Rosh HaShanah is part of the High Holiday cycle. It occurs on the first two days of the month of Tishri. It is paired with Yom Kippur which is celebrated on the 10th of Tishri. The paired holidays are a celebration of the New Year and a striving for atonement for sins committed during the past year. The days between the two holidays are known as yamim nora’im, the days of awe. These are what this period is all about.

Rosh HaShanah is also called Yom Teruah (the day of the sounding of the shofar) or Yom HaZikaron (the day of remembering). The current name doesn’t appear until the beginning of the Common Era during the rabbinic period. The focus of the holiday is the synagogue with the days devoted to attending services. The holiday celebrates the birthday of the world. It is said to occur on the 6th day of creation when God created humans. This is the start of the relationship of people with the divine.

During the previous month of Elul, the shofar is blown in the morning in traditional synagogues. It is said that Moses told the people to blow it as a reminder of the worshipping of the golden calf. How quickly we go from the heights of piety to the depths of depravity. We begin to wish our friends Shanah tova u’metukah, a good and sweet year – or Shanah tova tikateivu, may you be inscribed for a good year. Many people visit the cemetery. The prophetic readings on Shabbat are from Isaiah and are about consolation. We are asked look within ourselves. We look to find how we may have failed ourselves, others and God. The process of change is a difficult one so we start our introspection in Elul.

The month of Elul ends with Selichot, which occurs on the Shabbat before Rosh HaShanah. This service usually begins late at night and consists of penitential prayers. Sometimes special music of a solemn nature is played. Sometimes poems are read or there is discussion and study. The central prayer is taken from Exodus 34:6-7, which speaks of the 13 merciful aspects of God. It is at this time that the Torah mantles are changed to white ones.

It is a mitzvah (obligation) to hear the sound of the shofar. If the first day of Rosh HaShanah is on Shabbat, blowing the shofar is reserved for the second day (in some traditions). The liturgy of the Rosh HaShanah service deals with judgment and repentance. In a hymn (unetaneh tokef), it says that all people pass before God as everyone is judged whether s/he will live or die in the coming year. Another image is the Book of Life (and Death). The righteous are written down in the Book of Life and the wicked are written in the Book of Death. Those who are neither have the yamim nora’im to repent. As opposed to the secular New Year, there is very little that is celebratory about the holiday.

The Torah portion which is read is about the birth and the binding of Isaac. The prophetic readings are about the birth of the prophet Samuel and Jeremiah’s vision of the return of the Israelites from exile. The themes are birth and barrenness, deliverance, rescue from sacrifice. It is interesting that the Creation story isn’t read. What we do read is about the birth of children. Many times in the service we are exhorted to choose life.
Candles are lit and the Kiddush blessing is said as on all holidays. A common custom is the dipping of apple slices into honey before they are eaten. The apple represents the world and the honey the expected sweetness of life. Challah is also dipped in honey rather than salt. The challah is usually round to represent God’s crown. A festive meal is eaten before the evening service.

On the afternoon of the first or second day, it is customary to go to a flowing body of water and symbolically cast away our sins by throwing bread crumbs on the water. This is called Tashlich.

The ten days between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur (the days of awe) are spent examining our life, our conscience and our relationships to see how we can make teshuvah (repentance, turning). During this time, we must personally ask forgiveness of those we have wronged. And forgiveness must be granted.

The Shabbat between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur is called Shabbat Shuvah after the prophetic reading from Hosea 14:2 which is Shuvah, Yisrael… Return, Israel, to Adonai your God….

© Marty Wertlieb

Quotes for Rosh HaShanah

In the seventh month, you shall observe complete rest, a sacred occasion commemorated with loud blasts.
Leviticus 23:32

Adonai passed before him and proclaimed: 'Adonai, Adonai, a God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and faithfulness, extending kindness to the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin; yet God does not remit all punishment, but visits the iniquity of the parents upon children and children's children, upon the third and fourth generations. - Exodus 34:6-7 (13 Merciful Aspects of God)

A man should always consider himself evenly balanced, i.e., half sinful and half righteous. If he performs one mitzvah, happy is he, for he has tilted the scales toward righteousness. If he commits one sin, woe unto him, for he has tilted the scale towards sinfulness. - Kiddushin 40a - The Talmud

Every human being may become righteous like Moses our Teacher, or wicked like Jeroboam; merciful or cruel, miserly or generous, and so with all other qualities. - Moses Maimonides, Mishneh Torah

For there is no man so righteous on earth who does only good and never sins. - Ecclesiastes 7:20

BIBLIOGRAPHY

S.Y. Agnon: Days of Awe: Being a Treasury of Traditions, Legends, and Learned Commentaries Concerning Rosh HaShanah, Yom Kippur and the Days Between. Schocken Books, 1948.

Michael Strassfeld: The Jewish Holidays: A Guide and Commentary, Harper and Row, 1985.

FOR CHILDREN:
Eric Kimmel: Gersohn's Monster, Scholastic Books, 2000.
Eric Kimmel: Days of Awe, Puffin Books, 1991.
Jane Yolen: Milk and Honey: A Year of Jewish Holidays, Putnam, 1996
Rahel Musleah & Rabbi Michael Klayman: Sharing Blessings: Children's Stories of Exploring the Spirit of the Jewish Holidays, Jewish Lights, 1997
Maida Silverman: My First Book of Jewish Holidays, Dial, 1994.
Miriam Chaikin: Sound the Shofar, Clarion, 1986.