We continue in our mini series on the pesukim of Musaf Rosh Hashanah and we are up to our 10th pasuk of Malchuyot, which is the culmination, Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokenu Hashem Echad. It's interesting that our 10th Pasuk does not have the word melech in it because this is actually what we call Kabbalat Ohl Malchut Shamayim/accepting the yoke of God's kingdom by saying Hashem is Elokenu , Hashem is Echad . Obviously, if He is the God and He is the Boss and He is the only One, then He is the King. Rav Wolbe, in his sefer Aleh Shur, goes to the first pasuk of Keriat Shema and says it's a wonder that we could spend years to perfect saying this. He first explains the words Shema Yisrael based on the Gemara in Hulin 91B that says the Jewish people are dear, more dear than the angels. The angels, before they say Hashem's name, have to say three words, kadosh, kadosh, kadosh, whereas the Jewish people only say two words, Shema Yisrael . Obviously, it's not about the number of words said, but the amount of preparation or what you need to do to mention Hashem's name. The angel's three kadoshes, mean 1- in the heavens, 2- on the earth, and 3- for eternity . So God is Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, in heaven, on earth and for eternity. And then they can say Hashem's name. Whereas the Jewish people say Shema Yisrael, which means listen . Listen to the fact that you are a Yisrael . Listen well to what it means to be a Jew because that's all you need to connect to God. The Jewish people are naturally connected to God. When we say Keriat Shema , God, so to say, dwells on the person. Why? He says, because Hashem Elokenu is what the Gaon of Vilna calls a Shem Maleh/ God's complete name . That's the totality. Hashem Elokenu means Hashem brought everything into existence, He is, was, and will be, and He is supervising and controlling the world. That Shem Maleh can only dwell on an Olam Maleh/ a full world, like at creation the word Elokenu wasn't said until the world was complete. He says, the Jewish people in and of themselves are a complete world. In other words, we are a complete world . And therefore, in the Jewish people is hidden all the secrets that we need to be ready and prepared. So the first thing we have to do is connect ourselves to the Jewish people. Hashem Elokenu means He's not just the God of the world, but as we said, He's Elokeh Yisrael. He's the God of the Jewish people . He, of course, controls the whole world, but there's a special supervision on us. Hashem Echad, as we mentioned in the past, means Hashem, who currently is revealed as Elokenu, will, in the future, be known to the world as Hashem Echad. There's another explanation of Echad , which is the deep concept En Od Milevado, which means there's nothing else but God . This is a hard concept to fully appreciate, but there's nothing else but God in the world. Everything is His existence. He quotes the Gemara that says a concept called we gained from Him or we're living in Him. An additional point within Kriyat Shema , which is especially important for Rosh Hashanah, when we are accepting the yoke of God's kingdom on us for the whole year, is that you have to say it to the point of Mesirut Nefesh. You have to be ready to give up your life for the cause. Bechol Nafshecha/with all your life. It says you're supposed to imagine that you are being told to either bow to an idol or jump in the fiery furnace, and you have to imagine you did it. But Rav Wolbe explains that we can, so to say, fool ourselves. You may be ready to die Al Kiddush Hashem, he says, but when someone asks you something and you can't control yourself and you share some Lashon Hara, what happens? You are ready to die Al Kiddush Hashem , but you can't control yourself from whatever it may be? It could be anything-Eating what you shouldn't, looking where you shouldn't…What happened to dying for the cause if you can't even do this? Therefore, he says that the real, true Kabbalat Ohl Malchut Shamayim is to take something real, on your level instead. The example that he gave was, I can't sit for 4 hours and learn straight?! What happened to my dying for the cause? Can I do a half an hour? And for the first half hour, I'll learn without interfering. That's my Mesirut Nefesh. That is my giving up . So you have to find where you're holding, and that is the commitment. And then if you see you can do more, you add more. Your Kabbalat Ohl Malchut Shamayim on Rosh Hashana is not, " I'm never going to xyz." That's fake. Of course, you're dreaming for that. You hope for that. But your commitment has to be something that's real and attainable . There's a cute story they tell about a man that was accepting upon himself to join the communist party. They asked them questions: If you have two planes, what do you do? " One for me, one for Mother Russia." If you have two cars, what do you do? One for me, one for Mother Russia. If you have two cows, what do you do? One for me, one for mother Russia. If you have two shirts what do you do? He doesn't answer. Why aren't you answering? Because I actually have two shirts. Similarly , in theory , I'd jump into a fiery furnace. Why not? But it's not on the table right now. The real stuff, I'm not ready to talk about. That is what Kabbalat Ohl Malchut Shamayim is. Rav Wolbe says we have to use the month of Elul to prepare, so eventually we do it right when we get to this 10th pasuk on Rosh Hashanah. ​