The Untaneh Tokef prayer is the cantorial highlight of the Musaf service of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur: "And all beings in the world pass before you like sheep [kibnei maron]." This is based on the Gemara, Rosh Hashanah 18a: "What are bnei maron? Here in Babylon they translated 'like sheep'. Reish Lakish said: 'Like the steps of Beit Maron.' Rabbi Yehuda said in the name of Shmuel: 'Like the soldiers of the House of David.' "



Rabbi Beryl Gershenfeld (Jewish Thought, Elul 5750) explains: The Almighty judges us as sheep, as His flock. We are all Jews, and during these days of Judgement, God ascertains if we lived up to His standards for a Jew. However, "each individual Jew is unique, with a special task in life, which he alone can fulfill." And so we are judged on Rosh Hashana as individuals separated from one another as if on the narrow mountain pass of Beit Maron, each according to how he lived up to his specific mission.



Finally, none of us is an island. Like soldiers in the army of King David, each having to complement the next, we are judged according to how we functioned in the nation of Israel, in Klal Yisrael. For example, even if a Jew fails to uphold the Shulchan Aruch, or to fulfill his unique mission in life, he may still find vindication on the Day of Judgement because of the benefit he provides others.



This structure of the Gemara comprises a classic "klal u'prat u'klal" - a pasuk first mentions a generality , then a detail, and finally another generality is stated, which is explained as a generality that must be similar to the detail. Interestingly, parshat Nitzavim, which is always read just before Rosh Hashanah, opens with just such a device: "You are standing today all [klal] of you before the Lord your God, your heads of tribes, elders and police [prat], all [klal] men of Israel." (Devarim 29:10) On this verse, the Kli Yakar mentions a statement by the sages: On Erev Rosh Hashanah, the righteous go out to meet the Judge first; then, during the Ten days of Repentance the beinonim (men of average goodness) pass before Him; and finally, on Yom Kippur, all of Israel (including resha'im, evil ones) goes before the Judge.



And the parsha says: "Atem nitzavim kulchem..." Rabbi Shimshon Refael Hirsch explains that only together, to all of Israel united, as klal-u'prat-u'klal, does God promise: you are "nitzavim", assured of vindication in deen (judgement) and survival. The Haftarot of these last two weeks of the year were also picked to express this same idea. They form one unit, as the previous week's is from Yeshayahu 60 and Nitzavim's Haftarah continued with the end of chapter 61, and then chapter 62. Yesahayu 60 finishes with an amazing statement: "V'ameich kulam tzadikim...." - "and your nation is altogether righteous." Now, how could that be? Is everyone in Israel righteous? This whole section is written in the future tense, but this sentence does not say, "And all of Israel will be righteous [as the Radak and Metzudot Tzion explain]."



It may be because, all together, Am Yisrael is righteous. Yeshayau 61:17, 18 and all of Chapter 62 continues with a stirring depiction of Am Yisrael in the Land of Israel of the future, including the famous "on thy walls Yerushalayim I have appointed watchmen." It seems that there is an intrinsic attachment of people and Land. Specifically, it is the Land that is responsible for the phenomenon of "v'ameich kulam tzadikim," causing righteousness, or the opposite. The Kli Yakar on Devarim 29:21 says: " And deen (justice) demands that the Land be punished for the sins of the Jewish collective body, for the Land was the reason for the sin, for she provided Man his material self," which is responsible for the sin. And so, the Nation was exiled from the Land for collective sins (as an aside, this would explain the Exile in 67 CE, but not the continued exile, unless one postulates that the chomer, body, of every Jew is unique from that of goyim, in that it is constituted from Eretz Yisrael).



And finally, there is the statement of Rabbi Meir Shapiro of Lublin, father of the daf hayomi program (cited by Rabbi Zalman Sorotzkin in Oznayim L'Torah, Devarim 26:9). He explains why Eretz Yisrael is called "eretz zavat chalav u'dvash," the Land that flows with milk and honey. In a Halachik sense, and biologically, milk is produced from blood. Blood is forbidden for eating and drinking, but the body turns blood into permissible milk. Similarly, we are not allowed to eat bees; but we are allowed to eat the honey that the bees produce. That is why we eat honey on Rosh Hashanah, to symbolize our deep, intrinsic connection to Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Tshuvah (Devarim 30:3, 8, 11), continued renewal and repentance, which produces "v'ameich kulam tzadikim," turning evil ones to goodness.



One final thought for this Rosh Hashanah. Our people and Land have survived the very tough year of 5765. May our prayers for the coming year 5766 be for this nation to find its common roots and links (which definitely exist), so that we not only never repeat the self-inflicted evil of Disengagement, but move forward to the call: "Pass through, pass through the gates, remove all obstacles from the path of the people... and the peoples of the earth will call the Jews 'a holy nation, the redeemed of God,' and Zion will they call, 'the sought-for one, the city no longer forsaken.' " (Yeshayahu 62:10-12)