Rosh Hashanah ( , literally "head of the year,"
Ashkenazic: , Israeli: ,
Yiddish: ) is a
Jewish holiday commonly referred to as the
"
Jewish New
Year." It is observed on the first day of
Tishrei, the seventh month of the
Hebrew calendar, as ordained in the
Torah, in . Rosh Hashanah is the first of the
High Holidays or ("Days of Awe"), or (
Ten Days of Repentance) which are
days specifically set aside to focus on
repentance that conclude with the
holiday of
Yom Kippur.
Rosh Hashanah is the start of the civil year in the Hebrew calendar
(one of four "new year" observances that define various legal
"years" for different purposes as explained in the
Mishnah and Talmud). It is the new
year for people, animals, and legal contracts. The
Mishnah also sets this day aside as
the new year for calculating calendar years and sabbatical
(
shmita) and
jubilee (
yovel) years. Jews
believe Rosh Hashanah represents either analogically or literally
the creation of the World, or Universe. However, according to one
view in the Talmud, that of R. Eleazar, Rosh Hashanah commemorates
the creation of man, which entails that five days earlier, the 25
of
Elul, was the first day of creation of the
Universe.
The
Mishnah, the core text of Judaism's
oral Torah, contains the first known
reference to Rosh Hashanah as the "day of judgment." In the Talmud
tractate on Rosh Hashanah it
states that three books of account are opened on Rosh Hashanah,
wherein the fate of the wicked, the righteous, and those of an
intermediate class are recorded. The names of the righteous are
immediately inscribed in the book of life, and they are sealed "to
live." The middle class are allowed a respite of ten days, until
Yom Kippur, to repent and become righteous; the wicked are "blotted
out of the book of the living."
Malchuyot, zichronot, shofrot
In
Jewish liturgy Rosh Hashanah is
described as "the day of judgment" (
Yom ha-Din) and "the
day of remembrance" (
Yom ha-Zikkaron). Some
midrashic descriptions depict
God as sitting upon a
throne, while books containing the deeds of all
humanity are opened for review, and each person passing in front of
Him for evaluation of his or her deeds.
The Talmud provides the guidelines for the day's prayers and the
rationale for the three central ideas behind the day:
"The Holy One said, 'on Rosh Hashanah recite before Me [verses of]
Sovereignty, Rememberance, and Shofar blasts (
malchuyot,
zichronot, shofrot): Sovereignty so that you should make Me
your King; Remembrance so that your remembrance should rise up
before Me. And through what? Through the Shofar.' (Rosh Hashanah
16a, 34b)" This is reflected in the prayers composed by the
classical rabbinic sages for Rosh Hashanah found in all
machzorim where the theme of the prayers is the
strongest theme is the "coronation" of God as King of the universe
in preparation for the acceptance of judgments that will follow on
that day, symbolized as "written" into a Divine book of judgments,
that then hang in the balance for ten days waiting for all to
repent, then they will be "sealed" on
Yom
Kippur. The assumption is that everyone was sealed for life and
therefore the next festival is
Sukkot
(Tabernacles) that is referred to as "the time of our joy"
(
z'man simchateinu.)
Observance of the day
Rosh Hashanah is observed as a day of rest ( ) like other
Jewish holidays. When not on Shabbat, Rosh
Hashanah is characterized by the blowing of the
shofar, a trumpet made from a ram's horn and not
from the horn of any other kind of animal, intended to symbolically
awaken the listeners from their "slumbers" and alert them to the
coming judgment.
Services and greetings
There are a number of additions to the regular Jewish service, most
notably an extended repetition of the
Amidah
prayer for both
Shacharit and the longest
Mussaf of any holiday. The traditional
Hebrew greeting on Rosh Hashanah is
שנה טובה
shana tova for "[a]
good year", or
shana tova
umetukah for "[a] good and sweet year." Because Jews and
the world are being judged by God for the coming year, a longer
greeting translates as "may you be written and sealed for a good
year" (
ketiva ve-chatima
tovah). It is customary that during the afternoon of the
first day (second day if the first coincides with Shabbath) the
practice of
tashlikh is observed,
in which prayers are recited near natural flowing water, and one's
sins are symbolically cast into the water. Many also have the
custom to throw bread or pebbles into the water, to symbolize the
"casting off" of sins.
