“Today, the world was wrought.” As we note in our davening, Rosh Hashanah is the day on which the world was created. It is only fitting that it should also be Yom Ha-Din, the Judgment Day on which we are judged for the year ahead. “As the Mishnah states, “all creatures pass before Him” in judgment.
This raises a basic question: Why are these concepts, both the beginning of the year and the judgment element, absent from the Torah? The Torah only mentions that it is a Day of Sounding, “Yom Teru’a.” Why?
The answer to this begins with the understanding, which used to be obvious but today needs some elaboration, that Rosh Hashanah comes at the beginning of the annual cycle. It is the time when last year’s produce is gathered, and the land is prepared for the new crop of the coming year.
Though in a non-agronomic society this change of years is less prominent, we continue to mark the time in our educational calendar (beginning in September) and with Labor Day, the “unofficial end of the summer” when we return to work.
The Torah thus notes (in reference to Sukkos) that the time is “the end of the year” (Shemos 23) and “the season of the year” (Shemos 34). Indeed, the Yerushalmi (Rosh Hashanah 1:1) relies on these Pesukim to determine that the festival on the first of Tishrei is, indeed, Rosh Hashanah – the beginning of the new year.
Of course, the day itself seems “arbitrary” – the transition between cycles happens over a period rather than a day. Yet, Chazal explain that it has to fall at the beginning of a lunar month, and the appropriate day is thus the first of Tishrei. Everything else follows from here.
Being that Rosh Hashanah is the beginning of the natural year, Rabbi Eliezer holds that the world was created in Tishrei. Rabbi Yehoshua disputes this, but this doesn’t impact the core significance of the day. Furthermore, since it is the beginning of the year, the day becomes a Day of Judgment on which we are granted our annual “budget” – both fiscal and otherwise.
What are we to do on this day, at this most auspicious time – the beginning of the new year? This is what the Torah reveals in the expression Yom Teru’a. The essence of the day, from our perspective, is coronation: we coronate Hashem as King upon us by means of sounding the Shofar.
The Ramchal writes (in his Treatise on Hope) that all things begin with hope. Without hope, we would not begin anything because who can say that matters will go as planned? As we begin the year, we start with hope. As the Ramchal expounds, the most fundamental tenet of being Jewish is to pin our hopes on Hakadosh Baruch Hu.
By sounding the Shofar, we declare that Hashem is our King. We state that we trust Him as the benevolent King of the world and look towards Him for all the goodness and bounty that the natural world presents. When we present ourselves as loyal and trusting subjects, Hashem acts with compassion and inscribes us for life.
We enter Rosh Hashanah with the joy of closeness to Hashem, our Father and our King, mingled with the trepidation of knowing that the responsibility for restarting and recalibrating the connection for the new year – of sounding the Shofar truly and sincerely – is ours alone.
Wishing all a good and sweet year.
