+ YAMIN NORAIM / ASERET YEMEI TESHUVA / 10 DAYS OF REPENTANCE / DAYS OF AWE from 1-10 TISHREI
On the Jewish calendar: 1-10 Tishrei (September-October)
The LORD said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites: ‘On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts. Do no regular work, but present an offering made to the LORD by fire.'” Leviticus 23:23-25
HOLIDAY BACKGROUND
Starting as a simple holiday, this day has become multi-faceted, taking on different meanings and significances that meet a variety of spiritual and community needs. The trumpet (or shofar [a modified ram or antelope’s horn]) blasts fill this day, and this alone ushers in the solemnity that leads the nation into Yamim Noraim / Days of Repentance or Days of Awe and then Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
The first (and second) days of the Jewish New Year are Rosh Hashanah, which means literally, head of the year. It is known as a time of “loud blasts” and a day of remembrance, a type of memorial day as is evidenced by Lev 23:24. It is also referred to as the beginning of the aforementioned Yamin Noraim, the ten days of repentance, a time for serious self-examination and meditation with a goal of individual repentance. This day is traditionally observed with joy and hope for the year ahead as well as the solemnity of self-reflection. For this is the time that the entire human race is said to be judged for the coming year. Each life is taken into account. It is this time that God determines whether or not each will be sealed in the Book of Life for the year.
An old child’s book of verses recites a poem of Rosh Hashanah called, “The New Year”:
No bells ring through the midnight air,
No sound of vulgar revelry,
But everywhere the trumpet blare
Sends greetings over land and sea.
And in the Jewish household reigns
A quiet born of pious thought;
And every Jewish heart attains
A joy from festive fervor wrought.
No ribald shout, no course display
Proclaims our Rosh Hashanah here:
But we who hope and smile and pray-
In this wise greet the glad New Year (Burstein, 27).
This antiquated (yet appropriately valid) poem helps illustrate the solemnity of the day in contrast with other bawdy celebrations of the New Year by other cultures.
CREATION
This day is also traditionally attributed to the birthday of the world. According to rabbinic discussion, God is believed to have created humanity during this Creation week. Thus, this is to be enjoyed as the anniversary of humanity’s beginning as well as God’s sovereignty over all Creation. Each year on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish nation proclaims God as the one true King.
According to Jewish tradition, many events are believed to have happened on this day aside from the six days of Creation as mentioned above. Upon this day, Abraham and Jacob had birthdays, Sarah, Rachel and Hannah finally conceived (Isaac, Joseph and Samuel respectively) in their previously-barren wombs. This is said to also have been the day Joseph had been released from the Egyptian prison. Tradition continues that upon this day was the binding of Isaac (when God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son – Genesis 22:1-19). All these events are said to have occurred on Rosh Hashanah.
BOOK OF LIFE
This is a solemn occasion allowing us to meditate upon the past year as well as to look ahead to the new year just beginning. Greetings are said to each other, “La Shanah Tova Tikatavu!” (May you be inscribed for a good year!) This is referring to the Book of Life in which we all hope to be sealed. Although this is a time for self-contemplation and spiritual reflection, this is also a great time to enjoy the special aspects of the holiday. There is joy in knowing that the old is behind, and the new is ahead; a clean slate awaits.
TRADITIONAL OBSERVANCE
Beginning in the evening of when the holy day begins, the day is to be greeted with candles and blessings in the like manner of Sabbath. The day is a Sabbath as well, and thus is treated as one; the candles help mark the transition of the day from secular to holy.
CANDLES
The Rosh Hashanah blessing to be said over the candles is as follows:
Baruch ata Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, asher kideshanu bemitzvotav vetzivanu lehadlik ner shel Yom Tov.
In English:
Blessed are You Lord our God, King of the universe, Who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to kindle the festival lights.
Following this blessing, another, the Shehecheyanu is added in blessing God for bringing us to this holiday:
Baruch ata Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, shehecheyanu vekiyenamu, vehigianu la’zeman hazeh.
In English:
Blessed are You Lord our God, King of the universe, Who gave us life, and sustains us, and enabled us to reach this season of joy.
READINGS
The readings associated with the holiday are out of Genesis. The first story is of Hagar and Ishmael. When conflicts arose between Sarah and her Egyptian slave Hagar, the slave escapes by running headlong into the desert. Hagar, accompanied by her son Ishmael (fathered by Abraham), wandered aimlessly in the parched desert while frantically seeking water for herself and her young boy. She cried out to God who heard her voice and saved both her and the child, promising to make her son a father of a great nation and commanding her to return to Abraham and Sarah. God deals kindly with Hagar by showing her mercy and sustaining her in the desert.
The second reading is the story of the binding of Isaac. Abraham dearly loves his son of promise, Isaac. He is commanded to sacrifice Isaac upon an altar to God. Undoubtedly, grieved and devastated, Abraham nevertheless obeys. As Isaac lies bound upon the altar with his father’s knife about to end his life, a heavenly voice suddenly halts Abraham and points him toward a ram that is caught in a nearby thicket. This animal becomes the sacrifice, the substitute for Isaac.