Names and origins
The term "Rosh Hashanah" does not appear in the
Torah. refers to the festival of the first day of the
seventh month as "
Zicaron Terua" ("a memorial with the
blowing of horns"). calls the festival
Yom Terua, ("Day
[of] blowing [the horn]") and symbolizes a number of subjects, such
as the
Binding of Isaac and the
animal sacrifice that were to be performed.
(In there is a general reference to the time of Yom Kippur as the
"beginning of the year", but it is not referring specifically to
the holiday of Rosh Hashanah.)
Number of days
The Hebrew Bible defines Rosh Hashanah as a one-day observance, and
since days in the Hebrew calendar begin at sundown, the beginning
of Rosh Hashanah is at sundown at the end of 29
Elul. The rules of the Hebrew calendar are designed
such that the first day of Rosh Hashanah will never occur on the
first, fourth, or sixth day of the
Jewish week (i.e., Sunday, Wednesday, or
Friday).
Since the
time of the destruction of the Second
Temple in Jerusalem
in 70 CE and the time of Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai, normative Jewish law appears to be that
Rosh Hashanah is to be celebrated for two days, due to the
difficulty of determining the date of the new
moon. Nonetheless, there is some evidence that Rosh
Hashanah was celebrated on a single day in Israel as late as the
thirteenth century
CE.
Orthodox, Conservative Judaism, and Reconstructionist Judaism now
generally observe Rosh Hashanah for the first two days of Tishrei, even in Israel
where all
other Jewish holidays dated from the new moon last only one
day. The two days of Rosh Hashanah are said to constitute
"
Yoma Arichtah" (Aramaic: "
one long day"). The
observance of a second day is a later addition and does not follow
from the literal reading of Leviticus. In
Reform Judaism, some communities only observe
the first day of Rosh Hashanah, while others observe two days.
Karaite Jews, who do not recognize
Rabbinic
Jewish oral
law and rely on their own understanding of the Bible, observe
only one day on the first of Tishrei, since the second day is not
mentioned in the
Torah.This holiday is
considered to be one of the more important Jewish holidays.
Shofar
Laws on the form and use of the
shofar and
laws related to the religious services during the festival of Rosh
Hashanah are described in
Rabbinic
literature such as the
Mishnah that
formed the basis of the
tractate
"Rosh HaShana" in both the
Babylonian
Talmud and the
Jerusalem
Talmud. This also contains the most important rules concerning
the calendar year.
Dates and timing
| Jewish Year |
Starts (at sundown) |
| 5769 |
September 29, 2008 |
| 5770 |
September 18, 2009 |
| 5771 |
September 8, 2010 |
|
Rosh Hashanah occurs 163 days after the first day of
Passover (
Pesach). In terms of the
Gregorian calendar, the earliest
date on which Rosh Hashanah can fall is September 5, as happened in
1899 and will happen again in
2013. The latest Rosh Hashanah can occur relative to
the Gregorian dates is on October 5, as happened in
1967 and will happen again in
2043.
After 2089, the differences between the Hebrew calendar and the
Gregorian calendar will result in Rosh Hashanah falling no earlier
than September 6.
Rosh Hashanah will occur on the following days of the Gregorian
calendar:
- Jewish Year 5769: sunset September 29, 2008 - nightfall October
1, 2008
- Jewish Year 5770: sunset September 18, 2009 - nightfall
September 20, 2009
- Jewish Year 5771: sunset September 8, 2010 - nightfall
September 10, 2010
- Jewish Year 5772: sunset September 28, 2011 - nightfall
September 30, 2011
- Jewish Year 5773: sunset September 16, 2012 - nightfall
September 18, 2012
Historical origins
In the earliest times the Hebrew year began in autumn with the
opening of the economic year. There followed in regular succession
the seasons of seed-sowing, growth and ripening of the corn (here
meaning any grain) under the influence of the former and the latter
rains, harvest and ingathering of the fruits. In harmony with this
was the order of the great agricultural festivals, according to the
oldest legislation, namely, the feast of unleavened bread at the
beginning of the barley harvest, in the month of
Aviv; the feast of harvest, seven weeks later; and the
feast of ingathering at the going out or turn of the year. "Aviv"
literally means "Spring". (See ; ).
