Q. Why are we being judged on our Yamim Tovim on different items, such as grain during Pesach, fruits on Shavuot and water during Sukkot? Were we not all already judged in the Yemei Hadin of Rosh Hashana and sentenced onYom Kippur?

A. Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit’a pointed to the Ran on Rosh Hashana (on Mishna 16a) who explains that on Rosh Hashana the judgment is on every single individual in his own particular state and condition, while on the other dates, the judging is done on the whole community or nation. Hagra (end of Eben Shleima) further elucidates that an individual may indeed be judged beneficially on Rosh Hashana, yet because he belongs to the wrong group or abodes in the incorrect place, his sentence may in practice be the heavenly judicial decision of the rabbim or tzibur he decided to join. He thus explains why we exempt certain individuals from going to war, or why we say “Meshane makom meshane mazal” and we don’t argue that after all, if his sentence on last Rosh Hashana was to survive, it will not matter where he is; because it actually does matter, as the Rashbo asserts that the din horabbim or communal judgment supersedes and preempts the din hayochid or individual sentence. (See Kovetz Maamorim p. 38).

Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit’a