Rosh Hashanah
by HaRav Dove Begon, Head of Yeshivat Machon Meir
God hears the sound of His People Israel’s shofar blowing with mercy.
Rosh Hashanah is like its name – the head (rosh) of the entire year (shanah.) Just as a man’s head influences his entire person both physically and spiritually, so does Rosh Hashanah influence the entire year. This explains the customs we have on this day, like greeting one another with blessings that we should be “signed and sealed for a good year;” eating apples with honey; and the special wishes we make on Rosh Hashanah night as we eat certain special foods as “signs” or simanim. All these customs serve to leave their stamp on the entire year. All of these blessings and wishes are of earthshaking significance, and we mustn’t make light of them. Quite the contrary, we must treat a layman’s blessing with the full weight due it (Megila 15a).
Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi explained, just as a person has a head and a brain that influence and sustain the entire body, so is Rosh Hashanah a sort of brain for the year, influencing the entire year. And just as one’s head, brain and heart have to be pure and righteous, so must we purify ourselves on Rosh Hashanah by way of repentance and good deeds, good thoughts and good speech.
Through this, we influence the entire year, making it good and sweet.
Especially important is the mitzvah of hearing the Shofar (whose very name recalls “improvement” – shipur). The Shofar hints and teaches us how we must relate properly and constructively to the Day of Judgment and to strict judgment.
The shofar blasts are blown in sets of three, teki’ah, terua, and then another teki’ah – and these stages allude to divine kindness, strict judgment and mercy. The first blast, the teki’ah, alludes to kindness. It is a simple sound, for where kindness exists, all is simple. In the middle comes the teruah, consisting of broken blasts, the sound of loud sobbing, and sighing, weeping and wailing. These allude to strict judgment and to life’s hardships. In the end comes another teki’ah, a simple blast alluding to mercy and love. Through this pattern we appreciate how the blasts are joined together until one can hear the kindness within strict judgment, the light within the darkness, the sweet within the bitter. We get a sense of how God really is “good to all, with His mercy governing all His works” (Psalm 145:9). Pondering and listening to the sweet, remarkable shofar blasts arouses and strengthens within us the belief that despite everything, when all is said and done, “One higher than the high is watching over us” (Ecclesiastes 5:7), and there is no one else but Him. “The Lord
God of Israel is King, and His monarchy rules over all” (Rosh Hashana prayers). In this way a Jew purifies his mind and heart on Rosh Hashanah, and this day shines upon the entire year.
“This year has been a hard and painful one for the Jewish People. The sound of the teruah, the sound of weeping and sighing, was the lot of so many innocent Jews expelled from their homes [in Gaza.] The pain and suffering, doubts and worries were the lot of many other Jews as well, who felt the enormity of the pain. On Rosh Hashanah we sing the piyut “let the old year and its curses end, and let the new year and its blessings begin.” We
have to arouse ourselves and grow stronger through the shofar blasts. We have to try hard to hear the teki’ot preceding and following the teruah. We have to recognize that God, who hears our prayers, mercifully hears the sound of our cries, the teruah, as we note in the Rosh Hashanah amidah: “Blessed be God . . . who hears the sound of the teruah of His people Israel, with mercy.”
“Happy are the people that know the teruah shofar blasts.”
On Rosh Hashanah, following the first Shofar blasts, we customarily say, “Happy are the people that know the teruah shofar blasts (Psalm 89). They walk, O Lord, in the light of Your countenance.” Rav Kook explains, “Happy are the people that know and recognize the efficacy of repentance that derives from the specialness of the shofar blasts, revealed during these days of grace, for rectifying the heart with repentance” (Olat Re’iya II:329).
What is the unique repentance associated with the shofar blasts?
The Torah wrote, “When you go to war against an enemy who attacks you in your land, you shall sound a tru’ah on the trumpets. You will then be remembered before the Lord your God, and you will be delivered from your enemies” (Numbers 10:8). Onkelos renders “you shall sound a tru’ah” as “uteyabevun,” meaning that you will ask and cry out for your needs.
In contrast to the weeping sound of the tru’ah, the teki’ah expresses joy, as it says, “On your days of rejoicing, on your festivals, and on your new-moon celebrations, you shall sound a note [uteka’atem] with the trumpets” (10:10). So the process of teshuva must start with a teki’ah, a simple sound that alludes to the kindness and benevolence that God showers on us, as seen above, “God is good to all, and His mercy is upon all His works” (Psalm 145:9). Yet at the same time we know that we must follow in His path and rectify our character and deeds through repentance accompanied by weeping, sobbing and wailing – the tru’ah. However, once we merit to reach true repentance, we return to the teki’ah, this time from great happiness that we have merited the light of God’s countenance, as it says, “They walk, O Lord, in the light of Your countenance.” At the end of all the blasts comes the tekia gedola, the great blast, who teaches us about the complete redemption and complete return that await us in the future.
