Thread. So, Rosh Hashanah. Jewish new year. Starts tonight (Jewish days start at night because Genesis says “it was evening, then it was morning”). Lasts 2 days, during which some Jews, described as “orthodox” (a term I dislike) will be off air. Including me.
RH literally means
RH literally means
“Head of the Year”. It’s supposed to mark the start of creation. Not the magic story, but the fact that the creation narrative marks the point at which humans began to regard themselves historically. Unlike animals we need to know where we come from. The Jewish creation story
begins with an acknowledgement that creation itself is not human and comes from nothing.
The religious response to that is to recognise our place in the scheme of things. That leads, in turn, to wondering about our relationship with the force of creation.
We call it God.
The religious response to that is to recognise our place in the scheme of things. That leads, in turn, to wondering about our relationship with the force of creation.
We call it God.
On RH we treat God as a king. The entire morning service (4-5 hours) is structured round that concept. Although we call RH & the days that follow it & lead to Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), “the 10 days of penitence”, we don’t actually confess on RH, nor say penitential
prayers. We devote ourselves to the coronation of God as king over creation.
Our tradition teaches that the whole world is judged on RH. And that our personal destinies are also judged. The Leonard Cohen song “Who By Fire” is taken directly from the liturgy & reflects this idea.
Our tradition teaches that the whole world is judged on RH. And that our personal destinies are also judged. The Leonard Cohen song “Who By Fire” is taken directly from the liturgy & reflects this idea.
Judgment begins by recognising that you’re in a court. This is true of my day job as well. RH is the bit where we stand as the Tribunal comes in. We start to scrutinise our behaviour. We go on to acknowledge what’s gone wrong & to develop a plan to make sure it’s not repeated.
We show we mean it by apologising to those we have hurt. We don’t say “it’s not my fault” or “I didn’t mean it”. We focus on the effect of our actions. We do that to God but, crucially we do it to fellow human beings. We believe God can discern what we really think. We know that
human beings can’t. So we use our power of speech and communication to make ourselves clear. All of that is the project for the next 10 days. But it starts with an upsurge of solemn joy that the king grants us access and is interested in what we say. Because of that we celebrate.
We symbolise our hope for a “Shana tova u’metuka (a good & sweet year)” by eating - we’re Jews. We eat honey, cake and sweet foods (carrots and meat cooked with honey anyone?). & we wish for each other that we are inscribed in the book of good life. Which is what I wish you.
