Chamol Al Ma'asecha

חֲמוֹל עַל מַעֲשֶׂיךָ, וְתִשְׂמַח בְּמַעֲשֶׂיךָ, וְיֺאמְרוּ לְךָ חוֹסֶיךָ, בְּצַדֶּקְךָ עֲמוּסֶיךָ, תֻּקְדַּשׁ אָדוֹן עַל כָּל מַעֲשֶׂיךָ. כִּי מַקְדִּישֶׁיךָ בִּקְדֻשָּׁתְךָ קִדַּשְׁתָּ. נָאֶה לְקָדוֹשׁ פְּאֵר מִקְּדוֹשִׁים

"Have compassion on Your handiwork and be glad with Your handiwork. May those who take refuge in You say - when You vindicated those borne by You - 'O Master, may You be sanctified upon all your handiwork.' For with Your own holiness You have sanctified those who sanctify You. It is fitting that the Holy One be glorified by holy ones." (Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur Davening. Also in Selichos)

The ten days between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, say Chazal, are the most exalted and majestic days of the year. Aside from being days of intense Tefilla and Teshuva, one is expected to display an added degree of piety and commitment in the realm of Halacha. Specifically, the Shulchan Aruch states that only bread produced in a Jewish bakery [or home] may be eaten during these ten days, not from a bakery operated by a gentile [even if the bread is Kosher] (OC 603, 1). One might ask- of what good is it to "step it up a bit" if the sense of commitment is only temporary?
The following parable sums it up beautifully. A king decided it was time to pay a personal visit to the people of his kingdom, and letters were sent to each household informing them of the kings expected arrival. "The king is coming", said one husband to his wife, "and our house is run-down and outdated. I'll go out and by some new furniture and fix this place up a bit before the king's arrival". "But there's no way we can afford it", replied his wife. "Besides, the king is coming to see 'how we live'. Well then, let him come and see exactly how we live!" "Listen", said the husband, "if the king was only interested in seeing 'how we live' he would have showed up at our doorstep unexpectedly. The king sent out letters in advance to let us know he would be coming. If so, the king isn't only interested in seeing 'how we live'; he also wants to see what we're ready to do in his honor!". The King of all Kings is coming, and we know it. Already since the start of Elul, Hashem has left His heavenly palace and is "in the fields", says the Zohar. Soon enough, during these ten days, the King will be dwelling amongst us. He wants to see what we will do in honor of His presence. So for ten days, as long as the King is "in town", let us show Him what an honor it is to have Him with us and what a privilege it is to be part of His kingdom... (Thanks to Rav Josh Rubenstein Shlit"a for this beautiful piece)

Ata Vichartanu

אַתָּה בְחַרְתָּנוּ מִכָּל הָעַמִּים, אָהַבְתָּ אוֹתָנוּ, וְרָצִיתָ בָּנוּ, וְרוֹמַמְתָּנוּ מִכָּל הַלְשׁוֹנוֹת, וְקִדַּשְׁתָּנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתֶיךָ. וְקֵרַבְתָּנוּ מַלְכֵּנוּ לַעֲבוֹדָתֶךָ, וְשִׁמְךָ הַגָּדוֹל וְהַקָּדוֹשׁ עָלֵינוּ קָרָאתָ

"You have chosen us from all the nations; You loved us and found favor in us; And exalted us above all the languages, and You sanctified us with Your commandments. You brought us close, our King, to Your service and proclaimed Your great and holy Name upon us." (Shmoneh Esreh for Yom Tov)

"You have chosen us from all the nations..." A famous Medrash speaks of how Hashem offered the Torah to all the other nations before offering it to Klal Yisrael. As the Medrash goes, when Hashem offered it to each nation, they each replied "What's in it?" and Hashem responded with the one Mitzvah that that nation has trouble with. When Hashem offered it to Esav, for example, Hashem said that you can't murder, and that's what Esav is all about! When Hashem offered the Torah to Yishmael, Hashem said you can't steal, and that's what they do for fun! etc. etc. But When the Torah was offered to us, Hashem didn't say "You can't speak lashon hara" or any of the other major problems plaguing our nation today, he offered it and we accepted it. So why is that fair? Why does it seem that Hashem tried to avoid giving the Torah to all the other nations, but willingly gave it to us? There are many answers to this Q but the one that really hit home for me was this one: When Hashem offers you something, its gold! There's no need to ask questions! Maybe its not right for you?...impossible! Hashem would only give us the best of the best, He's Kulo Tov(completely good)! So when the other nations responded "What's in it" they were demonstrating their lack of trust in G-d. They were expressing their misunderstanding of the reality that G-d is The Man. Once they asked that question Hashem knew that the Torah wasn't for them. So He told them "Yeah you prob wouldn't want it anyway, you'll have to change yourself and work hard according to the restrictions that come with it..." But Klal Yisrael knew the deal. Hashem offered us the Torah and we responded "Naaseh V'nishma." "We will do and we will listen" We didn't even need to know whats in it, because we knew its for sure whats best for us. And that's why we were zoche (merited) to get it, because we knew the emes. We knew and still know today that G-d gives us only the best, never anything less.

