Q. Why is it better to be the first to be judged?

A. The Talmud (Rosh Hashana 8b) teaches that a king is to be the first to be judged during the ‘Yemei Hadin.’ The reason given is that it is for the great benefit of the leader of the nation, who so many people depend on. Thus, he will be sentenced before the likely great anger awakens due to piling up of the many sins of the masses.

We mentioned last year that the Ponovicher Rosh Yeshiva, Horav E. M. Shach zt’l, would add and explain, that everyone can take advantage of this same great and simple principle. All he has to do, is line up early waiting for the imminent judgment. But how do you line up? Indeed as mentioned above, by preparing and having a plan of what are the issues one has to fix on his coming year.

Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by, Horav Dovid Pam, Horav Chanoch Ehrentreu and Horav Kalman Ochs Shlit’a