rosh hashana
As most of you know, we will soon celebrate the holiday of Rosh Hashana. Rosh Hashana is unique among Jewish holidays in that it has a dual significance, each meaning being basically independent of the other. First of all, Rosh Hashana is both a happy festival AND a day of solemn introspection. This is rare; usually a Jewish holiday is either a happy feast day (e.g. Sukkot) or a day of solemnity and sadness (e.g. Yom Hashoah - Holocaust Remembrance Day). In addition, Rosh Hashana is, traditionally, both the anniversary of the creation of the world AND the "kickoff" of the Ten Days of Repentance. Therefore, we have a big feast the night before and dip apples in honey to symbolize a sweet year, and we also go around asking everybody to forgive us for our sins.
A commonly asked question regarding Rosh Hashana is: If we are inscribed in the Book of Life on Rosh Hashana (as is traditionally believed), then why do we have to go through the Ten Days of Repentance leading up to Yom Kippur, when the Book is traditionally sealed? Is it possible for God to "change his mind"? In my opinion, the best answer to this question was given by Rabbi Yohanan, who lived in the first half of the first millennium C.E. He said: "Three books are opened on Rosh Hashana, one for the utterly wicked, one for the perfectly righteous, and one for the intermediates. The perfectly righteous are straightaway inscribed and sealed for life; the wicked are straightaway inscribed and sealed for death; the intermediates are suspended and wait from Rosh Hashana until Yom Kippur. If they merit, they are inscribed for life; if not—they are inscribed for death." Very few of us believe that we are righteous enough to be immediately inscribed for life (in fact, if we do, then we are guilty of the sin of vanity, thus making us not-so-righteous anyway). Hopefully, most of us don’t feel t what we are inherently wicked enough to deserve to die. Therefore, we are almost all "intermediates," and we must be on our "best behavior" for those ten days, hoping to earn favor in the eyes of God. In a sense, we are like Christian children hoping that Santa Claus deems them nice and not naughty so that they receive their gifts. The only differences are that God, unlike Santa Claus, is (most likely) not fat, doesn’t wear a red suit, and exists (if you’d like to debate this last point, please give me a call). In addition, the gift we are praying for is the gift of life itself.
Rosh Hashana has many names. In fact, the only time the Bible uses the words "Rosh Hashana," in Ezekiel 40:1, it is actually referring to Yom Kippur (which also falls toward the beginning of the year). The first name used is "Yom Teruah" - day of the blowing of the horn. From this we lea …rn that we are supposed to blow the Shofar - the ram’s horn - on Rosh Hashana as a way to call people to worship, "ring in" the New Year, and symbolically open the gates of heaven so that God may hear our prayers. However, this year, the Shofar will not be blown on the first day in accordance with the ban on musical instruments on Shabbat. The second name given to the holiday is "Yom Hadin" - the day of judgment. This name is appropriate because on this day we are said to stand in judgment before God as he decides our fates, similar to the way an accused criminal stands at the mercy of a mortal judge. The third name is "Yom Hazikaron" - the day of remembrance. This name is appropriate because on this day we are called upon to remember our actions, thoughts, and words from the previous year. It is not only God who judges us on Rosh Hashana - we must also judge ourselves, determine wh Zich of our actions were appropriate, and decide how to improve ourselves accordingly. After all, what good is repentance if it is not followed up with improvement?
I hope you all learned something from this brief drasha on some of the spiritual phpects of Rosh Hashana. If you have any questions about the special observances of Rosh Hashana, most of which I did not touch upon here, or would like to learn more, please feel free to contact me, your rabbi, chapter Rel/Ed VP, or other person. In addition, you may want to look, as I did in preparing this drasha, in Rabbi Isaac Klein’s "Guide to Jewish Religious Practice." Rabbi Klein is an excellent author, and he is able to write succinctly while going into more detail than I can here (at risk of having you all turn your computers off before reaching the end).
This page was originally created by John Davis and Michael Kay, and can be found at http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/jdd16/guide/.
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