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(Pic courtesy of CAJE)

U'vchein Tzaddikim

וּבְכֵן, צַדִּיקִים יִרְאוּ וְיִשְׂמָחוּ, וִישָׁרִים יַעֲלֺּזוּ, וַחֲסִידִים בְּרִינָּה יָגִילוּ

"And so too, (When Mashiach comes) the righteous will see and be glad, the upright will exult, and the devout will be mirthful with glad song." (Shmoneh Esreh, Yamim Noraim)

The three types of man mentioned here; The righteous, the upright, and the devout, are three categories that men fall into. The Sfas Emes explains that they are listed in ascending order of worthiness. Righteous people (Tzaddikim) are those people who do the will of Hashem even when they “aren’t feeling it.” They push past their strong temptations for other things and they follow Hakadosh Baruch Hu even though they may not understand the Justice of His ways. The upright (Yesharim) are those people who have such perfect faith, that they never question God’s will or ways. As a result, they are in a constant state of joy; more so than the merely ‘righteous.’ [This is all according to Rashi’s opinion in the Gemara in Taanis 15a, that the upright are greater than the righteous. However, the Rashba over there holds that the righteous are greater. Seemingly this is because they have to put in more effort to go against what they want to do, and instead do what they know they should be doing. Someone who is constantly willing and joyful when it comes to his/her Avoda has less struggle, so the schar (reward) and accomplishment aren’t necessarily as great. -Unlike my Bio-Psych Professor, Hashem grades of effort.] And finally, The Zohar Hakadosh explains that the devout (Chassidim) are those who try to serve Hashem by doing more than the minimum requirements of the law; in effect they do Chessed with Hashem, kavayachol. So basically the moral is- We should all be Chassidim!!

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(Pic courtesy of Judaic Art Exchange)

Ein Kitzva

אֵין קִצְבָה לִשְׁנוֹתֶךָ, וְאֵין קֵץ לְאֺרֶךְ יָמֶיךָ, וְאֵין לְשַׁעֵר מַרְכְּבוֹת כְּבוֹדֶךָ, וְאֵין לְפָרֵשׁ עֵלּוּם שְׁמֶךָ. שִׁמְךָ נָאֶה לְךָ וְאַתָּה נָאֶה לִשְׁמֶךָ, וּשְׁמֵנוּ קָרָאתָ בִשְׁמֶךָ

"There is no set span to Your years and there is no end to the length of Your days. It is impossible to estimate the angelic chariots of Your glory and to elucidate the hiddeness of Your Name. Your Name is worthy of You and You are worthy of Your Name, and You have included Your Name in our name." (Chazaras HaShatz Yamim Noraim)

This piyut is drawing a sharp contrast between feeble man and Almighty Hashem. The one preceding it, which ended describing the mortality of man, read: “We are but a dissipating cloud… flying dust, a fleeting dream…” The first words of this piyut, however, seem superfluous. First it says “There is no set span to your years (Hashem)…” and then it says “…and there is no end.” These two phrases mean almost the same thing but there is a slight difference. A ‘set span’ refers to an amount of time, so we are saying that Hashem has no life span, as it were, of like a billion or a trillion years. An ‘end’ refers to a deadline; so in effect, we are saying that Hashem’s existence is endless; He has no beginning and no end, which is coincidentally the 4th of the Rambam’s Ani Maamins.
The piyut ends with “And You included Your name in our name.”
Here are a few explanations of this:
-The Last 2 letters of יִשְׂרָאֵל are 'א' and 'ל' ; a Name of Hashem.
-When the Torah names the families of the Jews in Bamidbar, Perek 26, the letters of Hashem’s name, 'י' and 'ה' are added to each name. For example: שָׁעוּל’s Family is called הַשָׁעוּלִי.
-If you spell out each letter of Hashems name ('י'and 'ה') You get yud, vuv, daled, and hei, and yud, and those letters spell out יְהוּדִי, Jew! (My favorite)
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(Clock pic courtesy of CoolChaser)
(Kippa pic courtesy of here)

L'maancha Elokeinu

לְמַעַנְךָ אֶלֺקֵינוּ עֲשֵׂה וְלֺא לָנוּ, רְאֵה עֲמִידָתֵנוּ, דַּלִּים וְרֵקִים. הַנְּשָׁמָה לָךְ וְהַגּוּף פָּעֳלָךְ, חוּסָה עַל עֲמָלָךְ

"Act for Your sake, our G-d, and not for ours, behold our [spiritual] position - destitute and emptyhanded. The soul is Yours and the body is Your handiwork; take pity on Your labor." (Yom Kippur Night - S'lichos)

The same question we asked by "Lemalla" we can ask again here (but this time ill give an answer). What does it mean "Act for Your sake, our G-d??" Hashem doesn't need us to tell Him what He needs to do for His own sake! Who are we?!
In the question we can see the answer... When B'nei Yisrael are on a low level, looking at hard times, non-believers mock and ask "Where is their G-d?!" Therefore on Yom Kippur night, when we are begging for our lives, we ask Hashem to help us for His Own glory. We don't deserve His mercy on our own merit because we are spiritually destitute, we are totally dependant on Him...Who are we?!
Teshuva is such a beautiful gift that Hashem has given us. In human court, we can beg, plead and apologize all we want, but if we damaged someone, the damage has been done, you can't take it back. Ma she ein kein Hakadosh Baruch Hu, with his limitless mercy, gave us the ability to totally erase any wrongdoing we've done! To not take advantage of this opportunity (which we have all day everyday, not just during the Yamim Ne'oraim) would be a real shame. Hashem is just waiting for us to return to Him(Teshuva- the root is shuv; to return). Don't let this amazing opportunity slip by!

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(Pic courtesy of Amit)