Torah for Christians: Rosh HaShanah (again!)

TORAH FOR CHRISTIANS

 SEASON TWO        EPISODE ELEVEN
(A rebroadcast of an earlier episode)

ROSH HASHANAH

          Happy New Year! But Rabbi, you say, it’s not January 1st. True. But for Jews, it’s Rosh HaShanah, the Birthday of the World. Let’s find out what this all means. I’m Rabbi Jordan Parr and this is Torah for Christians.

          INTRO

          Welcome to Torah for Christians. I’m Rabbi Jordan Parr. The start of Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish New Year is fraught with meaning and yes, dread. It is a time when God judges us and decides whether we should live or die during the coming year.

          Mishnah Rosh HaShanah, Chapter One, Mishnah One states: There are four New Year days, viz.: The first of Nissan is New Year for (the ascension of) Kings and for (the regular rotation of) festivals; 1 the first of Elul is New Year for the cattle-tithe, 2 but according to R. Eliezer and R. Simeon, it is on the first of Tishri. The first of Tishri is New Year's day, for ordinary years, and for sabbatic years 3 and jubilees; and also for the planting of trees 4 and for herbs. 5 On the first day of Shebhat is the New Year for trees, 6 according to the school of Shammai; but the school of Hillel says it is on the fifteenth of the same month. 7

          Nissan is the month for Passover so counting it as the first month for festivals make sense. And since Passover was the most important holiday in the Biblical calendar, it was also natural that kings would count the years of their reign on the first of Nissan.

          The 1st of Elul, exactly one month before Rosh HaShanah, is the new year for cattle. Cattle must be a certain age, either one or three years old, to be sacrificed; this date provided a benchmark; all animals age a year on the 1st of Elul, no matter when in the year they were born.

          The 15th of Shevat, in the middle of winter, is the new year for trees. Again, we cannot sacrifice or eat fruit until the trees are also three years old. All trees age on Hillel’s preferred date, the 15th of Shevat, called in Hebrew T’u B’Shevat, a minor Jewish holiday.

          This brings us to the 1st of Tishrei, Rosh HaShanah, the beginning of the Jewish ritual year. This is the date from when we count the years for Sabbatical and Jubilee years. Furthermore, in Mishnah 2, we read this:  on New Year's Day all human beings pass before Him (God) as sheep before a shepherd. 

          On Rosh HaShanah, we pass before God in judgement, as if we were sheep being checked for ritual fitness. The period of formal judgement begins on Rosh HaShanah and ends on Yom Kippur. We have learned that God has three books open: the Book of Good Life, the Book of Death and the Book of the In-Between. All of us are in the Book of In-Between at the start of Rosh HaShanah; by Yom Kippur, that book will be emptied, and our names placed in one of the other two books. Our names will hopefully be inscribed and sealed in the Book of Good Life.

          How do we get ourselves in the Good Book and avoid the Bad One? As we have discussed over the past few episodes, there is a way to offer repentance, first to people we have offended and then, before God on Yom Kippur. 

          Rosh HaShanah, we see, has significance that goes far beyond being the herald of Yom Kippur. In the Torah, we read “The first day of the seventh month is a day of sacred assembly, a day to sound the shofar.” The shofar, a ram’s horn, is the Jewish people’s ancient bugle. The Israelites sounded the Shofar when they went to war, they sounded the shofar at Rosh HaShanah, they even sounded the shofar to topple the walls of Jericho. And one day, the shofar will sound to announce the coming of the Messiah. 

The mitzvah of sounding the shofar on Rosh HaShanah comes from Genesis, Chapter 22, called in Hebrew the Akedah, the story of the Binding of Isaac. In this story, God commands Abraham to bring Isaac to Mount Moriah and offer him as a sacrifice. Abraham and Isaac attempt to fulfill this command. At the last moment, an angel descends from heaven and stops Abraham from putting the knife to his son’s throat. Abraham then discovers a ram caught by its horn in a thicket. In gratitude, he offers the ram in place of Isaac. The ram’s horn, the shofar, reminds us of this powerful story in the Torah and so is sounded on the mornings of Rosh HaShanah. We’re going to talk about the shofar in depth next time. Stay tuned.

          If we look at the holiday from a different angle, Rosh HaShanah literally means the “head of the year.” We might better translate it as the beginning of the year. The Hebrew calendar is calculated from the date of the creation of the world, as calculated in the early centuries of the Common Era. For example, Rosh HaShanah, 2021 is 1 Tishrei, the first day of the Hebrew month of Tishrei, in the Hebrew year of 5782. The entire universe in this calculation is 5,782 years old. While some Jews take this literally, most Jews accept the idea of the Jewish year 5782 metaphorically, as an attempt to quantify time in the rabbinic era. There had to be a Day One; according to Genesis; Rosh HaShanah is that day.

