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The Shulchan Aruch (תקפד:ב) records the practice to read the
story of Chana as the Haftarah on the first day of Rosh HaShanah. This certainly makes sense in light of the fact that the Gemara in Masechet Rosh HaShanah (יא.) records that, “Hashem remembered Sarah, Rachel, and Chana on Rosh HaShanah,” which led to their ability to conceive a child. In fact the Mishnah Berurah (שם ס"ק ו) explains this to be the reason behind the Torah reading on the first day of Rosh HaShanah, as we read both about Sarah and Chana. This being said, there is much more to learn from Chana’s Tefillah, and her Tefillah can even set the tone for the Yom HaDin.
In the very beginning of Sefer Shmuel, Chana desperately davens for a child, and Hashem eventually grants her the gift of Shmuel HaNavi as a son. Yet, the Gemara in Berachot (לא:) describes the emotional investment Chana made into her Tefillah. Specifically, the Gemara says that, Chana compared herself to a poor man begging for a piece of bread outside of the king’s palace. When the men at the door of the palace refused to help, the poor man barged his way inside, approached the king directly, and said, “My master, the king, from all of the food at your banquet can you not give me a single piece of bread.” So too, says the Gemara, Chana essentially “demanded” that Hashem give her a child in light of His unlimited abilities. In my opinion, it is our job to emulate Chana on Rosh HaShanah, and not settle for the “unhelpful doormen,” but rather “elbow” our way directly towards the Ribono Shel Olam Himself. In other words, it is our job on Rosh HaShanah to show Hashem that we are not looking to settle for less, but rather strive for a new reality in this upcoming year.
Perhaps, the concept of not being overly complacent can be seen in two Halachot related to Rosh HaShanah. Firstly, the Rav, like Rav Chaim Volozhin would skip the tefillot in בתי( Selichot and Yamim Noraim davening that address angels Although the reason behind this practice is based on .)יוסף עמ' טו the Rambam’s view that one should, “only daven to Hashem without any intermediary (Rambam’s commentary to Mishnayot Sanhedrin, Perek 10),” one could also argue that
specifically on Rosh HaShanah, we are trying to do away with any doorman. Like Chana, we are looking to address the king directly, without the help of the Malachim. The Yamim Noraim season is a time of year when we get “Hashem’s ear,” as it were, and we don’t want to settle for any intermediary.
A second Halachah which can allude to the concept of not settling for less describes a person in prison on Rosh HaShanah. Specifically, the Shulchan Aruch (תקפד:ג) writes that, “a Sefer Torah should not be brought to people in prison, even on Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur”. Without exploring the practical ramifications of this Halachah nowadays, I simply want to draw a homiletic lesson. The very concept of a prisoner teaches us of an individual who, by definition, does not want to settle for his current reality. Understandably so, a prisoner wants to get out of his current situation. The Halachah admires this ambition and specifically does not bring him a Torah. It is as if the Torah is telling him, “when you change your reality, the Torah is waiting for you”. Like Chana, the prisoner must find his way out. Chana, like the prisoner, understood that her current situation was not going to present her any kind of Sefer Torah. Rather, she needed to break out, and find it herself. Simply put, Chana broke out of her personal prison, and found Hashem on the side of the barrier. So too, it is our job to learn from the heroic efforts of Chana, and show Hashem that we are not complacent. We are not simply waiting behind bars for the Torah to come to us this year. Rather, we are hoping to break our bad habits of last year, and find Hashem in our new realities of the upcoming year.