It is likely that the new year was celebrated from ancient times in
some special way. The earliest reference to such a custom is,
probably, in the account of the vision of
Ezekiel ( ). This took place at the beginning of the
year, on the tenth day of the month (Tishri). On the same day the
beginning of the year of jubilee was to be proclaimed by the
blowing of trumpets ( ). According to the Septuagint rendering of ,
special sacrifices were to be offered on the first day of the
seventh month as well as on the first day of the first month. This
first day of the seventh month was appointed by the Law to be "a
day of blowing of trumpets". There was to be a holy convocation; no
servile work was to be done; and special sacrifices were to be
offered ( ; ). This day was not expressly called New-Year's Day,
but it was evidently so regarded by the Jews at a very early
period.
Religious observance and customs
Rosh Hashanah is a day of rest ( ): with some variations, the
activities prohibited
on Shabbat are not prohibited on all major
Jewish holidays unless that day also falls on
Shabbat, excluding Yom Kippur which the Torah refers to as a
"Shabbaton" and is always observed with the strictures of
Shabbat.
Rosh Hashanah is characterized by the blowing of the
shofar, a trumpet made from a ram's horn.
Preceding month
The
Yamim Noraim are preceded by the month of
Elul, during which
Jews are supposed
to begin a self-examination and repentance, a process that
culminates in the ten days of the
Yamim Noraim known as
beginning with Rosh Hashanah and ending with the holiday of
Yom Kippur.
The
shofar is blown in traditional communities every
morning for the entire month of
Elul, the month
preceding Rosh Hashanah. The sound of the
shofar is
intended to awaken the listeners from their "slumbers" and alert
them to the coming judgment.
Orthodox and some Conservative Jewish communities do not blow the
shofar on
Shabbat.
In the period leading up to the
Yamim Noraim (
Hebrew, "days of awe") penitential prayers,
called
selichot, are
recited.
Erev Rosh Hashanah
The day before Rosh Hashanah is known as
Erev Rosh
Hashanah in Hebrew ("Rosh Hashanah eve"). It falls on the 29th
day of the Hebrew month of
Elul, the day before
the 1st of
Tishrei. Some communities have
the customs to perform
Hatarat
nedarim - a nullification of vows - after the morning prayer
services during the morning of Erev Rosh Hashanah. The mood becomes
festive but serious in anticipation of the new year and the
synagogue services. Many Orthodox men have the custom to immerse in
a
mikveh in honor of the coming day.
Day of Rosh Hashanah
On Rosh Hashanah itself, religious poems, called
piyyuttim, are added to the regular
services. Special prayer books for Rosh
Hashanah and Yom Kippur, called the
mahzor (plural
mahzorim), have
developed over the years. Many poems refer to : "Blow the
shofar on the [first day of the] month, when the [moon] is
covered for our holiday".
Rosh Hashanah has a number of additions to the regular service,
most notably an extended repetition of the
Amidah prayer for both
Shacharit and
Mussaf. The
Shofar is blown during Mussaf at several intervals. (In many
synagogues, even little children come and hear the Shofar being
blown.) Biblical verses are recited at each point. According to the
Mishnah, 10 verses (each) are said regarding
kingship, remembrance, and the shofar itself, each accompanied by
the blowing of the shofar. A variety of
piyyutim, medieval penitential prayers, are
recited regarding themes of repentance. The
Alenu prayer
is recited during the repetition of the Mussaf
Amidah.
There are three different sounds that the Shofar makes:
- Tekiah (one long sound)
- Shevarim (3 broken sounds)
- Teruah (many short, staccato sounds, at least 9)
In addition to the three sounds there are two variations:
- Tekiah Gedolah (a very long sound, used at the end of
the Ashkenazi rite prayer services)
- Teruah Gedolah (a very long series of short staccato
sounds used at the end of the Sefardi rite prayer services)
Tashlikh
During the afternoon of the first day occurs the practice of
tashlikh, in which prayers are
recited near natural flowing water, and one's sins are symbolically
cast into the water. Many also have the custom to throw bread or
pebbles into the water, to symbolize the "casting off" of sins. In
some communities, if the first day of Rosh Hashanah occurs on
Shabbat,
tashlikh is postponed until the second day. The
traditional service for
tashlikh is recited individually
and includes the prayer "Who is like unto you, O God...And You will
cast all their sins into the depths of the sea", and Biblical
passages including ("They will not injure nor destroy in all My
holy mountain, for the earth shall be as full of the knowledge of
the Lord as the waters cover the sea") and , 121 and 130, as well
as personal prayers.