Both these stories are quite significant during Rosh Hashanah. These stories illustrate the struggle of humanity, the real-life issues that arise within families. Jealousy, contention and disregard often threaten to tear asunder the family unit-siblings, parents and children. Rosh Hashanah is the perfect time to both address and wrestle with these dilemmas, rediscovering the humility and limitations that encapsulate our human existence.
FRUITY CHALLAH
This is also the day of proclaiming the Kingship of God. The challah loaves are not baked like they normally are during other times of the year-such as braided and elongated or oval. The Rosh Hashanah loaves are made round or like spirals (similar to a cinnamon roll) ultimately to resemble a crown in commemoration of our God who is our King. The challot (plural for challah) are also baked with raisins or other extra sweet additions in celebration of the new year just beginning. Apples are a favorite Rosh Hashanah food-especially dipped in honey. Some dip their challah in sugar and only eat sweet foods during this time, since Judaism is rich with symbols, and the aim is to have a sweet New Year.
SHOFAR / RAM OR ANTELOPE HORN
“The great shofar is sounded-and a still small voice is heard.”
In the synagogue, the shofar is blown one hundred times. Children particularly enjoy the shofar, and some rather contemporary-styled congregations encourage the children to join in on plastic ones after or during the ceremony. The service on this day invites all to a time of introspection and forgiveness-forgiveness of each other as well as forgiveness for ourselves. The shofar is intrinsically linked to this season of repentance.
Usually the shofar is a curved ram’s horn in memory of the ram caught in the thicket that became the replacement for the sacrifice of Isaac. The Yemenite Jews, however, use a long antelope horn as their shofar. The shofar is a great and loud call to repentance. Anyone who has heard a shofar blown properly can testify of its dreadful and awesome sound. The sound reaches to your depth and is a very appropriate means of bringing people to solemnity and repentance!
Saadia Gaon, a ninth century Babylonian scholar, taught that we are given ten reasons why we are obligated to sound the shofar on Rosh Hashanah:
[1st reason]: Just as earthly kings have horns and trumpets blown to celebrate the anniversary of their coronation, so God wants the shofar blown on the anniversary of the Creation-when there came to be a world that God could rule over.
[2nd reason]: Just as earthly kings have horns and trumpets blown to announce their decrees-and only after this warning actually enforce the decree-so God wants the shofar blown to announce the beginning of the Ten Days [of Awe], when all are commanded to turn their lives around.
[3rd reason]: Just as the shofar blew when God gave the Torah at Mount Sinai, so it blows to remind us each year to do as our forebears said at Sinai: “We will act and we will hearken.”
[4th reason]: Just as Ezekiel compared the words of the prophets, calling for the people to change their ways, to a shofar-so we must know that those who hear the shofar and do not take warning and change our lives will be responsible for their own destruction.
[5th reason]: Because the shofar was blown as a war-alarm when the Temple was destroyed, it should remind us of the destruction of the Temple-the disaster that we brought upon ourselves-and thus should warn us to abandon our misdeeds in order to avert disaster.
[6th reason]: Because God used a ram as a substitute sacrifice for Isaac, the ram’s horn should remind us how Isaac and Abraham were prepared to give up all their hopes and dreams for God’s sake.
[7th reason]: Since the blowing of a horn causes cities to tremble, so the shofar will make us tremble and fear our Creator.
[8th reason]: Since the shofar will be blown on the great Day of Judgment, blowing it now reminds us that every day is a day of judgment.
[9th reason]: Since the shofar will be blown when the tempest-tossed of the Jewish people are gathered in harmony to the Land of Israel, we should hear the shofar to stir our longings for that day.
[10th reason]: Since the shofar will be blown when the Messiah revives the dead, we hear the shofar in order to revive our faith in that supernatural transformation, the final victory of life and freedom over death, the ultimate oppressor (Waskow,1982:16-17).
Thus, the unequaled call of the shofar has many significant connotations with remorse and repentance, thereby establishing itself as a perfect symbol of the occasion-a terrible sound that captures both the power and terror of divine reckoning as well as the sobbing and penitent wail of contrite repentance.
TASHLICH / CASTING OFF
On the afternoon of the first day of Rosh Hashanah, a Casting Off, commonly referred to as a Tashlich ceremony is often performed. Both during and after the Talmudic period (roughly 70-500 C.E.), this unique event became a popular way of making the abstract concept of “forgiveness of sins” into a better visualized concrete lesson. This ceremony usually takes place near a stream or flowing body of water (preferably with fish present). Different Jewish communities have embraced various ways of performing the Tashlich ceremony. Fischer describes devout Jews emptying their pockets and tossing stones or bread into the water (Fischer, 2004: accessed 04 Aug 2010). This physical re-enactment of the forgiveness of sins through symbolism give the readings more force (usually involving visualizations of sin being swept away by water):
Kurdish Jews have actually leaped into the water and swam like fish to [symbolically] cleanse themselves of sin. Chassidim in Galicia sent little floats of straw out upon the water, set them afire with candles, and rejoiced that their sins were either burned up or washed away. In Jerusalem, where even brooks are hard to find, Tashlich is done at a well (Waskow, 1982:19).
