Taking it With You: Divrei Binah: Aleinu

“True is our King, there is nothing beside Him, as it is written in the Torah: ‘You are to know this day and take to your heart that God is the only Lord, in heaven above and on earth below, there is none other (Deuteronomy 4:39)’ (Conclusion of Opening Paragraph of Aleinu).”

In order for a person to truly know that, “True is our King, there is nothing beside Him,” he must connect with the Torah verse, “You are to know this day and take to your heart that God is the only Lord, in heaven above and on earth below, there is none other.” The only way we can look at this world, experience our lives and still say that, “on earth below there is none other,” is to connect to this verse. How else can a person view himself and the world and say, “there is nothing beside Him”?

This demands that, “You are to know this day and take to your heart,” otherwise, a person lives in arrogance, believing in his own power to exist, and of the arrogant, God says, “he and I cannot live in the same world!”

The Service of this phrase is to know and make part of our hearts that there is none but God. It is the work of humility. (Divrei Binah, Vaetchanan)