should do it. Since you know Hashem created the world, and Hashem put you into this world, Hashem wants you to serve Him. In order to serve Hashem, we have to have all our needs, so we should be able to serve Him. As the Rambam says be'arichut in Hilchot Teshuvah, he explains, how is it possible that Hashem should give us reward for our doing mitzvot and serving Him, all the gashmiyusdige things? The pasuk says, \"אם בחקותי תלכו\", if you will follow my chukim, \"ואת מצותי תשמרו\", you will keep my mitzvot, \"ונתתי גשמיכם בעתם\", I will give you the rain in its time, you will have food, etc. Now, how is it possible that food and all other kinds of gashmiyusdige things should be a reward for doing mitzvot, which are spiritual things? And the Rambam explains that this is not what the Torah means. The Torah doesn't mean that we're going to get a reward all these things. Because the real reward we will get in olam haba. All the Torah is saying, that if a person does the mitzvot, does what Hashem wants, Hashem will give him all his needs so it will enable him to continue to serve Hashem and do everything Hashem wants. Because in order for a person to serve Hashem, to do mitzvot and to learn Torah, you have to have food, because otherwise, if you're hungry, you can't study Torah. You have to have clothes, because if you don't have clothes, you can't study Torah. You have to be healthy, because if you're not healthy, you can't study Torah. As there is the famous letter that the Mezritcher Magid wrote to his son who was known as the Malach, a great tzadik, who used to fast a lot, and it affected his health, so the Mezritcher Magid wrote to him, \"Don't fast and don't hurt yourself,\" because he used the term in יידיש, because \"א קליינע לעכעלע אין גוף איז א גרויסע לאך אין נשמה.\" If you have a small hole in your body, it causes a big hole in your neshamah, because if you have a hole in your body and you're sick, then you can't serve Hashem. So what is the use of all the fasting, when this will minimize your ability of learning Torah? So it comes out when a person needs certain things, gashmiyusdige things, and certainly ruchniyusdige things, it could be not because he wants to fulfill his desire. It is because he wants to fulfill the ratzon of Hashem. And in order to do the ratzon of Hashem, you have to have all these gashmiyusdige things. And even when it's not ממש ענינים which are נוגע to a mitzvah, like you ask Hashem to give you wheat, so you should have flour to bake matzah; you ask Hashem to give fruit so you should have an esrog for Sukkos; you ask Hashem to give you olives so you should have oil to light the Chanukah menorah; but even when it comes to actual food for your physical needs, this is also a spiritual need, because you eat so you should be healthy, so you should be able to daven and learn and serve Hashem. In addition to that, there is the concept of בירור הניצוצות, that when a person eats food, and he makes a brachah before he eats and after he eats, and he eats l'shem shamayim with the intention that he should be healthy so he should be able to serve Hashem, this actually elevates the food that he ate, which is also the ratzon of Hashem. Hashem wants us to elevate this physical world. If a person has this in mind when he asks Hashem for his needs, then he's not really asking for himself, but he's really asking for the sake of Hashem. Being that Hashem wants him to serve Him, and the way we serve Hashem is being in this physical world, so for us to have our physical needs, this is the ratzon of Hashem. And this is what goes through the mind of a Yid on Rosh Hashanah. He is מכתיר השם as king, you crown Hashem as king, and you feel that you are nothing, and you are mevatel yourself to Hashem. And at the same time, you say, \"Hashem, I am nothing. I am only here to serve You. And because of that, I ask You to give me all my needs so I should be able to serve You, because if I won't have it, I won't be able to serve.\" And this is the true meaning of the bakashot and the tefilot that we say on Rosh Hashanah.

But one might ask, that is only concerning a person who feels it, who feels that the only reason he needs everything is in order to be able to serve Hashem. But there are many people who are not at the level of feeling it that way. When they ask Hashem to give them parnasah, or to give them health, etc., they feel because they want it. So how is it that the chachamim put into the tefilot of Rosh Hashanah, at a time when we're supposed to think about the hachtarah, the crowning of Hashem, that they put in asking for our physical needs, when many people feel that their needs are there because of their physical need, not because of Hashem? How does that fit with the hachtarah of the king? But the pshat here is, because the Baal Shem Tov says in Keter Shem Tov, based on the pasuk, \"רעבים גם צמאים נפשם בהם תתעטף\", which is a pasuk in תהלים, קפיטל ק\"ז, פסוק ה', that the ones that are hungry, and also the ones that are thirsty, their nefesh is involved, is surrounded with it. So the Baal Shem Tov explains, that when a person is hungry and thirsty, even if he feels that he is hungry because his body wants the bread, he is thirsty because his body needs the water, nevertheless, we have to remember that in truth, it is because his nefesh, the neshamah, is hungry to serve Hashem through the eating and the drinking. And that's the pshat in the pasuk, \"רעבים גם צמאים\", people who are hungry, or people who are thirsty, in essence, \"נפשם בהם תתעטף\", it's their nefesh that's involved here. It's not just because their body wants to eat, it's because the nefesh. Which means that even if a person doesn't feel it, a person feels hungry because his is hungry and thirsty to serve Hashem through eating the bread and through drinking the water. And the same is concerning Rosh Hashanah. When a person stands on Rosh Hashanah and davens to Hashem and asks Hashem to give him banei chayei umezoni revicha, to give him all his physical needs, and in his mind he thinks that why does he need the parnassah? Because he physically needs parnassah. Why does he need health? Because he physically wants to be healthy, not because he only wants to serve Hashem, he doesn't feel it. But even though he doesn't feel it, and he feels because his body needs it, in essence, it's נפשם בהם תתעטף, it's his neshama that wants all these things, because his neshama knows that the only way it could serve Hashem is by having all these things. So even though the person doesn't feel it, but the neshama feels it. The guf doesn't feel it, but the neshama feels it. And therefore, everybody, even those people who don't feel it, also daven to Hashem for their physical needs on Rosh Hashanah, at the same time when we want him to be ממכתיר השם as king, because, eating they essentially are asking Hashem to give them their physical needs because the neshama wants it in order to be able to serve Hashem. So it comes out here that there is no contradiction between these two things. On one hand on Rosh Hashanah we say to Hashem we are mevatel ourselves, we give ourselves over to you, and we are ממכתיר you as king. We have the feeling of bitul at that time, and at the same time we say say to Hashem, we need this and we need that and want you to give it to us, because it's not two separate things. On the contrary, because we feel so batel to Hashem, because at that time we feel that we are nothing and the real being is only Hashem, that is why we ask Hashem for our needs, because we say to him, being that you want us to serve you, and we know that our whole being is only here to serve you, that's why, please, give us health, give us children, give us parnassah, give us all our needs so we should be able to do what you want, we should be able to be your עבדים, and we should be able to serve you. And when Hashem sees that the Yidden give themselves over completely to him, and all they care about is only about Hashem, and even their physical needs are also there only because they know this is the only way to serve Hashem, Hashem says in that case I definitely will give it to you, and Hashem gives the Yidden a kesivah v'chasimah tovah v'shanah tovah umesukah in everything they need, בגשמיות וברוחניות.