Today we will continue quoting from the sign that hung on the front door of the Yeshiva of Kelm throughout the month of Elul. Yesterday we discussed that the foundation of Rosh Hashanah is that Hashem is King, and that a kingdom can only work if the subjects are united. Therefore we, in the kingdom of God, must be united. Unity is not just external, but rather it starts in the heart, specifically, with the Mitzvah Veahavta LeRe’echa Kamocha/loving your fellow Jew like you love yourself. Therefore, during the month of Elul , and during the entire year, we must commit ourselves to this. We can’t come on Rosh Hashanah and declare Hashem the king while we are not working on our friendship and unity with our comrades. This must be a year-long job. Therefore, going into Rosh Hashanah, we have to commit ourselves to this. It’s nice that we, in this group, have been working on this concept, so we can re-commit ourselves to Ahavat Yisrael. He says that, if heaven forbid, a person does not have a clean heart, how can he go into Rosh Hashanah? A person might think that this is too hard. They might wonder how they can do this. But he says that slowly but surely, we will change. We should consider that by committing ourselves to this, we are doing teshuva . He adds, “ Who can fathom the merit for yourself, and for the entire world, if there is a group of people working on loving their fellow Jew?” How do you work on this? By thinking thoughts about loving your fellow Jew. He says we should specifically work on the Sefer Tomar Devorah (B’ezrat Hashem, we will get to that sometime this year). Having this idea in our minds for the entire month of Elul , and for the upcoming year, is a merit for a kativa and Hatima tova (to be written and signed for a good year ) amongst all the Jewish people. This is a very powerful point, which this great leader felt was important enough to post on the front door of his Bet Midrash. He adds that it is a good idea to pick a spot in your prayers, where every day during the month, you can think of this concept. His recommendation is at the point right before the Amida , when we say שִׁירָה חֲדָשָׁה שִׁבְּ֒חוּ גְאוּלִים לְשִׁמְךָ עַל־שְׂפַת הַיָּם יַֽחַד כֻּלָּם הוֹדוּ וְהִמְלִֽיכוּ וְאָמְ֒רוּ S hirat Hadasha A new song… those that are redeemed sang to Your great Name, on the edge of the sea, יחד Yachad , Together , they all praised You and coronated You and said, ה ׳ ימלך לעולם ועד Hashem will be King forever When you say these words every morning, at the word “ Yachad ” Think to yourself First I need “Yachad/ unity, And then - וְהִמְלִֽיכוּ Himlichu, we can make Hashem King If we do this for the next 30 days, every single morning, Yachad , then Himlichu , that will drill into our heads the importance of achdut/unity for Hashem’s kingdom. Have a wonderful day.