On Rosh Hashanah we celebrate this joyful teshuva represented by the sounds of the shofar. As Rav Kook wrote, this hopeful and heartfelt process is what make us the “happy people” during these “days of grace.”
We Are All Examined Together
“On Rosh Hashanah, all of mankind pass before God like ‘b’nei maron’, as it says, ‘God fashions their hearts alike; He considers all their deeds’ (Psalm 33:15)” (Rosh Hashanah 16).
Our sages explain that “b’nei maron” refers to sheep. That is, on Rosh Hashanah mankind are compared to sheep exiting the compound one by one. When it comes time to take a tithe of the sheep, the farmer does not skip over any one of them.
Some say that “b’nei maron” alludes to the climb up to Beit Charon. That climb consisted of a narrow path that people would ascend in single file, with a gaping chasm on either side. Others state that the “b’nei maron” were the soldiers of King David. These men were select warriors and they would go forth to battle one by one (Rosh Hashanah 18).
Maharsha explains that these three views that “b’nei maron” are either sheep, people climbing up to Beit Charon, or King
David’s army allude for us to three categories of people, namely evildoers, those in between and the righteous. The sheep allude to evildoers being led off to slaughter. Those who ascend to Beit Charon refer to the people in between, for whom to the right and left lie deep chasms and they walk in the middle. The troops of King David refer to the righteous, who emerge victorious in the war against sin.
Indeed, the Jewish People are composed of Tzaddikim (the righteous), Benoniyim (those in between) and Resha’im (evildoers.) The letters of tzaddi, bet and resh that begin these words form the Hebrew word tzibbur, “community.” Despite the difference between them, the whole Jewish People are examined together before God. The Creator views their hearts together and “understands all their deeds.” God’s viewing the Jewish People as a collective on Rosh Hashanah puts their trial in a merciful light, as is hinted at by Genesis 1:31 where Hashem beholds all of creation, “God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.”
When we stand before our Creator on Rosh Hashanah, we must recognize and understand that we are not standing individually before the throne of judgment but together with the whole Jewish People, the people God chooses with love. We have suffered so much throughout the generations, and we still remained loyal and clung to God and Torah. May the merit of this, the merit of the fathers and the sons, grant that Hashem protect us and the whole House of Israel in the coming year.
Day of Remembrance
“[On Rosh Hashanah] we recall that the core of Israel’s unique spiritual essence is their constantly remembering the content of life and its eternal, enduring spiritual foundation, which embraces the entire universe and enriches it.” (Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook, Le’Netivot Yisrael).
Rosh Hashanah is the “Day of Remembrance.” On this special day we remember and are remembered. We remember here on earth, and we are remembered On High. We remember that God is King and His kingdom is sovereign over all. We remember on this day that the Master-of-the-Universe, who “sees down through the generations in advance,” (Isiah 41:4) chose us, took us out of Egypt and gave us His Torah, and He orchestrates our existence in this generation, in this land, and in Jerusalem.
Not only do we remember, but God remembers as well, as it says, “You will then be remembered before the Lord your God, and will be delivered from your enemies” (Numbers 10:9); and, “The Lord will not cast off His people, neither will He forsake His inheritance” (Psalm 94:14).
We must listen in particular to the shofar blasts, for they possess much content and significance. If someone hears his full measure of shofar blasts, not only will he be awakened from his spiritual slumber of the preceding year, and not only will he improve his deeds and character, but he will be privileged to draw nearer to God. The light of faith will shine in him, the belief that “Hashem the God of Israel is King, and that His sovereignty rules over all” (Rosh Hashana prayers).
“God made man upright” (Ecclesiastes 7:29). In other words, man is essentially good, only that “he seeks out many inventions” (ibid.). Rav Kook taught us that the unceasing distractions of mundane life in this world, complicated by a plethora of calculations, sometimes conceals from us God’s benevolent will, which is present everywhere. “For the world is full of God’s glory, and His sovereignty rules over all” (Rosh Hashana prayers). The Jewish people, however, are “believers and the sons of believers” (Shabbat 97a). Even when God conceals His countenance, even in situations when we moan and weep, we can realize and see that all is for the best. We therefore end the shofar blasts with another teki’ah, the simple blast that alludes to God’s traits of kindness and mercy, traits that never cease at any time or under any circumstances, and which are revealed like the sun’s shining after a night of darkness.
The shofar blasts relate not only to man as a private individual, but to the general situation of the Jewish People and the entire world. The teki’ah gedolah, the long, simple blast at the end, relates to this point, for it alludes to the shofar blast of the Messiah, as we recite each day in the Shemoneh Esreh: “Sound the great shofar for our freedom. Lift up the banner to bring our exiles together, and assemble us from the four corners of the earth.”
How fortunate we are to be privileged on Rosh Hashanah to hear the sound of the shofar in the land of our life’s blood. The day is not far off when we will merit the coming of the righteous Messiah, and redemption, amidst complete repentance.
