YAMIM NORA’IM

The Gemara asks: But isn’t it written: “Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him when He is near” (Isaiah 55:6), which implies that there are times when He is not near and does not answer... Rav Naḥman said that Rabba bar Avuh said: These are the ten days between Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur, during which everyone is given one last opportunity to repent for the sins he committed over the course of the previous year.

Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachman said to Rabbi Hannina bar Papa, the gates of prayer are sometimes open and sometimes closed, but the gates of repentance are always open.

Prayer is likened to a mikveh (bath house) and repentance is likened to the sea, just like a bath house is sometimes open and other times closed, so too the gates of prayer are sometimes open and other times closed, but the sea is always open, so too with the gates of repentance, they are always open.

Rabbi Akiva said: Happy are you, Israel! Who is it before whom you become pure? And who is it that purifies you? Your Father who is in heaven, as it is said: “And I will sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean” (Ezekiel 36:25). And it further says: “O hope (mikveh) of Israel, O Lord” (Jeremiah 17:1--just as a mikveh purifies the unclean, so too does he Holy One, blessed be He, purify Israel.

§ The mishna teaches: On Rosh HaShana all creatures pass before Him like benei maron. The Gemara asks: What is the meaning of the phrase benei maron? The Gemara answers: Here in Babylonia they interpreted it to mean: Like a flock of sheep [kivnei imarna].

We don't read hallel on Rosh Hashana or on Yom Kippur as they are days of service and subjugation, fear and awe from Hashem... it is not fitting to be too merry and joyful.

(2) On the first day of the seventh month, Ezra the priest brought the Torah before the congregation, men and women and all who could listen with understanding. ... (9) Nehemiah the Tirshatha, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were explaining to the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the LORD your God: you must not mourn or weep,” for all the people were weeping as they listened to the words of the Teaching. (10) He further said to them, “Go, eat choice foods and drink sweet drinks and send portions to whoever has nothing prepared, for the day is holy to our Lord. Do not be sad, for your rejoicing in the LORD is the source of your strength.”

The way of the world is for a man who is going through some form of judgment in court to wear black clothes, to grow his beard and to leave his fingernails uncut since he doesn't know what the final ruling will be, but Israel are not so, they wear white clothes and shave and cut their nails and eat and drink on R'H since they know that Hashem will make a miracle...

We eat and drink and are merry and we don't fast on R'H but we don't eat until we are full up in case we become too light headed and so that the fear of Hashem will be upon us.

(11) Serve the LORD in awe; rejoice with trembling,

(2) But how may one discover the way to love and fear Him? When man will reflect concerning His works, and His great and wonderful creatures,¹But he must make thorough study. C. and will behold through them His wonderful, matchless and infinite wisdom, he will spontaneously be filled with love, praise and exaltation and become possessed of a great longing to know the Great Name, even as David said: "My soul thirsts for God, for the living God," (Ps. 42,2); and when he will think of all these matters,²Sifre, Deut. 6.5; Shabbat, 30–31. G. he will be taken aback in a moment and stricken with awe, and realize that he is an infinitesimal creature, humble and dark, standing with an insignificant and slight knowledge in the presence of the All Wise, as David said: "For when I see Thy heavens, the wonderful works of Thy fingers, of what use is man that Thou mayest remember him?" (Ibid. 8,4).

(4) ...It is, therefore, necessary for every man to behold himself throughout the whole year in a light of being evenly balanced between innocence and guilt, and look upon the entire world as if evenly balanced between innocence and guilt; thus, if he commit one sin, he will overbalance himself and the whole world to the side of guilt, and be a cause of its destruction; but if he perform one duty, behold, he will overbalance himself and the whole world to the side of virtue, and bring about his own and their salvation and escape.

Reish Lakish said: Great is repentance, as the penitent’s intentional sins are counted for him as unwitting transgressions, The Gemara asks: Is that so? Didn’t Reish Lakish himself say: Great is repentance, as one’s intentional sins are counted for him as merits, The Gemara reconciles: This is not difficult: Here, when one repents out of love, his sins become like merits; there, when one repents out of fear, his sins are counted as unwitting transgressions.

(8) Section one: Rabbi Shimon ben Gamaliel said: There were no days of joy in Israel greater than the fifteenth of Av and Yom Kippur. Section two: On these days the daughters of Jerusalem would go out in borrowed white garments in order not to shame any one who had none... The daughters of Jerusalem come out and dance in the vineyards.

MISHNA: One who did not see the Celebration of the Place of the Drawing of the Water never saw celebration in his days.

Both these and those say: Happy is he who did not sin; and he who sinned should repent and God will absolve him.