Rosh Hashana meals and symbolic foods
Rosh Hashanah table set with symbolic foods.
Rosh Hashanah meals usually include
apples and
honey, to symbolize a sweet new year. Various
other foods with a symbolic meaning may be served, depending on
local
minhag ("custom"), such as
cooked tongue or other meat from the head of an animal or fish (to
symbolize the "head" of the year).
Foods consumed with the Yehi Ratzons vary depending on the
community. Some of the symbolic foods eaten are
dates,
black-eyed beans,
leek,
spinach and
gourd, all
of which are mentioned in the
Talmud.
Pomegranates are used in many
traditions. The use of apples and honey is a late medieval
Ashkenazi addition, though it is now almost
universally accepted. Typically, round
challah bread is served, to symbolize the cycle of
the year.
Gefilte fish and
Lekach are commonly served by Ashkenazic Jews on this
holiday. On the second night, new fruits are served to warrant
inclusion of the
shehecheyanu blessing,
the saying of which would otherwise be doubtful (as the second day
is part of the "long day" mentioned above).
Sephardic Rosh Hashanah Seder
Other symbolic foods are eaten in a special Rosha Hashana Seder,
particularly in the Sephardic and Mizrahi communities. Symbolic
foods are eaten in a ceremony called the Yehi Rasones or Yehi
Ratzones.
Yehi Rason / Ratzon means "May it be Your will", and is the name of
the ceremony because the names of the symbolic foods eating have
names that are puns in Hebrew or Aramaic. Each pun serves as a
desire or prayer that God will fulfill that desire represented by
the pun.
In rabbinic literature
The
Mishnah, the core text of Judaism's oral
Torah, contains the first known reference to the "day of judgment".
It says: "Four times in the year the world is judged: On Passover a
decree is passed on the produce of the soil; on
Shavuot, on the fruits of the trees; on Rosh
Hashanah all men pass before Him ("God"); and on the
Feast of Tabernacles a decree is passed
on the rain of the year.
Philo, in his treatise on the festivals, calls
Rosh Hashanah the festival of the sacred moon and feast of the
trumpets, and explains the blowing of the trumpets as being a
memorial of the giving of the Torah and a reminder of God's
benefits to mankind in general ("De Septennario," § 22).
Rabbi
Yaakov Kamenetsky explains
that in earlier generations it was considered preferable not to
reveal that it was a "day of judgment" so as not to mix any other
feeling into "the day of the coronation of G-d". In later
generations as people lost touch with the significance of the day
it was necessary to reveal that it was also "the day of judgment"
so that people would approach the holiday with proper awe and
respect. (B'Mechitzot Rabbenu)
According to rabbinic tradition, the creation of the world was
completed on 1 Tishrei.
The observance of the 1 Tishrei as Rosh Hashanah is based
principally on the mention of "
zikkaron" ("memorial
[day]"; ) and the reference of Ezra to the day as one "holy to the
Lord" ( ) seem to point. The passage in referring to the solemn
feast which is held on New Moon Day, when the shofar is sounded, as
a day of "
mishpat" (judgment) of "the God of Jacob" is
taken to indicate the character of Rosh Hashanah .
In Jewish thought, Rosh Hashanah is the most important judgment
day, on which all the inhabitants of the world pass for judgment
before the Creator, as sheep pass for examination before the
shepherd. The Talmud states, in
tractate on Rosh Hashanah that three
books of account are opened on Rosh Hashanah, wherein the fate of
the wicked, the righteous, and those of an intermediate class are
recorded. The names of the righteous are immediately inscribed in
the book of life, and they are sealed "to live." The middle class
are allowed a respite of ten days till Yom Kippur, to repent and
become righteous; the wicked are "blotted out of the book of the
living." ( )
The zodiac sign of the balance for Tishrei is claimed to indicate
the scales of judgment, balancing the meritorious against the
wicked acts of the person judged. The taking of an annual inventory
of accounts on Rosh Hashanah is adduced by Rabbi Nahman ben Isaac
from the passage in , which says that the care of God is directed
from "the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year". 1
Tishrei was considered as the beginning of
Creation.
