Watch Rabbi David Sutton - A Path To A Meaningful , Positive, and Meaningful Elul & Yamim Noraim https://itorah.com/browse-lectures/all/all-speakers/personal-growth-midot-/midot-perseverance/all-languages/2024-09-08 We continue in our special mini-series of Pesukim of the Rosh Hashanah Musaf . We're up to the 7th pasuk in Malchuyot , which comes from Yeshaya 44,6 כֹּה־אָמַ֨ר יְהֹוָ֧ה מֶלֶךְ־יִשְׂרָאֵ֛ל וְגֹאֲל֖וֹ יְהֹוָ֣ה צְבָא֑וֹת אֲנִ֤י רִאשׁוֹן֙ וַאֲנִ֣י אַחֲר֔וֹן וּמִבַּלְעָדַ֖י אֵ֥ין אֱלֹהִֽים׃ So said Hashem, the King of Israel and its Redeemer, the God of the hosts. I am the first One, I am the last One. Besides Me, there is no god, there is no controller. Malbim tells us that this pasuk is coming to correct some ancient mistakes in the understanding of God. There was a mistaken belief called Olam Kadmon that the world always existed; that there wasn't anything there before, that matter or the mass of the world pre existed and God somehow just worked with it. On that, we say Ani Rishon/Hashem is first, nothing existed before Him, and nothing will exist after Him because He is the Source of all existence. And to one who might say that there is more than one force to do this, we say וּמִבַּלְעָדַ֖י אֵ֥ין אֱלֹהִֽים /There is nothing else but Hashem , which is really the concept of En Od Milevado / There's nothing else but God. He existed beforehand, He'll exist after, and even in the interim, there is nothing else but Him. The Yerushalmi, based on this pasuk, says the famous line that ' God's signature is Emet .' Emet means that Hu Elohim Chaim U'Melech Olam/He's a living God and He's an everlasting King . That is why, Resh Lakish tells us, אמת Emet has an א Aleph , which is at the beginning of the Aleph Bet, מ Mem which is in the middle, and ת Taf at the end of the Aleph Bet. It's a hint to this pasuk that Hashem is Emet , which means he's Aleph , he's the Rishon. He didn't receive anything from anybody. There's no one else but God. He has no partner, and in the end He's never going to hand it over to anybody else. That's the consistency and Emet of Hashem that's going through all times. Orchot Sadikim in Shaar Emet/Gate of Truth, discusses when God introduced Himself to Moshe Rabbenu. He said, My name is Ehiyeh Asher Ehiyeh/I will be that I will be. And he says, if you multiply the numerical value of that name, אהיה (21) times אהיה (21), it's same numerical value as אמת Emet, which is 441. God introduced Himself as I am, I was, and I always will be. And that's the concept of Emet , the constant. And that is this pasuk, that Hashem says, אֲנִ֤י רִאשׁוֹן֙ וַאֲנִ֣י אַחֲר֔וֹן וּמִבַּלְעָדַ֖י אֵ֥ין אֱלֹהִֽים׃ The Avudarham says that we actually hint to this pasuk every day in our prayers. After we say Keriat Shema, we say Emet Ata Hu Rishon V'ata Hu Aharon/The truth is You're the first and You're the last, which is based on our pasuk of Ani Rishon V'Ani Aharon. We say, Umibaladecha En Lanu Melech Goel U'Mashiach/And besides You, there is no King and Redeemer that will save us. That's based on the end of that pasuk וּמִבַּלְעָדַ֖י אֵ֥ין אֱלֹהִֽים׃ So we hint to this pasuk every day in our prayers after Keriat Shema. Rav Yehezkiel Levenstein, in his sefer on Emunah , says one of the difficult things of our Emunah is to understand that nothing happens in this world without the will of God, because all there is is the will of God. In the future it will be revealed, and we will see clearly that everything that happened in the world, even though it was decided by wicked people, was really guided by God. (We don't understand a person can have freedom of choice, and God knows what's going to happen and wants it to happen). Nothing happens to the world against His will because there's nothing else but Him. And even though it looks like things happen by the wicked, against God's will, and they think they're doing against His will and they're going to get punished because they think they're going against His will, ultimately, everything is turning the wheels towards where He wants to get to. The Rav gives an example of the Pi HaAretz/the mouth of the earth, which was created at the beginning of creation to swallow up Korach. That revelation had to happen, and it was going happen. And yet Korach decided to be the one to bring it about, and he was punished for it. Nothing that happens in the world is chaos, although it looks like it's out of control. That's a mistake. It can't be. It's impossible, because all that exists is God's will and there's nothing else here but Him. So everything that's happening is happening in the backdrop of His Oneness and bringing us to the ultimate redemption and end. It's hard to perceive, but on Rosh Hashanah, in the middle of our prayers, when we say this pasuk , that's what we're trying to envision.