The idea of sins being cleansed or “washed away” is better understood by both children and adults alike when such acts are performed. Watching something tossed into the water as it disappears, never to be seen again, illustrates the finality and permanence of divine forgiveness.
Water is also a powerful symbol in scripture, present throughout the creation of the world and during all stages of life. Not only was water the chosen medium chosen by God during the days of Noah by which to cleanse the earth, but it also often denotes themes of power, strength and might. True forgiveness involves these very virtues. This adds to its significance in the ceremony. In the most common Tashlich practice, bread crumbs are brought to the water’s edge. Often Psalms 130 is read:
Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD;
O Lord, hear my voice.
Let Your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.
If You, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?
But with You there is forgiveness; therefore You are feared.
I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in His word I put my hope.
My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning,
O Israel, put your hope in the LORD,
for with the LORD is unfailing love and with Him is full redemption.
He Himself will redeem Israel from all their sins. Psalms 130:1-8
Following this reading, a prayer is given, and the bread crumbs are cast into the water. This is to symbolize casting off sins into the depths of oblivion. The fish also set upon the crumbs, devouring them, ensuring their disappearance. Sometimes, especially with young children, the specific faults and sins are named (such as lying, disobedience, being disrespectful, etc.) as the crumbs are tossed into the water. This helps the children visualize their wrongs being forgiven and forgotten. This method of making the intangible a bit more solid for children and adults alike can create a better understanding of what it is like to be absolved so that a new beginning can commence in accordance to the prophet Micah:
He will take us back in love;
He will cover up our iniquities.
You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Micah 7:19
YESHUA IN ROSH HASHANAH / JESUS IN THE FEAST OF TRUMPETS
Yeshua is at the center of this holiday. He is the Christian King of Kings, the Messianic and Heavenly conqueror. The blowing of the shofarot (plural for shofar) is a sign of the return of this Messianic King. Christian paintings illustrate scenes which often depict the Second Coming of the Lord as having the heavenly host surrounding the coming King while blowing trumpets. “When the trump shall sound…” 1 Corinthians 15:22 goes the prophecy of the Second Advent. Believers await the coming of the Messiah in such a manner, a euphoric scene filled with trumpets and their blasts. Initially, silver trumpets were used; however, these came to be replaced by the shofar.
As explained earlier, the shofar is a symbol of the ram caught in the bush which became Isaac’s replacement. The metaphor is heightened when further symbolism comes to play; Isaac is the representation of Yeshua:
By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that received the promises offered up his only begotten son, Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure. Hebrews 11:17-19
Both were born of miracle births and then obedient to the point of sacrifice. Just as Abraham was told to offer up his heir on the altar, so God Himself had to offer up His own son. The symbolism does not end here. Trumpets and shofarot are also signals of war. Yeshua came first as a humble baby. Yeshua will come again in the clouds as the King of the Army of God. Yeshua came first to defeat the hold of sin on humanity while planting seeds to ready the world for its ultimate deliverance; He will come again, and this time as the awaited Messiah warrior to defeat the powers of darkness.
HOW CAN THIS BENEFIT CHRISTIANS?
Christians battle the unseen foe. The battlefield is drawn, and the Christian finds himself/herself quite positively within its boundaries. Rosh Hashanah, a day filled with shofar blasts and the call to wage spiritual warfare is just the opportunity to ensure that he/she is on the winning side! Although the battle belongs to the Lord, the Christian often finds himself/herself in the very midst of it. We can identify with the opportunity to take up our spiritual armor and war against evil.
Paul wrote:
Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes,you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Ephesians 6:11-13
Rosh Hashanah can be a very spiritually significant time for Christians. This is an opportunity for repentance, forgiveness and reflection. Many believe in God, but that is not enough, for even Satan believes in Him. This is discussed in scripture:”You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that-and shudder.” James 2:19. So, more than simple belief is required of us in our walk. We need to repent and be in total submission and sincerity in our request for that forgiveness made available to use through the sacrifice of this, our Messiah, our King of Kings. This is a perfect opportunity to begin to search deep within ourselves. This is the day our Savior is waiting to renew our walk with Him. This is a day of the Jewish New Year, and thus it is a good time for new beginnings. Why not begin anew with the Saviour?
ROSH HASHANAH HOLIDAY NOSHES (SNACKS)
Here’s to a sweet New Year! This day is usually celebrated with sweet foods. Traditionally, apple slices are eaten with honey. Also, the Rosh Hashanah challah, as mentioned, is made round like a crown and made with the added sweetness of raisins. The Shabbat challah recipe would work for this, except remember to add a 3/4 cup of raisins to the dough. You can add other dried fruit as well. Add this nice challah to some honey-dipped apple slices (tart varieties are best with the honey, or so our family thinks). Here is a great recipe to begin the new year. The sweetness is needed to help balance all the solemnity of the day (and next ten).