A vort from the Rebbe בנוגע Rosh Hashanah. We know Rosh Hashanah is the יום הדין, the day that we are judged, and Hashem gives the verdict of what's going to be with us for the whole next year. And we're judged sei for the גשמיותדיקע things and sei for the רוחניותדיקע things. We're judged for גשמיות, for health, wealth, things like that, all the גשמיותדיקע things that we need Hashem should give us as much as we need. We also daven for the רוחניות, Hashem should give us a חשק to learn Torah and to do mitzvot, etc., etc. And in the תפלות that we say on Rosh Hashanah, this is included, we find there that we ask Hashem for these ענינים. But the question is, we know that the main thing of Rosh Hashanah is קבלת עול מלכות שמים, it's a day we accept Hashem as king, basically we crown Hashem as our king. How do you crown a king? When you show your bitul to the king, you show that you're giving yourself over to the king. So if Rosh Hashanah is a day that the main thing is giving yourself over to the king and mevatel yourself, you nullify all your own your own being, your own ego, how does it fit together with the fact that we ask Hashem for our needs? When we stress our needs, that means I care about myself: I need money, I need health, I need all the things that I'm asking for. So it's something that you feel the I, that I need this, I need that. How does that fit to the fact that this is a day where you're supposed to be mevatel yourself completely to Hashem and not care about yourself at all, but only care about Hashem, because that's the real way you crown the king, that you show him that you give yourself over, you give your whole life over to him? So how do we stress the fact that we need this and we need that on the day of Rosh Hashanah?

And the Rebbe explains that it's not a contradiction at all. When we ask Hashem for our needs, there are two ways we could do it. We could ask Hashem our need for our needs because these are the things that I need. So what's felt here? The I, I need this, I need that. That's a contradiction to the bitul to Hashem. But there's another way. Why do I need all these things? Because that's the only way I could serve Hashem. A person has to be healthy because if he's not healthy he can't learn properly, can't daven properly. He has to have money to do all the mitzvot. Every person has to do his גשמיותדיקע things l'shem Shamayim. Like it says in פרקי אבות, כל מעשיך יהיו לשם שמים, everything's for the sake of Hashem. בכל דרכיך דעהו, there's a פסוק, that in everything that you do, in all your ways, you know Hashem. And this is what a person is supposed to feel on Rosh Hashanah. You're supposed to ask Hashem for all your needs, but you have to feel in it that the reason you're asking for your needs, because then you're able to do what Hashem wants. So it's not that you stress the I, your own personal ego, what you're stressing is the fact that you want to serve Hashem. And in truth, by every Yid, deep down that's the way he feels even though he might not know about it. You can have a person that thinks that he wants all his needs because he wants his needs, he needs it, but in essence the neshamah feels that he wants it because that's the only way he can serve Hashem.

Like there's a vort of the Baal Shem Tov on the pasuk where it says, רעבים גם צמאים נפשם בהם תתעטף. The simple translation of the word is the hungry ones, the thirsty ones, they're all involved in it, when someone is hungry his whole nefesh is involved, he feels it, his whole being feels the fact that he's hungry and thirsty. But the Baal Shem Tov's taytsh is a little different. רעבים גם צמאים, those people are hungry and thirsty and they want food and they want a drink. Physically they feel because their body wants food, her body, the body is hungry, the body is thirsty. זאגט דער פסוק, רעבים גם צמאים, the hungry ones and the thirsty ones, נפשם בהם תתעטף, the reason they want it is because the nefesh, means the neshamah wants it, because every time you eat and you drink, you're mevarer the object, you bring those gashmiyusdike things closer to Hashem. So this is a way you bring Godliness into the world. So a person might think that he wants it because he's hungry and thirsty, because his guf, his body is hungry and thirsty, but the pasuk tells us נפשם בהם תתעטף, deep down that's because his nefesh knows, the נפש אלקית, the neshamah knows that this is going to be what Hashem wants, this is going to be a way he's going to bring Godliness into the world.

And on Rosh Hashanah we have to work on this, to try to feel that all the things that we're asking for, the gashmiyusdike things we're asking for, is all only because when we have them we're able to serve Hashem. And that's why we ask Hashem to give us a שנה טובה ומתוקה, a good year, in ruchniyut and also bagashmiyut, and we stress the gashmiyut, because a Yid uses the gashmiyut for a ruchniyusdike purpose.