We are now in the month of Elul. In PreWar Europe, there was a great Yeshiva, the Yeshiva of Kelm, which was led by the great Rabbi, Rav Simcha Zissel Ziv, also known as the Elder of Kelm. He was one of the foremost students of the father of the Mussar movement, Rav Yisrael Salanter. Many great rabbis came from his Yeshiva. Rav Aharon Kotler, Rav Yerucham Levovitz, the Michtav M’Eliyahu, Rav Dessler, Rabbi Eliyahu Lopian… all of them and many other rabbis of the Mussar world came from the Slobodka Yeshiva, which had its origins in the Yeshiva of Kelm. And on the front door of the Kelm Bet Midrash, for the entire month of Elul, a sign was hung, with two words at the top הערה נוראה An Awesome Awakening And the message of the sign was the following: The main focus of Rosh Hashanah is making Hashem King . When we look into the world of flesh and blood, ( we see that ) the kingdoms of humans can only function if there is unity among the ranks. Civil war, a divided cabinet or an inability to create a government can result in anarchy. Furthermore, we are supposed to use physical kings and kingdoms in order to learn about the kingdom of Hashem. That is why Hashem made physical kings- as a mashal for His kingdom. Thirdly, on Rosh Hashanah, Hashem wants us to anoint Him as King; to accept Him as King over us. But we can only do that if we have unity. One of the pesukim that we read on Rosh Hashanah says, “God will be King over the Jewish people when when the leaders are united.“ But God doesn’t just want external unity. He wants internal unity. That requires us to accept this upon ourselves, as he writes, “It is a responsibility to work the entire year on the positive commandment of Veahavta LeRe’echa Kamocha/loving your friend like you love yourself.” And by working on the Mitzvah of loving your friend like you love yourself, we will have unity and be able to crown Hashem as King. And if, God forbid, we have hate in our hearts for anybody, how then can we not be embarrassed to say that we want Him to be King over the world; if we ourselves are uprooting our kingdom with our actions? Therefore , he says, we must dedicate ourselves to loving our fellow Jew, all year long, but especially during Elul.”