A Tishrei Miracle Revisited

In a previous brief post, I noted that we have various customs the day before Rosh Hashanah that show us to be happy on Rosh Hashanah, and the Tur quotes a Midrash as saying that we are happy on Rosh Hashanah, in spite of it being a day of judgment, because we are confident that God will perform a miracle for us.   What is the nature of that miracle?

Let me suggest that the opportunity for teshuvah is itself the miracle.   We are creatures of habit and learned behavior.   Our environment influences us greatly, and it is seemingly impossible to change our ways.   How can I stop speaking lashon hara?   How can I stop getting angry?  How can I concentrate more on my prayers?  How can I stop wasting time?   (Add whatever other examples are relevant).   We seem almost caught up in the unrelenting pressure of daily life and habit.

Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik Ztz"l noted (I saw this idea in the machzor containing his ideas put out a few years ago) that man can be either a subject or an object.   We are bidden to be both, in the proper contexts.   Thus, we are bidden to be constructive in the material world, to do mitzvot, to build relationships, to add holiness.  To do this, we must be a subject, not an object.  When we give up this role and become an object, the world acts upon us and we are just tossed about like flotsam on the waves.    Being an object in this way is associated with sin.  We have given up on our active mission to serve God, and we are tossed about in the pressures and desires that life presses upon us.
On the other hand, we are bidden to also be an object.   How?  By subjugating our will to the will of God.   I am not the measure of all things--God is.    Another form of sin is rebellion, claiming to be a subject in the one context in which I should be an object and bend my own will before the Holy One Blessed is He.

Thus, Teshuva allows us to flip this around.   When I am in the quicksand of life and feel acted upon, and sin has overwhelmed me and I feel I cannot change after so many years,  God tells us that this mitzvah is in our "mouth and heart to do it."  It is possible to take the reins and become a subject, a noble actor for what is good and holy.  
And when I have put my will as the measure of all things, Teshuva is the possibility that I have to recalibrate my priorities and realize that God is the measure of all things.

This is the Tishrei miracle, the miracle of Rosh Hashanah that we are so confident about.   We know that on Rosh Hashanah, we are endowed with the nobility to ignore all of our faults and pray that all the world "will band together to do Your will with a full heart."

May this year be a miraculous one, full of Teshuvah, for all of us, for all Israel our brethren, and for all the world.