We know that the Shabbat before Rosh Chodesh is always Shabbat Mevarchim, which means it's the Shabbat when we bless the new month, when we bless the day of Rosh Chodesh that's going to be in the coming week, and through that we bless, we give a brachah to the whole month. With the exception of the Shabbat before Rosh Hashanah. The Shabbat before Rosh Hashanah is also the Shabbat before Rosh Chodesh, because Rosh Hashanah is the beginning of the month of Tishrei. And nevertheless, the Shabbat before Rosh Hashanah, we don't say the brachot that we usually say in Shabbat Mevarchim. The reason for that is was given by the Baal Shem Tov, as it is written in the הוספות to Keter Shem Tov. And he says as follows: החודש השביעי שהוא החודש הראשון לחודשי השנה, the seventh month, which is the first month for the months of the year, הקדוש ברוך הוא בעצמו מברכו בשבת מברכים. Hashem himself gives it the brachah on שבת מברכים, שהוא השבת האחרון דחודש אלול, which is the last Shabbat of the month of Elul. Uv'choach zeh, and with this power, ישראל מברכים את החודשים י״א פעמים בשנה, the Bnei Yisrael bless all other months eleven times a year. This is the reason given by the Baal Shem Tov. The Magen Avraham in Orach Chaim, the beginning of סימן תקי״ז, says a remez to the inyan that the Shabbat before Rosh Hashanah we don't bentch the chodesh, it's taken from the פסוק בכסה ליום חגנו. As the פסוק says: תקעו בחודש שופר בכסה ליום חגנו, that you should blow on the חודש שופר, בכסה, when it's hidden, ליום חגנו, when the Yom Tov is hidden. And as the Gemara in Rosh Hashanah דף ח׳ עמוד א׳ darshens from this pasuk that איזהו חג שהחודש מתכסה בו, which is a Yom Tov that the chodesh is hidden, which means which is a Yom Tov that the moon is hidden on that day, because other Yom Tovim are in middle of the month, so the moon is not hidden, the moon is full. But which is the Yom Tov that the chodesh, the moon, is מתכסה, is hidden? That is Rosh Hashanah, because Rosh Hashanah is on the first day of the month. But being the pasuk says בכסה ליום חגנו that it's hidden, therefore we don't bentsch that chodesh, it is hidden that day. We don't reveal which day that Yom Tov will be. But in the minhagim of the Rav Kloizner, which was the Rebbe of the Maharil in מנהגי ראש השנה אות א׳ הגהה א׳, and also the Rav Tirna in Chodesh Elul, and the Levush in סימן תקפ״א, they give another reason why we don't bentsch the chodesh the Shabbos before Rosh Hashanah. And they say the reason is לערבב השטן, to mix up the שטן, שלא ידע שהיום הוא ראש חודש תשרי, he shouldn't know which is the day when ראש חודש תשרי is. And this is also the reason, as brought down in all these sefarim and also in the Shulchan Aruch of the Alter Rebbe in אורח חיים סימן תקצ״א סעיף ו׳, why we don't mention the inyan of ראש חודש in the tefilot of Rosh Hashanah. If Rosh Hashanah is ראש חודש also, so we should mention ראש חודש in the tefilot of Rosh Hashanah, but we don't. And the reason is לערבב השטן, to mix up the שטן, שלא ידע ידע שהיום הוא ראש חודש תשרי ולא יבוא לקטרג, so he shouldn't know that this is Rosh Chodesh Tishrei. So here we see that this inyan of לערבב השטן, in order to mix up the satan, is the reason why we don't bentsch the Shabbos before Rosh Chodesh, so the satan shouldn't know when Rosh Chodesh is, so he won't know when Rosh Hashanah is, so he won't be able to be mekatreg. And also, on Rosh Hashanah we don't say that it's Rosh Chodesh, so he shouldn't know it's Rosh Chodesh Tishrei.

