Rosh Hashanah's Purpose: The Birth of Our World

 Nadene Goldfoot                                              

Our ancestors got into study of astronomy right away 3,000 years ago when living outside without shelters on their 40 year Exodus with Moses from Egypt to Canaan.  The 1st dictum through Moses from G-d was to have a day to recognize and celebrate the birth of our world, and an awesome world it was.  Amazing!  For 40 years these people noticed the sky, the stars and their constellations, how the sun rose and set and which direction.  What a study of astronomy!  Most important was the movement of the moon.

A custom practiced on only this holiday is the blowing of the SHOPHAR- a ram's horn. Biblical Law prescribes its sounding for the memorial blowing on the New Year,   At various periods the shophar was sounded also on fast days, at the time of the proclamation of a rabbinic edict, in the ceremony of excommunication before the entry of the Sabbath, and at times of famine or plague.  The custom of blowing the shophar during the synagogue services in the month of Elul and on Hoshanah Rabbah and at the conclusion of the Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), are later customs.  If people have been lax in attending synagogue services throughout the year, this is one occasion they try to observe; this and Yom Kippur that comes at the end of the next 10 days.  

This year  we will leave the year of 5782 and enter the New Year of 5783.  Though our own calendars tell us this is the year of 2022, we have been tracking the years that have added up to being 5,783 years ago that we recognize as the beginning of our ancestor's lives.  We became more aware of our environment and how to deal with it that long ago.  Jews use the Lunar calendar that goes by the moon's rotations (see below).             

Literally, Rosh means Head.  This Rosh Hashanah or year means the head  of the year.  It's come to be a 2 day holiday at the beginning of the month of Tishri which always falls in September to October with our Lunar calendar.                     

Notice the 10 commandments on the wall.  The Torah is about to be taken out from behind the curtain of the Ark or Aron Kodesh.  

The way we remember and think about it is done with the Ten Days of Penitence which end on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur).  

Long ago in the Rabbinic Period,  Rosh Hashanah was regarded as a Day of Judgment for the entire world when the fate of each man for the coming year is inscribed in the Book of Life.  (If your name is inscribed in this heavenly book, you will live for another year.)  We still think of this for this holiday.   

Although termed The New Year, the Torah refers to it as the 1st day of the 7th month.  (Lev. 23:24), and not all the rabbis considered it as the day marking the creation of the world.  This is the time period for us of the creation of the world, then Adam and Eve, etc.   

A custom practiced on only this holiday is the blowing of the SHOPHAR- a ram's horn.  There is also a ceremony of Tashlikh in the afternoon of the 1st day.   This means the time prayers are said near a stream or body of water where there are fish, and bread crumbs are thrown to the fish.  

At the Kotel in Jerusalem, prayer shawls are always white

Traditionally we wear white this day.  The central theme in petitional prayers is the request for a good year.  Various customs  developed like eating of honey-a sweet year-so use an apple slice dipped in honey at our table for a sweet year to come, 

It is the period to ask forgiveness of anyone you may have harmed, any hurt feelings, etc.  The rabbis held that mortals are judged at the beginning of this period and judgment pronounced on the Day of Atonement, those whose case is in doubt may obtain clemency by sincere repentance during this period.  Each day, penitential prayers (selihot) are recited, and the extremely Orthodox practice day-long fasts, and the fast of Gedaliah.  

     Visiting my paternal grandmother's grave in Portland, Oregon They called her Hattie but her Yiddish name was Zlata; maiden name was Jermulowske.  She was a widow who raised 2 boys and 2 girls and lost a baby boy as well.  She was a proud Litvak.  

On the eve of the Day of Atonement, 10 days later, eating and drinking are regarded as a duty; also a time of a 25 hour fast;  it is also an occasion for donating to charity, for visiting cemeteries and the graves of the pious.  When living in Tzfat, Israel,  many would come to our cemetery where many pious were buried.  

The Jewish month is based on the lunar or synodic month, the time it takes for the moon to circle the earth.  Since the exact duration of one revolution is a little over 29.5 days, the length of the months normally alternates between 29 and 30 days.  A month of 30 days is called male ('full'), one of 29 days is chaser ('defective').  There are two months which are male in some years and chaser in others.

The month begins with the appearance of the new moon.  In the time of the Temple, the Sanhedrin (the highest court) sanctified the new month when two witnesses had actually sighted the moon.  In the middle of the fourth century C.E., a fixed calendar was introduced.

In the Torah, the months are numbered; the first is the one in which the Exodus from Egypt occurred (Yetziat Mitzrayim; cf. Shemot [Exodus] 12:2).  Later, names of Babylonian origin were adopted:

1. ניסן — Nisan — (30 days)
2. אייר — Iyyar — (29 days)
3. סיון — Sivan — (30 days)
4. תמוז — Tammuz — (29 days)
5. אב — Av — (30 days)
6. אלול — Elul — (29 days)
7. תשרי — Tishri — (30 days)
8. חשון — Cheshvan — (29 or 30 days)
9. כסלו — Kislev — (30 or 29 days)
10. טבת — Tevet — (29 days)
11. שבט — Sh'vat — (30 days)
12. אדר — Adar — (29 days)

The first day of each month (with the exception of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year) is Rosh Chodesh (lit. 'head of the month', abbreviated ) — and so is the thirtieth day of the preceding month, if there is one.  For example, if a gravestone inscription mentions the first day of Rosh Chodesh Elul, the calendar date "30 Av" is meant.

Happy New Year, everybody!