00 Rosh Ha Shanah
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This Sunday, September 25th, at sundown, everything in Creation will be ushered through the passageway into Rosh HaShanah. The impact of cause and effect on us and from us will have enormous ramifications that will be astronomical, colossal, and gargantuan! There will be universal reverberations throughout all of the Lord God’s Creation. Why? • Rosh HaShanah is The Day of Remembrance • Rosh HaShanah is The Day of Judgment • Rosh HaShanah is The Day of Forgiveness • Rosh HaShanah is The Day of Blowing the Ram’s Horn • Rosh HaShanah is The Day Moshiach will come • Rosh HaShanah is The Day we celebrate Creation Dear Ones, Rosh HaShanah, is a High Holy Day for each of the above reasons. We light candles, enjoy a sip of wine, a piece of challah from a round loaf, dip apples in honey, and have a festive meal. As noted above, a number of significant activities happen on Rosh HaShanah. More than any other day of the year, we have the opportunity to participate in a powerful Observance where we can right wrongs and change improper behavior that impact us and our world. Do we want to have a sweet new year? The remainder of our discussion focuses on the above occurrences. We teach that Rosh HaShanah is The Day of Remembrance because The Lord God Remembered Sarah in (Genesis 21), Rachel in (Genesis 30), and Hannah in (1 Samuel 1). At some point during the day, husbands and wives may enjoy sex. Isaac, the son of Abraham and Sarah, was conceived on Rosh HaShanah. We teach that Rosh HaShanah is the Day of Judgment. Beth Shammai taught, ‘There will be three groups at the Day of Judgment, one of thoroughly righteous, one of thoroughly wicked, and one of intermediate.’ (Rosh Ha Shanah 16b.23). We know Adam and Chavah were judged for their sin on Rosh Ha Shanah. In the ninth hour of the day, Adam and Chavah were created. The Lord God Instructed them in The Seven Laws, i.e., They were Commanded not to eat of the tree, in the Tenth hour, Adam and Eve sinned; in The Eleventh Hour, Adam and Eve were tried, and in the twelfth hour, they were expelled from The Garden of Eden and departed. (Sanhedrin 38b). On the Day of Judgment, humankind departed The Garden of Eden. The Prophet Isaiah Prophesied that on this same day, i.e., The Day of Judgment, the outcasts among Israel will be gathered back. (Isaiah 27.13) says, ‘And it shall come to pass on that Day, that the great shofar shall be blown, and those shall come who were lost in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship The Lord on the Holy Mount at Jerusalem.’ We teach that receiving forgiveness for our sins is not a complicated matter. We want and need forgiveness, so we need to be forgiving. The Lord God Taught in (Genesis 4.7) that ‘when sin lies at our door, we must improve. We individually have the power to defeat any sin,’ i.e., ‘you may rule over it.’ In other words, we acknowledge our failures; we make a plan not to repeat our wrongs. We reverse our course, turn ourselves around, and go, in another direction, a better path. We improve and pay restitution for our error. We do not repeat our mistakes. Yet, sometimes we repeat our mistakes over and over again. Sometimes we repeat our errors in defiance. Now we are at Rosh Ha Shanah. We are about to be judged. What do we do? We improve! We can succeed! We try to be conscious of our sins all the time, i.e., when we knowingly sin, during each day’s prayers, at the beginning of each month, during Elul, the month leading up to Rosh HaShanah then during the ten days of repentance ending after Yom Kippur. The point is that we want to live a life of holiness to God. We pray for forgiveness of our sins and the sins of our people because we are our brother’s keeper. We seek forgiveness for humanity’s sins. During the afternoon of Rosh Hashanah, we walk to a live body of water with fish, a creek, a stream, a river, a lake, or a reservoir, as an act of symbolically removing our sins not to be remembered anymore. We observe the Tashlich Prayer. We pray, ‘You [O God] will cast all their/our sins into the depths of the sea’ (Micah 7:19). The Lord God Commanded in (Numbers 29.1) ‘And in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a holy gathering; you shall do no labor; it is a day of blowing the horn/ shofar for you.