Rosh Hashanah
Yamim Nora'im: Days of Ave
The Yamim Noraim (Days of Awe) are not only days of festive and sometimes dramatic communal observance, but also the high points of a personal journey of introspection and reflection. Beginning in the Hebrew month of Elul and extending through the end of the final holiday of Simchat Torah (Joy of the Torah) some six weeks later, we are challenged to think through some hard questions about our lives. The process of Teshuvah - literally "turning," though often translated as "repentance"- demands that we think about our goals and aspirations, our relationships with others and with the Divine, and that we take the steps necessary to repair what is broken, whether in in ourselves or with others, to enter the New Year re-oriented and renewed.
Rosh Hashanah "Head of the Year," is a two day holiday, observed by the blowing of the ram's horn, the recitation of distinctive liturgies, and eating special foods symbolizing our hope for a good and sweet year. This year the Shofar is not blown on the first day of Rosh Hashanah, because it falls on Shabbat (and the ancient rabbis feared that somebody might end up doing something they shouldn't do on Shabbat if the Shofar were required), but it will be blown on the second day as usual. The Shofar has been given a variety of spiritual interpretations by different rabbis in different generations; for the medieval philosopher Saadia Gaon's list of ten things the Shofar calls to mind (plus a few others), see here.
Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, has a very different tone than Rosh Hashanah; rather than eat honeycake and apples, the tradition is to fast, not only by abstaining from food and water, but also by refraining from putting on makeup or fancy adornments, not washing more than is necessary for health, not engaging in sexual relations, and not wearing leather shoes, which are seen by the tradition as a symbol of luxury and vanity. At first, this seems like a burdensome list- in fact, these practices are known as the "afflictions" of Yom Kippur!- but taking a closer look, we see something different. On Yom Kippur, we are indeed humbling ourselves with these bodily "afflictions," but we are also rising to the level of pure spiritual beings, freed for 25 hours from the daily routines of living, in order to focus fully on our relationship with the Divine. On other days, we worry about what we're eating, what we're wearing, what we look like- on Yom Kippur, we worry only about the state of our souls. It takes effort and patience, but it can be a liberating and exhilarating experience.
