Renewing the soul on Rosh Hashanah

זכרנו לחיים כו'.

"Remember us for life…" (from the Rosh Hashanah tefillah).

The Sefas Emes explains the deeper meaning of our plea on Rosh Hashanah to be remembered for life.

דכ' ויפח באפיו נשמת חיים.

For it is written, "and He blew into his nostrils a breath of life (nishmas chaim)." (Bereishis 2:7)

The "life" we ask for recalls the original divine breath of soul that Hashem blew into man.

ובר"ה שמתחדש הבריאה נתחדש ג"כ כח הנשמה.

And on Rosh Hashanah, when the creation is renewed, the power of the neshamah is likewise renewed.

Rosh Hashanah is the anniversary and renewal of creation, and with it the inner force of the soul is renewed within a person.

וזה עיקר התיקון לחדש כח הנשמה שנטבע בחומר הגוף.

And this is the essence of the rectification: to renew the power of the neshamah that has become submerged in the materiality of the body.

The main avodah of the day is to revive the neshamah, which over the year has sunk and been dulled within the physical drives of the body.

כמ"ש בזו"ח בפסוק הנ"ל ויהי האדם לנפש חי'.

As is written in the Zohar Chadash on the aforementioned pasuk, "and man became a living being (nefesh chayah)." (Bereishis 2:7)

The Zohar Chadash comments on the continuation of that very verse.

שהכתוב מתאונן על האדם שנשתנה בו כח הנשמה בהשתתפות הנפש וגוף ע"ש.

That the verse laments over man, that the power of the neshamah was diminished in him through the partnership of soul and body; see there.

The Zohar reads "man became a living nefesh" as a complaint: once the lofty neshamah was joined to a physical body, its full power was lessened and obscured.

זה הבקשה זכרנו לחיים כי זכירה בפה.

This is the request "remember us for life," for remembrance is with the mouth.

Our prayer "remember us for life" is a plea to renew that original soul-power — and "remembrance" is expressed through speech, the power of the mouth.

וזה רמז לשמוע קול שופר:

And this is alluded to in hearing the sound of the shofar.

The shofar blast, a wordless sound from deep within, hints at this very renewal — awakening the breath of the neshamah and arousing Hashem's "remembrance" of us for life.

Summary: Our Rosh Hashanah plea "remember us for life" reaches back to the "breath of life" Hashem blew into man. Because Rosh Hashanah renews creation, it also renews the power of the neshamah — the essence of the day's tikkun is to revive the soul that has become submerged in the body's materiality over the year (as the Zohar Chadash laments that the neshamah was diminished once joined to the body). This renewal is voiced in "remember us for life" and awakened by the wordless cry of the shofar.