The book of life on Rosh Hashana

[edu]

On Rosh Hashana - The completely righteous are written in the book of life.
Any one want to offer an opinion, what is the book of life?
Question 2, if someone dies, is that proof that he wasn't completely righteous, because if he was, wouldn't he have been written in the book of life for another year?

[muman613]

Shalom Edu,

You have posed a very interesting question, and one which seems to be more difficult than it appears.

I have not attempted to answer because I need more time to think about it to the level where I can explain it.

[Tag-MehirTzedek]

Perhaps life and death is not what we call life and death. For example G-D says that He is not interested in killing the dead (referring to Reshaim) but that they should repent and live. G-D is calling people who are "alive", dead even when they can breath, eat, see, etc.
 Same thing with Tzaddikim and the saying that the righteous never die. As is Yaakov Lo Met and other such things. Yes physically the body is deceased but they live on forever in the next world and after the resurrection as well.

  #2 even the 4 completely righteous individuals who never sinned  had to and did experience death. Ever since the sin of the tree this reality exists. Everyone dies.
 1 question on this though are the people who went straight to heaven without dieing. (ex- Elijah), how? Also why them and not the one who never sinned in their whole life.

[muman613]

I have heard it explained that every year we are evaluated as though in a court, our merits versus our transgression. On Rosh Hashanah we do not concern ourselves with the Teshuvah but concentrate our intention on 'making Hashem our King'. The concept of Malchus, or Kingship, is the main thought for Rosh Hashanah. We say "May you be inscribed in the book of Life" to our friends because we desire that we all be granted another complete year of life in this world.

The book of life is the book of action because while we are alive we are capable of doing things. Our actions in this world, specifically the doing of mitzvot, are one of the reasons Hashem grants us a year of life. But most of us also do a lot of transgressions in a year, and our doing of mitzvot sometimes becomes stale and routine. This is why the week between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are the best time to do complete Teshuva.

We must each evaluate our middot {character traits} and identify the bad traits in order to try to rectify them. We also must attempt to right any wrongs we have made between ourselves and our 'brothers' and 'sisters' and our 'neighbors'. We do this by asking them to forgive what we did wrong. Those transgressions against Hashem we must introspect on, and attempt to modify our thoughts so that we should never transgress again.

The decision is 'sealed' on Yom Yippur, that is the decision of whether we deserve another year of life is made on Yom Kippur. Although it is also true that this decision can be repealed until Hoshana Rabba.

http://njop.org/resources/holidays/complete-guide-to-holidays/hoshana-raba/

3) While G-d judges the world on Rosh Hashana and concludes the verdict on Yom Kippur, on Hoshana Raba the verdict receives its final seal. One therefore has time to complete the teshuvah, repentance process, up until the closing hours of Hoshana Raba.

Cheshbon HaNefesh: (lit. “an account of the soul”); a process of stocktaking and introspection with regard to one’s Divine service

http://www.chabad.org/holidays/JewishNewYear/template_cdo/aid/971407/jewish/Soul-Accounting-in-5-Steps.htm

If we have properly gone through this process of self evaluation {Cheshbon HaNefesh} then we merit being allotted another year and thus be inscribed in the Book of Life, the book of action in this world, the ability to do mitzvot.

[edu]

In my search on the internet, so far I have seen one Rabbi answer (with a slight difference in nuance) along the lines of Tag-MehirTzedek's answer
http://www.torah.org/learning/dvartorah/5765/netzavim.html
I still feel like there's a better answer out there, because in our prayers, in the machzor it seems that somehow being written in the book of life (or the opposite) is somehow connected to our physical destiny that will occur in the year and it does not at first glance seem to be just an assessment of our spirituality.

[muman613]

In my search on the internet, so far I have seen one Rabbi answer (with a slight difference in nuance) along the lines of Tag-MehirTzedek's answer
http://www.torah.org/learning/dvartorah/5765/netzavim.html
I still feel like there's a better answer out there, because in our prayers, in the machzor it seems that somehow being written in the book of life (or the opposite) is somehow connected to our physical destiny that will occur in the year and it does not at first glance seem to be just an assessment of our spirituality.

That is what I said, that we are judged whether we get another year of physical life in this world at Rosh Hashana. What we get in Olam Haba is decided when we expire from this world, and meet final judgement. As you have said before, all is in the hands of Shamayim except for fear of Shamayim.

[muman613]

Edu,

These lessons discuss your question. I believe they shed some light on the answer.