But lichorah, we have to understand this whole inyan. The satan is a malach, and he comes to the בית דין של מעלה, etc., etc. As it says clearly in the beginning of Sefer Iyov that the satan came on the Yom HaDin, which is on ראש השנה, להתייצב על ה׳, to stand in front of Hashem, etc., etc. So how can we mix up the satan and trick the satan in such a simple thing that he shouldn't know that it's Rosh Hashanah? Something that everyone knows, it's printed in the calendars, so to speak. So it's a very simple thing. So because we don't bentsch ראש חודש, or because we don't mention Rosh Chodesh in the tefilot of Rosh Hashanah, that's why the satan won't know that it's Rosh Hashanah? Be'emet, we find this reason concerning other things. They give this reason also why we don't blow shofar on Erev Rosh Hashanah. We know we blow shofar the whole month of Elul, and on Erev Rosh Hashanah we stop blowing, we don't blow. So in these minhagim, and also in the Maharil מנהגי ימים נוראים הגהה ב׳, the Mateh Moshe סימן תשע״ח, and other poskim give the reason because the satan should think that the Yom HaDin passed already, and that's why we don't blow shofar on Erev Rosh Hashanah. And also, in the sefer, as we mentioned before, the Rav Kloizner in Minhagei Rosh Hashanah says that this is also the reason why we start reading חומש בראשית שמחת תורה and not on Rosh Hashanah. Be'emet, we should have started on Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of the year, that's when we should start reading the Torah over again. But the reason is כדי שלא יבין אי ראש השנה אי אחרי השנה, so the satan will not know if it's the beginning of the year or the end of the year. So the same question we have here: how can we say that through not blowing shofar on Erev Rosh Hashanah, and through not starting to lain Bereishis on Rosh Hashanah, we will mix up the satan, and he will think that avar yoma d'dina, the day of judgment passed? Especially when you see other things done on Rosh Hashanah, you see that it's Rosh Hashanah. So if the satan sees that we do other things on Rosh Hashanah, so why won't he know it's Rosh Hashanah? And bichlal, as we said before, how is it possible to say that we mix up the satan that he doesn't know what Yom HaDin is? Be'emet, you find this reason for other things also. The Rosh at the end of מסכת ראש השנה, and the Ra'avyah in סימן תקמ\"ב, and the Tur in the beginning of סימן תקפ\"א in the name of the Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, they bring that why do we blow shofar during the whole month of Elul, it's also for the same reason: to mix up the שטן, שלא יבין מתי יהיה ראש השנה, so he won't know when is Rosh Hashanah. So the reason we blow shofar during the whole month of Elul is also for to mix up the satan. And here too we have the same question: how can we say that by blowing shofar during the month of Elul, we will mix up the satan, and cheat him and trick him, and he will think that it's not Rosh Hashanah? But be'emet,

this inyan of doing something to mix up the satan, we find in the Gemara. The Gemara says in ראש השנה דף ט\"ז עמוד א', concerning the mitzvah of blowing shofar on ראש השנה בכלל, אמר רבי יצחק, רבי יצחק said like this: למה תוקעין ומריעין כשהן יושבין, ותוקעין ומריעין כשהן עומדין? Why do we blow tekiot, teruot when we're sitting, and then we blow again when we're standing? כדי לערבב השטן, in order to mix up the satan. That's why we blow so much. And Rashi there explains that what does that mean? שלא ישטין, he shouldn't be able to be משטין, he shouldn't be able to come to Hashem and speak bad about bad about us. And Rashi gives the reason: כשישמע ישראל מחבבין את המצוות נסתתמין דבריו. That when he will hear that the Yidden love the mitzvot so much, his words will be stopped up, he won't have what to say. That when the satan will see that the Yidden blow once, and it's not enough and they blow again, this will show him that they love the mitzvot, so he'll think to himself, if they love the mitzvot so much, so Hashem won't listen to me anyway, and therefore he won't come to be מקטרג. So just like Rashi explains it in that inyan, the same way we could explain concerning the blowing of the shofar during the month of Elul. We said before that it says that one of the reasons we blow shofar during the month of Elul is לערבב השטן, and we ask, what's פשט לערבב השטן, so he won't know when Rosh Hashanah is? How could we cheat him? How could we trick him? But the pshat is different. It's similar to what Rashi says. Because we know that the tekiot of חודש אלול, the inyan of it is in order to bring the Yidden to teshuvah, as the pasuk says, אם יתקע שופר בעיר ועם לא יחרדו. So when you blow shofar, it awakens the people to teshuvah. And therefore, through the Yidden blowing shofar during the month of Elul, and they get נתעורר בתשובה, this mixes up the satan that the satan thinks that the Yidden already, through their teshuvah in the month of Elul, already were זוכה בדין in the month of Elul. And therefore, his coming to be mekatrag will not do any good, and therefore he stops being mekatrag. Just like the reason we blow a lot of shofar on Rosh Hashanah, so the Satan will think that we have so many mitzvot, and therefore his words don't mean