Mei HaShiloach · Volume I, Writings, Psalms, Chapter 81
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תקעו בחדש שופר בכסה ליום חגנו כי חק לישראל הוא משפט לאלקי יעקב. בגמ' (ראש השנה כ"ה:) מאימתי נקרא חוק בגמר דין. היינו שבזה החודש נמצא עומק יראה שאין לשער, כי חוק מורה על דבר שנגמר היינו כי בשורש הדבר לית דין כי הוא חוק וחקוק, וזה הוא אצל הש"י עוד במשפט למשל כל דין שבעולם הוא מי יחיה ומי בקיצו וכדו' וכן כל הרצונות שבעולם, רק שזה בוחר בחיים בגוון זה וזה בוחר בגוון אחר, אבל גוף החיים הוא דבר חקוק שאין מי שלא יבחר בזה, ועל זה החוק עוד הוא במשפט אצל הש"י כמ"ש (ירמיה ל"ג,כ"ה) אם לא בריתי יומם ולילה חוקות שמים וכו', וכן הוא בכל הענינים.
“Blast the Shofar in the month [Elul], in the covering of the day of our festival [Rosh Hashanah, the only festival on a new moon]. For it is a statute for Israel, a judgment from God of Yaakov.” (Tehilim, 81:4–5) It is written in the Gemara (Rosh Hashanah, 25b), “At what time is it called a Choq, a ‘statute?’ When the court issues its verdict.” In the month of Elul there is a depth of the fear of God far greater than may be measured. Choq, or “statute,” mentioned in the verse in connection with Elul, teaches of something that has reached its completion, meaning at its root there is no judgment, for it is a statute, and “engraved.”7The word for statute, choq, is closely related to the word for engrave, choqeq. In this sense there is “no judgment,” for it is already “carved in stone,” whereas “judgment” implies that it could be judged either favorably or not. (Though we see it as permanent,) with God it is still in judgment. So it is with every pending case in the world, “who shall live, and who shall die” [it is all hanging in judgment]. And so too with all of the desires and wills in the world, where this one chooses something that appears as life, and the other one something else that looks like life, when really at the root and source of life it is all fixed, “engraved,” and there is no one who will not choose it in this way. Yet even this immutable reality is still in judgment with God, as it is written (Yirmiya, 33:25), “If my covenant did not endure day and night, then I have not enacted the statutes of the heaven and earth.”
תקעו בחדש שופר בכסה ליום חגנו כי חק לישראל הוא משפט לאלקי יעקב. בגמ' (ראש השנה כ"ה:) מאימתי נקרא חוק בגמר דין. היינו שבזה החודש נמצא עומק יראה שאין לשער, כי חוק מורה על דבר שנגמר היינו כי בשורש הדבר לית דין כי הוא חוק וחקוק, וזה הוא אצל הש"י עוד במשפט למשל כל דין שבעולם הוא מי יחיה ומי בקיצו וכדו' וכן כל הרצונות שבעולם, רק שזה בוחר בחיים בגוון זה וזה בוחר בגוון אחר, אבל גוף החיים הוא דבר חקוק שאין מי שלא יבחר בזה, ועל זה החוק עוד הוא במשפט אצל הש"י כמ"ש (ירמיה ל"ג,כ"ה) אם לא בריתי יומם ולילה חוקות שמים וכו', וכן הוא בכל הענינים.
“Blast the Shofar in the month [Elul], in the covering of the day of our festival [Rosh Hashanah, the only festival on a new moon]. For it is a statute for Israel, a judgment from God of Yaakov.” (Tehilim, 81:4–5)
It is written in the Gemara (Rosh Hashanah, 25b), “At what time is it called a Choq, a ‘statute?’ When the court issues its verdict.” In the month of Elul there is a depth of the fear of God far greater than may be measured. Choq, or “statute,” mentioned in the verse in connection with Elul, teaches of something that has reached its completion, meaning at its root there is no judgment, for it is a statute, and “engraved.”7The word for statute, choq, is closely related to the word for engrave, choqeq. In this sense there is “no judgment,” for it is already “carved in stone,” whereas “judgment” implies that it could be judged either favorably or not. (Though we see it as permanent,) with God it is still in judgment. So it is with every pending case in the world, “who shall live, and who shall die” [it is all hanging in judgment]. And so too with all of the desires and wills in the world, where this one chooses something that appears as life, and the other one something else that looks like life, when really at the root and source of life it is all fixed, “engraved,” and there is no one who will not choose it in this way. Yet even this immutable reality is still in judgment with God, as it is written (Yirmiya, 33:25), “If my covenant did not endure day and night, then I have not enacted the statutes of the heaven and earth.”