Rosh Hashanah, head of the new year…or is it? In the Gemara, there is a "machloket," argument, as to when the new year should begin. Rav Eliezar defends the month of Nissan, the month in which Pesach falls, to be the first of the year. The Torah refers to Nissan as the first month, with it's energy of rebrith and freedom from the past. But the Jewish Calendar isn't like that, so by whom do we hold? Like Rav Yehoshua. But why he defends Tishrei as the first month is not entirely clear. The autumn months are hardly a time of rebirth, and the Torah talks about Tishrei as the seventh month. Furthermore, every twenty-seven years, the sun reclaims the exact same astronomical position that it held on the day it was created…and that day is in Nissan. Adding to the confusion, very little is mentioned about Rosh Hashanah in the Torah. It's a day when we cease our normal activities and "remember the Teruah." Teruah is one of the three sounds made on the Shofar. We're to "blast out on the Shofar on the day that's covered over." Indeed…why is this High Holy Day so covered over, so shrouded in vagueries.
To get us out of this conundrum, we turn to the Gemara again. There it explains that the amount of rain that will fall this year is decreed on Rosh Hashanah, yet where it falls is up to us, up to our payers. The plan is conceived, but the path is yet to be laid. Rosh Hashanah is "Hayom Harat Haolam," the day the world was conceived. Conceived, not born. This day of Rosh Hashanah, the day when humans were born and entered the Garden of Eden, is a day on which potential reigns. It's the vision of what life can be. Rav Daniel gave a Shiur (class) this week in which he flipped my idea of Tshuvah on it's head. One would think that a holiday demanding Tshuvah (examining our past to discover a path back to our source) would fall in the last month of the year, providing a means to reflect and find closure on the last twelve month cycle, yet it falls at the very beginning. Rather than focus on the past, look forward, for that's where Tsuvah lies. The Ikar (main point) of Tshuvah is your looking forward to the vision of greatness, to achieving the happiness and connection that we long for in our heart.
We're commanded to remember the Teruah, to listen to these trembling blasts and recall a memory that needs to be recalled. As Moshe says in the last chapters of the Torah "Truat Melech Bo," the Teruah of the king is within them. Rashi comments that Teruah is a word for kingship. The kingship is within us to find and affix to the forefront of our mind on Rosh Hashanah. Potentials and possibilities…that's what came into the world on this day. With the start of the new month the moon is only a potential, just a tiny sliver of what it will grow to be over the next month. The sound the Shofar emits has no words, only a cry, a yearning to which we must put words. The Haftorah portion we read speaks of the prayers of Chanah, who longs to conceive, and the final blast of Tekiah, that long, strong, wail, is said to be that sound of our creator blowing the first soul into the first human body.
Perhaps this is why we don't daven (pray) for ourselves on Rosh Hashanah. What? That's right, we daven for the world, for each other, for our families, for our loved ones. The "King" that is within us all isn't something to keep hidden away. Remembering that, we pray for the world to reach its potential, for the rains to fall where they are truly needed. When that occurs, our combined potential is truly unlimited. May we all be signed and sealed in the book of life IMMEDIATELY! And, may our names we written right along side the ones we know and love, the ones we only know, and the ones we're trying to love.
SHANAH TOVA!