Yom Teruah, Rosh HaShanah

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

Over the next few weeks I will be discussing the Jewish Autumn Holy Days. In order to keep these posts from getting too long I am starting with basic information about the holy days. If you feel I left out anything important about Rosh HaShanah (Yom Teruah), please feel free to add more information in the comments section.

The Feasts of Trumpets, Yom Teruah (יום תרועה, day of horn blowing), has come to be the civil New Year in Judaism and is commonly called Rosh HaShanah (ראש השנה, literally head of the year). Yom Teruah is the first day of the month of Tishrei on the Jewish calendar. The religious New Year starts in the month of Nissan in the Modern Jewish calendar. The modern Jewish calendar uses the Babylonian names of months, most likely from the time of exile in Babylon. The biblical name of the first month is Aviv, the Hebrew word for the Spring season. Although first month signifies the beginning of the year, some Rabbinic scholars believe the months are numbered in the Torah according to the Exodus from Egypt. So the first month means the first month in which the Israelites left Egypt. Therefore, Passover is celebrated in the first month.

Scholars have several theories on why there are two New Years in Judaism. The Mishnah actually states there are four New Years in Judaism and I will include an excerpt from MyJewishLearning.com (I have no connection to this website, nor am I making any recommendation pro or con regarding this site) at the bottom of this post for those that are interested. This article is focused on Rosh HaShanah.

One theory is that the Feast of Trumpets fell in line with the agricultural New Year of the region. Evidence for this is given in Exodus 23:16 and 34:22, as it refers to the Feast of Sukkot (סוכות‎  Tabernacles) or The Feast of the Ingathering at “the end of the year” and at “the turn of the year” respectively. Therefore, it is believed this time of year was always considered to be the time when a year changed and Aviv was only called the first month as it was the first month the Israelites left Egypt.  Perhaps the turn of the year was moved from the end of Sukkot  (toward the later half of the month) to the first day of the month, which happened to be Yom Teruah, for the convenience of calendars.

Another theory is that the New Year was changed to the first day of the seventh month when the Israelites returned to Jerusalem after their exile in Babylon. Just as Passover was the First month when they returned from their exile in Egypt, in books of Ezra and Nehemiah we read they returned from their exile in Babylon in the seventh month. Thus there were two New Years to mark the two returns from exile. The Babylonian calendar gave significance to this day as the beginning of the second half of the year.

The only other theory that made any sense to me was that the Israelites may have changed the New Year from the Spring to the Autumn in order to separate themselves from the idolatrous practices of their neighbors.

Biblical References

The two main biblical verses for Yom Teruah are Leviticus 23:23-25 (above) and Number 29:1-6 (below):

“On the first day of the seventh month hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. It is a day for you to sound the trumpets. As an aroma pleasing to the Lord, offer a burnt offering of one young bull, one ram and seven male lambs a year old, all without defect. With the bull offer a grain offering of three-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour mixed with olive oil; with the ram, two-tenths; and with each of the seven lambs, one-tenth. Include one male goat as a sin offering to make atonement for you. These are in addition to the monthly and daily burnt offerings with their grain offerings and drink offerings as specified. They are food offerings presented to the Lord, a pleasing aroma.”

The biblical celebration of this holy day is very simple, as stated in Leviticus; 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.’

Traditional Observances

The New Year celebration in traditional Judaism is a more solemn occasion than typical New Year celebrations in other cultures. A shofar (שופר‎ horn) is blown, unless Rosh HaShanah falls on Shabbat. Rabbinic law forbids blowing a shofar on Shabbat, although there is no direct commandment against it in the bible. According to rabbinic law, a shofar is preferably made from the horn of a ram, although the most common long ones are made from the horn of a kudu (species of antelope). Rabbinic law states any Bovidae animal with a horn is acceptable except for cows.

It is traditional to eat sweet foods such as apples dipped in honey and pomegranates, to symbolize a sweet year. Round challahs are severed to symbolize the circle of a year and in some cultures the head of a fish is served to symbolize the head of the year.

Greetings include, “Shanah Tovah” (שנה טובה), meaning “good year” or “L’Shanah Tovah Tikotevu” (לשנה טובה תכתבו), “to the good year may you [plural] be written [in the book of life]” as well as other more complex Hebrew greetings I have yet to attempt. Although it has become common in Jewish communities in the United States to say “L’Shanah Tovah,” meaning “to good year... ” this phrase is incomplete and sounds even stranger to a Hebrew speaker than its translation may sound to you.

Judgement Day, Days of Awe, Tashlikh

The Talmud refers to Rosh HaShanah as “the day of judgement,” where God will discern between the righteous, the wicked and those in between. The righteous are immediately written into the Book of Life, the wicked are expelled from the Book of Life, and those in between are given the ten days until Yom Kippur, called the “Days of Awe,” to reflect on their year and get right with God. In the greeting above, when you say to someone, “may you be written [in the book of life],” the interpreted meaning is that you want the recipient to be counted among the righteous and be immediately written in the Book of Life.

Tashlikh is a ceremony in Judaism where rocks are cast into a natural body of flowing water to represent the casting off of sin.

As I said, this post is meant to be informative regarding the biblical, cultural and rabbinic background of Rosh HaShanah. In order to keep this post from getting too long, I will save my commentary for a later post.

Excerpt from MyJewishLearning.com on four Jewish new years:

The Mishnah, a compilation of rabbinic discussions that was codified around 200 CE, lists a grand total of four new years in each Jewish year (Tractate Rosh Hashana 1:1). The first is the New Year of Kings at the beginning of Nisan. It was as of this date that the regnal years of Jewish rulers were to be reckoned. In addition, this day also serves as the New Year of Festivals. Hence, many books on the Jewish holidays begin their discussions with Passover, the first festival of the year according to this reckoning. The second is the New Year for the tithing of cattle at the beginning of Elul, the sixth month (although, the Mishnah records, Rabbis Elazar and Simeon date this to the beginning of Tishrei). The third is the civil New Year at the beginning of Tishrei, which eventually also became the religiously observed New Year. This New Year also serves as the New Year of Sabbath and Jubilee years, as well as of planting and of vegetables. The fourth is the New Year of Trees at the beginning of Shevat, the eleventh month, although the tradition of the House of Hillel eventually became predominant, which began this new year on the 15th day of the month and gave us the minor holiday of Tu Bishvat (the fifteenth day of Shevat).