We're accustomed to thinking that spiritual growth demands struggle: battling habits, fighting ego, resisting the need for recognition, and trying not to constantly compare ourselves to others. We exert tremendous effort to become better people, yet goodness still feels like something external, something we must conquer and attain from outside ourselves.
But when Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbat, a profoundly different level of growth is revealed: not adding another battle, but discovering that goodness already exists within us. It's not merely an action we occasionally manage to perform, but our inner essence, the identity from which we can truly live.
Every Rosh Hashanah we crown the Almighty through the blowing of the shofar. This year, however, when the first day falls on Shabbat and no shofar is sounded, Shabbat itself elevates us to a different plane: we're not standing outside the palace trying to approach the King, we discover we're already inside, part of the kingdom itself.
In a special lesson for Rosh Hashanah 5787, Rabbi Yoav Akrish explains how this revelation transforms our entire way of being: we can do good without depending on thanks and validation; we can be humble without diminishing ourselves; and we can stop constantly checking where we stand relative to others. Not because we've stopped working and striving, but because the work begins from a higher, more internal place.
This is the opportunity of this Rosh Hashanah: not just to make another good resolution, but to grow to a new level in our souls and discover that the person we're seeking to become already exists within us.