anything, the same is concerning the עירבוב השטן when we blow the shofar in Elul. That he will not come to be mekatrag because he will see that we already, since we blew shofar in Elul and we were נתעורר בתשובה, we were זוכה בדין already in the month of Elul. And this is the meaning when it says that he will not know when Rosh Hashanah is. It doesn't mean he will not know pashut when the date of Rosh Hashanah is, he won't know what it says in the calendar. The pshat is he will not know when the דין ומשפט of Rosh Hashanah will take place. In other words, when a Yid does teshuvah even before Rosh Hashanah comes, the Yid is already guaranteed that he will have a ketivah vechatimah tovah in the ספר הצדיקים. The din is already finished before Rosh Hashanah comes, yet in the month of Elul. Because we know that when a Yid does teshuvah properly, his גזר דין could be changed even in the middle of the year, not of Rosh Hashanah. As the story with Chizkiyahu Hamelech, as brought down in מלכים ב' קפיטל כ' and on, that because he did teshuvah and he davent to Hashem, Hashem said, והוספתי על ימיך חמש עשרה שנה. Hashem added 15 years to his life, even though there was a גזר דין he should die, and this didn't take place on Rosh Hashanah. So we see that the גזר דין could be changed even in the middle of the year. So when the Satan will see that the Yidden blow shofar on on Elul, and m'meila they're נתעורר בתשובה, he will not know when is Rosh Hashanah, and that means he will not know when is the דין ומשפט of Rosh Hashanah, which means he'll think that the דין ומשפט was took place already, and therefore he will not come on Rosh Hashanah to be mekatreg. And even if he will come to be mekatreg, he'll think in his mind that it's probably only על הספק. There is only a doubt whether his words can mean anything or not. So therefore he will not be mekatreg with such a tokef, so strongly. And that's what we mean that we blow shofar in the month of אלול לערבב השטן, meaning that the Satan should feel that he has nothing to say because we already were זוכה בדין. This is also the explanation why we don't blow shofar on ערב ראש השנה, also to be me'arvev the Satan, because the Satan will think that the יום הדין passed already, which means as follows: in order to mix up the Satan even more, that he should think that already in the month of Elul the Yidden were זוכה בדין and therefore he has nothing to say, because of that, the last day of Elul we don't blow shofar. So when the Satan sees that we don't blow shofar, he feels that we already have the zechut of shofar so much that we don't need any more the zechut of shofar. The teshuvah that we were nitorer through the month of Elul was so strong that at the last day we already don't need any more zechuyot. And that's the pshat that we don't blow shofar on ערב ראש השנה to mix up the Satan, not that the Satan will not know when is Rosh Hashanah. That means it'll mix him up, he will not know when the din is, meaning he will think the din was done already. He will see that the zechus was there already, and that is the reason we don't blow, because we don't need any more zechus. Or we could say just the opposite: that when the Satan sees when it comes the last day of Elul and we don't blow shofar, the Satan will think, \"Oh, they were nisorer b'teshuvah all month, but look, the last day they don't have the zechus of blowing shofar, so they don't have the zechus of teshuvah.\" So he feels that he has nothing to be mekatreg for, because this itself is a kitrug. The fact that they don't blow is a kitrug, and therefore he will not come to be mekatreg.

And this also explains the other two reasons, why we don't say mention Rosh Chodesh on Rosh Hashanah, and also why we don't start ליינען בראשית on Rosh Hashanah, and the reason is לערבב השטן, but what it means is as follows: when we say that really we should have mentioned Rosh Chodesh on Rosh Hashanah, we should have started ליינען בראשית on Rosh Hashanah, it's not just because that's the time of the year. It's the first day of the month, we should mention Rosh Chodesh, or when you start a year, that's when you should start leinen the Torah. It's more than that. When you mention Rosh Chodesh, you're mentioning another zechus for the Bnei Yisrael. Rosh Chodesh is a special day, it's a special zechus for the Yidden. So l'chorah we should have mentioned Rosh Chodesh on Rosh Hashanah because this will add to the zechuyot of the Bnei Yisrael. It's self-understood that we have to try to mention more zechuyot, the more the better, on Rosh Hashanah. And the same is why we should have started ליינען פרשת בראשית on Rosh Hashanah, it's not just because of the time of the year, but because if we start the Torah over again, that's a great zechus. So that zechut would help us out to win the din on Rosh Hashanah. So when we're saying that we don't do these things because לערבב השטן, what it means is that when the Satan sees that we don't mention Rosh Chodesh and we don't start leinen, so he thinks in his mind, \"Oh, they could have had an extra zechut, and they don't. They don't care about this extra zechut.