‘ The ram’s horn/shofar/trumpet is traditionally sounded 100 times, representing the 100 Blessings Jewish people aim to say each day. There are three different Shofar blasts. Tekiah is a long blast that symbolizes one crying out in distress. Shevarim consists of three shorter blasts representing Abraham’s prayer in the morning (Genesis 19.27), Isaac’s prayer in the afternoon (Genesis 24.63), and Jacob’s prayer in the evening (Genesis 28.11). Teruah is the third blast which is a series of nine or more short blasts, one right after the other symbolic of one who is moaning and sobbing. An individual of the congregation announces each shofar sound/blast. The shofar blast announces Moshiach. Immediately follows the Shmittah Year. Our Rabbis teach that at the end of the Seven Year Cycle, The Son of David, i.e., Messiah, will come on The First Day of The First Year of the New Seven Year Cycle. (Sanhedrin 97a). Rosh HaShanah is the birthday of the world. This coming year is 5783 From Creation. We teach that the Lord God Finished His Creating at the end of the sixth day. The Seventh-day Sabbath began. R. Eliezer says: that the world was created, i.e., finished in Tishri. On the New Year, Sarah, Rachel, and Hannah were visited, i.e., conceived. Joseph went forth from prison on the New Year. (Proverbs 16.24) says, ‘Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweet to the Soul, and health to the bones.’ Pleasant Words represent Virtue. Virtue is behavior that shows high moral standards of goodness and decency. Being virtuous requires us to respect others. Solomon points to the foundation behind ‘Pleasant words.’ Solomon is saying those who are intelligent have control of their words. At times one may feel irritable and grumpy. Sometimes things do not go the way one needs or wants. One may spew a few naughty words. Perhaps someone does something to us, and we retaliate with a curse. We each know what it feels like to be snapped at, criticized, and the brunt of another’s unhappiness. These are not Pleasant Words. We know the difference between Pleasant Words and naughty words. Each of us is acquainted with attitudes and words that cause pain. Solomon’s point is that we are attracted to pleasant words spoken by individuals whose actions agree with what they say. That is like honey to the Soul. On Rosh HaShanah, we enjoy honey because honey is sweet. We want our New year to be sweet like honey. Now that we realize our words should be like a honeycomb. Let us aim to plant plenty of pleasant words in others. Pleasant words give life and health to each of us. David wrote in (Psalms 19), ‘[Words of Ha Torah are to be] more desired than gold, even very fine [magnificent] gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.’ At Rosh Ha Shanah, we dip slices of the Apple in honey. The apple represents The Garden of Eden, where our first parents were expelled for sin. Each Rosh Hashanah, we mystically return to the place of judgment in The Garden of Eden. The garden of Eden has the scent of an apple orchard. Gan Eden was both pleasant and bitter. The Apple is bittersweet. An apple may have a tart taste or a sweet taste. Being expelled from The Garden of Eden was bitter for our first parents. Now we have the opportunity to take the tartness of the Apple and change its taste by dipping the Apple in honey, i.e., The Words of Ha Torah. (Michah 7.18-20) says, ‘Who is a God like you, who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He does not retain His anger forever because He delights in mercy. He will again have compassion upon us; He will suppress our iniquities, and you will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. You will show the truth to Jacob and loving mercy to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from old days.’ (Isaiah 43.25) says,‘I, I Myself, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake and will not remember your sins.’ (Psalms 103.8-12) says, ‘He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the People of Israel. The Lord is merciful, gracious, slow to anger, and bountiful in loving kindness. He will not always chide, nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. As the Heaven is high above the earth, so great is His loving kindness toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.’ May each of us have a favorable verdict. May our names continue to be written in The Book of Life. Dear Ones, My wife, Revi, and I forgive anyone who has wronged us. We apologize for any word or action either of us has done that wrong. We ask for forgiveness. May each of us have a favorable verdict. May our names continue to be written in The Book of Life. Dear Ones, My wife, Revi, and I forgive anyone who has wronged us. We apologize for any word or action either of us has done that wrong. We ask for forgiveness. לְשָׁנָה טוֹבָה תֵּכָּתֵבוּ וְתֵחָתֵמוּ Lih Shaw Naw Toh Vaw – Tay Caw Tay Voo – Vih Tay Chaw Tay Moo ‘May you {continue to] be inscribed and sealed in The Book of Living. Dr. Akiva Gamliel & Brachah Rivkah Belk For more information, please visit Jewish Virtual Library. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/guide-to-the-rosh-hashanah-morning-service |
