The Rabbis teach us that in the Torah portion that is closest to a holiday you can find references to the upcoming holiday.

If you look into the prayers of Rosh Hashanah, we can see two themes.  The first theme are prayers asking for life and blessings for the upcoming year.  The second theme is various prayers talking about G-d’s kingdom and supplications to G-d to become our king for the new year.

Chassidic philosophy explains that although we find in the bible that we are called G-d’s children, our relationship to G-d as our king is yet even a deeper relationship.  This can be seen in the famous prayer of Avinu Malkeinu – our father, our king where we see that there are two distinct facets in our relationship with G-d.

The way we renew our relationship with G-d as our king is through obedience to his commandments.  This idea is expressed in this week’s Torah portion, the verse states “This day (which the commentaries say refers to Rosh Hashanah), to perform these decrees and the statutes…with all your heart and with all your soul. You have distinguished Hashem today to be a G-d for you.. And Hashem has distinguished you today to be for him a treasured people.”

May the new year be a year of great blessings and may we merit the coming Moshiach speedily!