\" Umimeila, what'll that do? The Satan will think that he has no reason to be mekategor because the kitrug is there already. Just like we gave a reason why we don't blow shofar on ערב ראש השנה, לערבב השטן, so we said one of the reasons is so the Satan should think that we're missing a zechut that we could have had, umimeila he feels, \"Ah, they don't care about their zechut, that itself is a kitrug, so he doesn't have to be mekategor.\" The same is that he will see that the Yidden could have mentioned Rosh Chodesh, could have mentioned an extra zechut, the Yidden could have started reading Bereishit on Rosh Hashanah, could have had an extra zechut, they don't. Also it means that they're not so great. Umimeila that itself is the best kitrug, he thinks in his mind, and therefore he will not be mekategor. And that's the pshat לערבב השטן, not to mix him up that he will not know the date. The date he knows. As it'll mix him up, it means that it'll stuff his mouth, meaning it'll stop him from speaking because of this reason. Or by some things because he sees that we have so many zechuyot, he'll feel that he has no reason to be mekategor because it won't help him anyway. By some things it'll make him feel that the kitrug is there already and therefore he doesn't have to come to be mekategor. And that is what we mean when we say we do these things כדי לערבב השטן to mix him up. But be'emet

we have to understand: sof kol sof, we are missing the zechut of these things. What do we say? We don't blow shofar on Erev Rosh Hashanah, one of the reasons is so the Satan will think we're missing the zechut. We don't mention Rosh Chodesh on Rosh Hashanah so the Satan will think we're missing the zechut. We don't start ליינען בראשית on Rosh Hashanah because the Satan will think we're missing the zechus, and that itself is a mekaterg. But sof kol sof, we are missing the zechus. So then is it k'dai that in order for the Satan to think that we're missing the zechus, we should actually miss the zechus? Wouldn't it be better that we should not care what the Satan will think and do these things in order to have the zechus? Wouldn't it be better to have the zechus? But the answer is that sof kol sof we do have the zechus. When a Yid sees that the reason you don't blow shofar on Erev Rosh Hashanah, and the reason you don't mention Rosh Chodesh on Rosh Hashanah, and you don't start בראשית is because we're afraid of the Satan, and we have to do things that the Satan should not be mekaterg, this itself brings out in the person a hisorerus teshuvah, an awakening, a feeling of teshuvah, because he sees, \"Look, I'm in such a position that I have to be afraid of the Satan, and I have to do things to stop the Satan from being mekaterg, veharaayah I'm taking away certain zechuyot in order to mix up the Satan.\" So the fact that I'm taking away certain zechuyot, this itself brings a person to do teshuvah. So this itself brings another zechus to the Yid. So what we do is we accomplish both. On one hand we don't do these zechuyot, so the Satan will not be mekaterg, and at the same hand we are not missing the zechus, because the fact that we don't have these zechuyot brings about another zechus. It brings a Yid to do a stronger teshuvah, because he sees that he has to be worried about the Satan, m'meila that thing shows that his avodah is not proper, because otherwise he wouldn't have to be worried about the Satan, m'meila that brings him to do a bigger teshuvah. And this is also the reason why the Shabbos before Rosh Hashanah we don't mention Rosh Chodesh. We don't want to mention the zechut of Rosh Chodesh, so the satan will think that we're missing that zechut of Rosh Chodesh. But, I will say that in the meantime we are missing, but we're not missing, because when we feel that we're missing a zechut that we could have had because we're worried about the satan, this brings the person to do a deeper teshuvah. And be'emet this is connected to the reason we mentioned in the name of the Baal Shem Tov, that on the Shabbos before Rosh Hashanah Hashem himself benches the Rosh Chodesh. And that's why we don't have to bench. These two things are connected. Because in order to get the special berachah of Hashem, that Hashem himself should bench the Rosh Chodesh, we have to do proper teshuvah. One of the ways of doing proper teshuvah is by us not benching Rosh Chodesh because of the satan. And this, as we said before, awakens the person to feel that he is not the way he should be and therefore he has to be worried about the satan, so this makes the person a kli that he should be able to receive the special berachot is given by Hashem the Shabbos before Rosh Hashanah. But from all this it comes out that when we say that we do certain things or we don't do certain things לערבב השטן, it doesn't mean pashut that the satan doesn't know what the date is, but it mean that we do things or such special zechuyot the satan feels that he can't do anything about it and therefore he will not be mekatreg, or we miss certain zechuyot in order for the satan to think that he has no reason to be mekatreg because the kitrug is there from before. And on the other hand we are not missing those zechuyot, because the fact that we know that we have to give up certain zechuyot because of the satan brings a Yid to higher level of teshuvah.