It is said in the Talmud that on Rosh Hashanah the means of
sustenance of every person are apportioned for the ensuing year; so
also are his destined losses.
The
Zohar, a medieval work of
Kabbalah, lays stress on the universal observance
of two days, and states that the two passages in and , "when the
sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord," refer to
the first and second days of Rosh Hashanah, observed by the
Heavenly Court before the Almighty.
Traditional Rosh Hashanah greetings
- On the first night of Rosh Hashanah after the evening prayer,
it is the Ashkenazi and Hasidic
custom to wish Leshana Tova Tikoseiv Vesichoseim (Le'Alter
LeChaim Tovim U'Leshalom) which is Hebrew for "May you
immediately be inscribed and sealed for a Good Year and for a Good
and Peaceful Life"
- Shana Tova ( ) is the traditional greeting on Rosh
Hashanah which in Hebrew means "A Good Year."
- Shana Tova Umetukah is Hebrew for "A Good and Sweet
Year."
- Ketiva ve-chatima tovah which translates as "May You
Be Written and Sealed for a Good Year."
- The formal Sephardic greeting is Tizku leshanim rabbot
("may you merit many years"), to which the answer is ne'imot
ve-tovot ("pleasant and good ones"). Less formally, people
wish each other "many years" in the local language.
Fast of Gedalia follows Rosh Hashanah
The Fast
of Gedalia (or Gedaliah) Tzom
Gedaliah) is a Jewish fast day from
dawn until dusk to lament
the assassination of the righteous governor of Judea
of that
name, which ended Jewish rule and completed the destruction of the
First
Temple
.
The fast is observed immediately after the second day of the High
Holy Day of Rosh Hashana, commencing on the third of
Tishrei according to the
Hebrew calendar. The
Gregorian date for The Fast of Gedalia
varies from year to year based on when it corresponds with the
third of
Tishrei.
When Rosh Hashanah falls on Thursday and Friday, the fast is
postponed until Sunday (which would be the fourth of
Tishrei), since no public fast may be observed on
Shabbat (Saturday) with the exception of
Yom Kippur.
In 2008, this fast day was observed on
October
2.
In 2009, this fast day was observed on
September 21.
In 2010, this fast day will be observed on
September 12 (fourth of Tishrei).
In 2011, this fast day will be observed on
October 2 (fourth of Tishrei).
In 2012, this fast day will be observed on
September 19.
The fast is observed from daybreak until the stars appear at night.
As a minor fast day, other laws of mourning are not required.
See also
References
- The first month being Nisan, see Hebrew calendar.
- OU on Elul
- ( ).
- ArtScroll Machzor, Rosh Hashanah. Overview, p. XV.
- In accordance with .
- Maimonides,
Yad, Laws of Repentance 3:4
- See Numbers 29:1
- Jacobs, Louis. "Rosh Ha-Shanah." Encyclopaedia Judaica. Ed.
Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik. Vol. 17. 2nd ed. Detroit:
Macmillan Reference USA, 2007. 463-466.
- A popular mnemonic
is "lo adu rosh" ("Rosh [Hashanah] is not on
adu"), where adu has the numerical value 1-4-6 (corresponding to the
numbering of days in the Jewish week, in which Saturday night and
Sunday daytime make up the first day).
- Tractate
Rosh Hashana 1:1
- There is an exception. Jewish Law permits the Shofar to be blown in the
presence of a rabbinical court called the Sanhedrin, which had not existed since
ancient times. A recent group of Orthodox rabbis in Israel claiming to constitute a
modern Sanhedrin
held, for the first time in many years, an Orthodox shofar-blowing
on Shabbat for Rosh Hashanah in 2006. TheSanhedrin.net: Shofar Blowing on Shabbat
(translation of Haaretz article)
- See Exploring Sephardic Customs and Traditions, Marc Angel, p.
49
- Maimon Family Yehi Ratzones
- The Orthodox Union Yehi Ratzones
- Zohar, Pinchas, p. 231a
External links
Bibliography
- Exploring Sephardic Customs and Traditions, ed. Marc Angel,
Ktav 2000
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