Rosh Hashanah highlights the importance of human action. Rosh Hashanah is called "the day of the beginning of Your work," and it was fixed on the day of the creation of humankind, the 1st of Tishrei, the sixth day of creation, and not on the 25th of Elul, when the heavens and earth were created. This makes it clear that creation reaches its fullness only when humankind is created and begins to serve God, just as Adam did when he proclaimed, "Come, let us kneel and bow down, let us bow our knees to the Lord our Maker." This is what Rosh Hashanah is about. It is the day on which we all anew accept the Kingdom of the Most High and commit ourselves to serving Him with a whole heart. This renewed acceptance of the Heavenly Yoke is what generates the flow of blessing for the entire year that begins.
WHAT IS THE GOAL
The importance of man's spiritual work becomes even more apparent in light of the commentaries on Hasidic teachings regarding the purpose of creating this lower world. When we observe this world and its spiritual degradation, the question arises: what was the purpose of Hashem creating a world of this level? Above this world exists an entire line of Divine spiritual worlds, so what was the need to create this lower, material, and crude world as well?
Hasidism explains that the purpose of creating this lower world is not for the sake of the higher spiritual worlds, since these too imply a descent of Divinity. If the purpose is indeed in those higher worlds, the same question arises again: for what purpose did the Divine and Infinite Light descend to those worlds, which have no point of comparison with the Divine Infinite Light?
THE MAIN THING IS HERE
The answer is that the purpose of creation lies precisely at the end of the path, at the lowest point in the chain of worlds, in this lower world. Furthermore, all the higher worlds were created so that the purpose of creation could be fulfilled here below, in our earthly world.
This objective of creation is achieved through the spiritual work of man. When men accept upon themselves the Yoke of the Most High and carry out His Will by studying Torah and fulfilling the precepts, they thereby establish the Divine Presence here below and realize the objective of creation, which is "Hashem desired to possess a dwelling place in the lower (worlds)."5.
SHE QUEEN OVER THE WORLD
The goal will be achieved in its most perfect wholeness in the time of Messianic redemption, as explained in Tanya6, that "the days of Messiah... are the goal and perfection of the creation of this world, for which it was created from the beginning.".
This also finds expression in Rosh Hashanah, since in the prayer of this day, we ask for the perfection of the world in the time of redemption: "reign over the whole world with Your Glory," "reveal Yourself with the splendor of the height of Your power over all the inhabitants of Your Land," and similar things.
From all this, one can understand the extraordinary power that resides in human action. All the higher worlds and all past generations since the creation of the world require and await the spiritual action of Torah and Mitzvot of a Jew here in this lower world. And it is precisely this work that brings with it the blessing of the Most High, for a good and sweet year, both materially and spiritually.
(Torat Menachem, Hitvaaduiot Volume I, Page 34)
NOTES: 1.From the Tefillah of Musaf of Rosh Hashanah 2.Zohar, part 3, end Parshat Emor 3.Tehillim 95:6 4.Tania Ch. 36 5.Tanjumá Nasó 15 6.Tania Chap. 36""