Rosh Hashanah as release and freedom

בשם מו"ז ז"ל על מאמרם ז"ל תשרי ותשבוק.

In the name of my grandfather and teacher, of blessed memory, on the saying of Chazal: "Tishrei — tishri u'tishbok" ("you shall release and forgive").

The Sefas Emes cites his grandfather (the Chiddushei HaRim) on the hint that the name of the month Tishrei alludes to release and the forgiving of sins.

כי בר"ה נעשו בנ"י בני חורין וכל מה שנתלכלכו כל השנה ונקשרו הנפשות בהבלי עולם נעשו בני חורין בר"ה כמ"ש ז"ל בר"ה יצא יוסף מבית האסורים והוא הנקודה פנימיות שבלב איש ישראל.

For on Rosh Hashanah Bnei Yisrael become bnei chorin (free people), and everything by which they were sullied all year, and the way the souls became bound up in the vanities of the world — from all this they become free on Rosh Hashanah, as Chazal said: "On Rosh Hashanah Yosef went out from the prison-house," and this is the inner point (nekudah penimius) within the heart of every Jew.

Rosh Hashanah liberates the soul from a year's worth of entanglement in worldly emptiness. Just as Yosef was freed from prison on this day, so too the buried inner point in every Jew's heart is set free from its imprisonment.

ודפח"ח.

And these are words that are fitting and pleasant (a beautiful teaching).

The Sefas Emes signals his admiration for his grandfather's insight.

וכענין זה רמזו במשנה ר"ה לשמיטין ויובלות.

And along these lines, the Mishnah hinted that Rosh Hashanah is also the new year "for the years of shemittah and yovel" (the Sabbatical and Jubilee years).

The Mishnah's listing of Rosh Hashanah as the new year for shemittah and yovel points to this same theme — for those are precisely the years of release and freedom.

עי"ז ולנטיעה.

Through this it is also "for planting" (the new year for the planting of trees).

Only after the soul is freed and released can fresh growth — a new planting of avodah — take root.

שלאשר בר"ה צריכין לקבל מלכות שמים.

For on Rosh Hashanah we must accept the yoke of malchus Shomayim (the Kingship of Heaven).

The central avodah of the day is to crown Hashem anew and take His sovereignty upon ourselves.

ומאן דכפית באחרא אינו יכול לקבל מלכות שמים כדאיתא בזוה"ק בהר.

And one who is bound to the "other side" cannot accept malchus Shomayim, as it is brought in the holy Zohar (parshas Behar).

A person still chained to the sitra achra (the forces of impurity) is not free to receive Hashem's Kingship — the prior bond must first be broken.

ולכן נעשין מקודם בני חורין משעבודא דסט"א שיהיו מוכנים לקבל מלכות שמים מחדש:

Therefore Bnei Yisrael are first made free from the bondage of the sitra achra, so that they will be prepared to accept malchus Shomayim anew.

The release of Rosh Hashanah comes first precisely so that, unchained from impurity, we can wholeheartedly accept Hashem's Kingship afresh.

Summary: Rosh Hashanah is a day of release — "tishri u'tishbok." The soul, bound all year to worldly vanities and the sitra achra, is set free like Yosef leaving prison, and its inner point is liberated. Only one who is freed from that bondage can truly accept malchus Shomayim anew, which is the essential avodah of the day.