Spirituality

HOLIDAY 101

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Head Of The Year

Ushering in the new year of 5768.

Elizabeth Applebaum

Special to the Jewish News

W

hen: This year, Rosh
Hashanah begins at 7:50 p.m.,
Wednesday, Sept. 12, and lasts
until 7:26 p.m., Friday, Sept. 14. On the
Jewish calendar, these dates correspond
to the first and second of the month of
Tishrei.

• Purpose Of The Holiday: It cele-
brates the new year on the Jewish calendar
and the commemoration of the creation of
the world.

• What The Name Of The Holiday
Means in English: Rosh Hashanah is
Hebrew for "Head of the Year:' or "begin-
ning of the year." (Rosh means "head," ha
is "the," shana means "year.")

• Why We Celebrate: The Torah com-
mandment to observe Rosh Hashanah
is found in Parshat Emor (Leviticus
23:24), and in Parshat Pinchas (Numbers
29:1). (The name of the holiday — Rosh
Hashanah — is not stated in the Torah;
this developed later.) Rosh Hashanah also
inaugurates the big, three-week holiday
season in Judaism, continuing with Yom
Kippur, Suk kot, Shemini Atzeret and cul-
minating with Simchat Torah.

• Rites And Rituals: Like all Jewish
holidays, Rosh Hashanah includes extra
prayers and a Torah reading. What is
unique about Rosh Hashanah is the prac-
tice of blowing the shofar, the horn of a
kosher animal, usually a ram.
The shofar is sounded during the Musaf

service, that is, the liturgy that follows
the Torah reading (the service on Rosh
Hashanah morning, like every Shabbat
and major Jewish holiday, is divided into
parts: preliminary prayers, or P'sukei
d'zimra; the morning prayers, Shacharit;
Torah reading, or kriat Torah plus hafto-
rah; additional service, or Musaf, and clos-
ing prayers. The shofar is blown immedi-
ately before the congregation recites the
silent Amidah prayer of Musaf.
In most synagogues, everyone first
recites "Psalm 47" seven times. The person
blowing the shofar and the congrega-
tion then responsively recite seven verses
drawn from Psalms and Lamentations. The
shofar blower next recites two blessings,
after which he blows three sets of shofar
blasts. This is followed by a responsive
reading of three verses from "Psalm 89."
In the Ashkenazi rite, the shofar is again
blown during the cantor's repetition of
the Musaf Amidah; in the Sefardi rite, the
shofar is blown during the congregation's
silent Amidah prayer. The shofar is not
blown on Shabbat.
For the Torah reading, five persons
are called up. If Rosh Hashanah falls on
Shabbat, seven are called up. Except on
Shabbat, the Avinu Malkeynu prayer is
recited after the Amidah of the morning
and afternoon services.
Rosh Hashanah, along with Yom Kippur,
is the only day we prostrate ourselves in
prayer — in a modified form — as was
done in the days of the Holy Temple in
Jerusalem. The prostration is done during
the Aleinu portion of the Amidah prayer
(the same Aleinu was later added to the
end of each of the three daily services,
but without prostration). Prostration is
performed by kneeling and touching the
forehead to the floor. It is done almost
exclusively by Orthodox Jews.

• Thematic Significance Of The
Holiday: Rosh Hashanah carries three
main themes. Beyond its importance
as the beginning of the calendar year,
Rosh Hashanah is regarded as the Day of
Judgment (Yom ha-Din), when God weighs
the acts of each person, Jew and gentile,
over the past year and decides the fate of
each life.
Rosh Hashanah also is referred to as the
Day of Remembrance ( Yom ha-zikaron),
when God remembers the world; and we

remember our relationship with Him,
the Torah and the Land of Israel. We also
reflect on our lives during the past year,
remembering the right and the wrong of
our thoughts and actions. Rosh Hashanah
further is regarded as the day we publicly
acknowledge the sovereignty of God.

• Customs And Traditions: Like almost
all Jewish holidays, Rosh Hashanah is cel-
ebrated with festive meals. More so than
any other Jewish holiday, Rosh Hashanah
is replete with symbolic foods, the best
known of which is honey. We dip slices of
apple in honey and recite a prayer express-
ing our hopes for a sweet year to come.
Many people also dip their bread in honey
(instead of the usual salt) for the motzi
prayer that begins the meal.
Other symbolic foods include the head
of a fish or the head of a sheep (a play on
the "rosh" part of Rosh Hashanah), carrots
(based on a Yiddish pun on the word for
"increase") or pomegranates (which have
many seeds, symbolic of many children or
many good deeds).
Families have their own traditions
regarding symbolic foods, many of which
are based either on the characteristics of
the food or a word play on the name of the
food (in any language, but most often in
Hebrew).

• The Day After: The day immedi-
ately following Rosh Hashanah is Tzom
Gedaliah, the Fast of Gedaliah. This is
one of four fasts that begins at sunrise
and ends at sundown (as opposed to Yom
Kippur and Tisha b'Av, which are 24-hour
fasts). It commemorates the murder
on the third of Tishrei of Gedaliah ben
Achikam, who was appointed governor of
Judah by the Babylonians after their sack
of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E.
After their conquest, the
Babylonians deported
much of the Jewish
population of both
the northern and
southern kingdoms
of Israel and Judah.
The remnant that
remained, mostly
in the tribal ter-
ritories of Benjamin
and Judah, included
the family of Gedaliah,

long prominent in politics. The highly
respected Gedaliah, along with his ally, the
prophet Jeremiah, encouraged the Jews to
accept the reality of Babylonian rule, and
to rebuild the ravaged land.
Gedaliah's hopeful attitude and words
of encouragement gained him the sup-
port of the people. Soon, word got back
to Babylonia (and surrounding lands to
which some Jews had fled) that life in
Israel was returning to normal, and many
refugees made their way back. These
developments were viewed with alarm
by Baalis, king of the neighboring hostile
Ammonites (their capital was located
on the site today occupied by Amman,
Jordan), who feared and opposed a resur-
gent Jewish state.
Baalis brought to his court Yishmael, the
son of Nataniah, a descendant of the royal
house of Zedekiah, the last king of Judah.
Baalis played on Yishmael's resentment
that someone who was not descended
from King David was ruling the Jews, and
goaded Yishmael into killing Gedalia.
Fearing reprisal from King
Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia, the Jews of
Judah fled en masse to Egypt. Jeremiah
counseled the Jews to remain in their
land, warning them that Egypt was not
a refuge, but a death trap. They not only
ignored Jeremiah, they abducted him and
took him with them. A few years later,
Babylonia made war on Egypt and slew
scores of Jews they found there.
In the meantime, the towns, vineyards
and fields of the land of Israel, devoid of
Jews, fell into ruin and the land remained
desolate. The destruction begun by the
Babylonians was now complete.
To memorialize the righteous Gedalia,
and to remember the horrendous after-
math of his senseless murder, the rab-
bis ruled that the entire Jewish people
should forever fast on the third of
Tishrei.
This year, however, that
date falls on Shabbat,
when public fast days
are not observed, Yom
Kippur being the only
exception. Thus the
fast is postponed until
Sunday, Sept. 16, begin-
ning at 6:01 a.m. and end-
ing at 8:15 p.m. II

IN

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September 13 • 2007

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