The Righteous, The Wicked & The Rest of Us

Each and every human being has merits and sins. One whose merits exceed one's sins is a righteous person (tzaddik), and one whose sins exceed his merits is a wicked person (rasha); if both are evenly balanced, one is an average person (beinoni).

And so it is with a state. If the merits of all of its inhabitants exceeded their sins, it is, indeed, a righteous state; but if their sins exceeded, it is, indeed, a wicked state.

And so it is with the whole world.

But the weighing of all this is not according to the number of merits and sins, but according to their magnitude. There are merits that outweigh many sins, as it is says: "Because in him there is found some good thing" (I Kings, 14. 13); and there are sins which outweigh many merits, as it is says: "But one sinner destroys much good" (Ecc. 9. 18).

But all of this is not not weighed by anyone; it exists only in the knowledge of the All-knowing God, for only God knows the measurement of merits against sins.

One who regrets one's observance of the commandments one has done, and regrets one's merits, and says in their heart: "What have I gotten by observing these? Better to not have observed them!" This person, indeed, loses the merit of all of them, and by no merit in the world will they be remembered, as it is says, "The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression" (Ezek. 312); on no other sin can this be said except on the sin of regretting one's good deeds.

And, even a person's merits and sins are weighed at the time of his death so are the sins and merits of each and every one who comes into this earth weighed during the holy day of Rosh HaShanah. One who is found righteous is sealed for life; one who is found wicked is sealed for death, and the average person's fate is suspended until Yom Kippur. If one repents, one is sealed for life, if not one is sealed for death.

Even though the blowing of the shofar on Rosh HaShanah is simply derived from the Torah, it hints at a deeper message, as if to say: "Wake up, you sleepers, from your sleep, stir yourselves, you slumberers, from your slumber! Examine your conduct, turn back in teshuvah, and remember your Creator!" This is directed at those who forget the truth because of the vanities of the times, who waste all of their years in error, by pursuing vanity and idleness, which are of neither benefit nor of salvation. So care for your souls, improve your ways and your tendencies, let each one of you abandon your evil path and your impure thoughts!

It is, therefore, necessary for every person to see themselves throughout the whole year as if they were evenly balanced between innocence and guilt, and to look upon the entire world as if it were evenly balanced between innocence and guilt; And thus, if one were to commit just one sin, one would tip the balance and bring the whole world to the side of guilt, and be the cause of its destruction; but if one were to perform one mitzvah, behold, one would tip the balance for onesself and for the whole world to the side of merit, and bring about one's own salvation and liberation, and everyone else's - as it is said: "But the righteous is an everlasting foundation" (Prov. 10. 25), this is the one by whose righteousness tipped the whole world to virtue and saved it.

Because of this, it became the custom of the whole of Israel to increase in giving tzedakah, in good deeds and in the performance of mitzvot during the days between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, over and above what they do during the whole year. It also became a universal custom to rise early during those ten days, to deliver in the synagogues prayers of supplication and submission till the dawn of the day.