Prayer books are not usually etiquette manuals. They tell us what to say to G-d, not what to say to the person sitting beside us.

Which is why there is one short line in the Rosh Hashanah prayers of tonight that is so surprising.

Actually, it’s the line immediately after the evening services for tonight (the first night of Rosh Hashanah). The Alter Rebbe does something rare. He records a custom we should do as part of our prayers:

“It is customary on the first night of Rosh Hashanah to greet one another as follows: “L’shanah tovah tikatev v’techatem – May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year.”

The prayer book does not instruct us to wish everyone “Good Shabbos” every Friday night. It does not remind us to say “Chag Sameach” on every holiday. Yet on the holiest and most serious night of the year, the prayer book tells us to stop and bless someone else.

In fact, turning our attention toward another person, especially while still in the Synagogue, on this holy night of Rosh Hashanah, feels very out of place.

This is the time when each of us stands before G-d in a deeply personal space. We are looking back at the year that has passed, thinking about our successes and failures. We remember the promises we kept and the ones we forgot. There may be thoughts in our hearts on Rosh Hashanah that we have never shared out loud.

And when you appreciate the unique spiritual energy of the first night of the New Year according to Chassidic philosophy, the paradox of blessing others on a night of introspection is even more shocking.

As the Alter Rebbe explains, when the old year ends, the Divine vitality that sustained the world during the previous year rises back to its source. Like a person in a deep sleep, the world is only technically alive during the first night of the year. Its outer life continues, but the inner desire and awareness we experience when awake and alert, is missing from........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)