Judaism Expanded Observance: The New Year
Rosh Hashana (New Year’s Day) and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) mark the beginning and end of the Days of Awe, a ten-day period of heightened spiritual awareness and intense personal introspection.
Rosh Hashana is called The Birthday of the World, because, according to ancient legend, this is the day on which God began the work of creation. While most Jews no longer hold this to be literally true, the image of God making order out of chaos inspires and challenges all Jews to build better lives, and a better world for all peoples, from the chaos wrought by human transgression and indifference.
Rosh Hashana’s origins go back to biblical times, when Solomon’s Temple stood in Jerusalem. Jewish officials would look skyward for the first sighting of the crescent moon, or new moon as it is also called, which meant that a new month had arrived. The month was announced by blowing the shofar, or ram’s horn. Today, the shrill sound of the shofar is heard on Rosh Hashana, the first day of the Hebrew month of Tishri, to awaken men and women from their spiritual slumber.
On Yom Kippur, the tenth day of Tishri, the process of T’shuva, returning to god, reaches its culmination. In synagogues throughout the world, Kol Nidrei services on the eve of the holy day, and services from early morning until sundown of the day, itself, are marked by a profound solemnity. Jews aged thirteen and over fast for the full twenty-four hours so as to feel in their own bodies the pain others may experience daily. Over and over, the congregation intones confessions of guilt (“We have sinned. We have transgressed. We have done perversely...," along with pleas for divine forgiveness (“For all these things, O God of Mercy, forgive us, pardon us, blot out our transgressions.”) It is understood, however, that prayer and fasting, alone, are not sufficient to merit atonement. The Jew is thus directed on Yom Kippur to make amends for any damage done to others.
Like all Jewish holidays, the dates of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur on the western calendar vary from year to year due to the complexities of reconciling the solar and lunar calendars.