          While there are many unique prayers that Jews recite on Rosh HaShanah, the Unetane Tokef stands out. This prayer, supposedly written by an 11th Century rabbi as he was being led to his death, encapsulates the idea of God inscribing us in either the Book of Good Life or the Book of Death. The pertinent passage from this prayer reads as follows:

On Rosh Hashanah it is inscribed, and on Yom Kippur it is sealed - how many shall pass away and how many shall be born, who shall live and who shall die, who in good time, and who by an untimely death, who by water and who by fire, who by sword and who by wild beast, who by famine and who by thirst, who by earthquake and who by plague, who by strangulation and who by lapidation, who shall have rest and who wander, who shall be at peace and who pursued, who shall be serene and who tormented, who shall become impoverished and who wealthy, who shall be debased, and who exalted. 

This reading is very upsetting. It sounds like God determines our fate and there is nothing that we can do about it. But then, we read the last line of the passage:

But repentance, prayer and righteousness avert the severity of the decree.

We have control over our fate. If we achieve sincere repentance, offer proper prayers, and do acts of righteousness, Tzedakah, we can avert God’s harsh decree. So yes, this is a difficult prayer with an even more difficult message – but it shows us that it is within our power to choose to live and not die.

We have been talking about various rituals, theology, and other aspects of Rosh HaShanah. After the break, we’ll have some fun and talk about Rosh HaShanah customs and home observances, especially foods. I’m Rabbi Jordan Parr and this is Torah for Christians.

BREAK

Welcome back to Torah for Christians. I’m Rabbi Jordan Parr. Before we return to our discussion of sin and repentance, I want to thank you for listening to the podcast. Please remember to rate and review this episode, as well as previous episodes on Apple, Spotify, and other great podcasting sites. Also, you can like us on Facebook.

Like most holidays, Jewish holidays have their own special foods and traditions. When we greet each other on Rosh HaShanah, we say in Hebrew, “L’shanah tovah u’metukah,” May you have a good and a sweet New Year. So naturally, the idea is to have something sweet to eat.

The sweetness comes from honey, a natural food, easily available, and known to the ancients. One of the foods that we eat on Rosh HaShanah is apples dipped in honey. Apples can be sweet or tart; we choose sweet apples to dip in honey. The sweet apple combined with the sweet honey puts us on the path to a doubly sweet year. We usually eat apples and honey at the start of our meal or even served as a synagogue’s food of choice following a service. Try it; it’s tasty.

Another traditional food is a honey cake. Again, honey portends a sweet year. Since sugar was virtually unknown amongst European Jews, they used a lot of honey in their recipes. After we dip apples in honey, we might have some honey cake for dessert. There are, of course, many recipes for honey cake available in Jewish cookbooks or online.

And there is round challah. Challah is a celebratory bread, usually eaten on Shabbat and other special days. Historically, Jews could not afford fine, white flour; depending upon where Jews lived, bread was made from rye or barley flour. Wheat flour was usually whole grained and expensive. But for Shabbat and festivals, Jews tried to buy fine white flour and even added eggs to the dough. A challah is like a French brioche, a bread made of fine wheat flour, milk, and eggs – except that there is no milk in a challah since it is usually eaten with a meat meal. And we can’t mix milk and meat.

During the year, the challah loaf is usually braided and twisted. We braid from three to six strands to make the challah look pretty. It’s baked as a long loaf, just like a bread you might find in a bakery.

But on Rosh HaShanah, the challah is braided and then turned into a spiral. The circular nature of the bread symbolizes the cyclical nature of life. A round challah shows that we have completed one year and begun another.

There are other customs associated with Rosh HaShanah as well. For example, we might help the kids bake cookies cut with a shofar-shaped cookie cutter. We might prepare a festive dinner the night of Rosh HaShanah or a special brunch following the morning service. We make special charity donations and try to buy new clothes in honor of the holiday.

Despite its solemnity, Rosh HaShanah is also a festive occasion. It is a time to see old friends, celebrate the new year and yes, continue the process of asking for forgiveness from God and from each other. This stands in stark contrast to our next Holy Day, Yom Kippur, a day of complete solemnity.

I want to thank you for listening to Torah for Christians. You can listen to and rate previous episodes on Apple, Spotify or other popular podcast outlets. Also, you can like us on Facebook and Instagram. Next week, we will do a deeper dive into the Shofar, the ram’s horn sounded on Rosh HaShanah. In two weeks, we will discuss Yom Kippur.

Have a great day and remember: (Hebrew) How good and how pleasant it is for us to dwell together in unity. L’hitra’ot. Till we see each other again. I’m Rabbi Jordan Parr and this has been Torah for Christians.