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Sept. 6, 2013
Special days of repentance
The Yamim Noraim have the power to bring us closest to G-d.
ESTHER TAUBY
Rosh Hashanah is the day when we stand in front of G-d our Father and acknowledge our responsibility for our actions over the past year. This year, Rosh Hashanah is celebrated from Wednesday evening, Sept. 4, through Friday evening, Sept. 6, which flows directly into Shabbat.
The rabbis deliberately decreed that the biblical verses recited in the three special prayers – Malchut (Kingship), Zichronot (Memories) and Shofrot (Shofars) – on Rosh Hashanah contain only positive ideas. We recognize G-d as the One who will grant us a good year, so we pray to Him and ask for His kindness.
We are strong and confident standing in the loving presence of G-d. The truth is that we matter and that He loves us. The tone of Rosh Hashanah is gratitude for all we have as well as for the blessings we will receive as G-d inscribes us, His beloved children, in the Book of Life for another year. We are given the opportunity to open our hearts through the sounds of the shofar to the call of our Father in Heaven who we have an inherent love for, as a child does to their parent.
We are so certain of a positive outcome that we wear our finest clothing, eat festive meals including sweet foods, with family, friends and guests and celebrate the New Year with happiness. It is a time of rejoicing as we wish each other a sweet new year (shana tova u’metuka). In the time of Ezra the Scribe (approximately 200 BCE), Rosh Hashanah was considered such a festive time, people used to exchange gifts.
Rosh Hashanah is included in the Ten Days of Awe, which stretch from Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur. Our lot in all things, i.e. health, wealth, livelihood, etc., is determined during this period. So, on the one hand, they may be days of judgment but, on the other hand, they are days of rejoicing and closeness.
In His abundant mercy, G-d granted us special days when He is closest to us. As the verse Isaiah 55:6 states, “Seek G-d when He is to be found, call out to Him when He is near.” During these 10 days, our prayers and repentance are immediately accepted.
Yom Kippur, the last day of prayer and atonement, is the climax of the Ten Days of Awe on which we stand before G-d fasting and praying as He shows His love and mercy by sealing us into the Book of Life.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902-1994) OBM, discusses the mysticism surrounding the number 10. The Rebbe explains that the number 10 is associated with holiness. The world was created with 10 utterances, there are 10 commandments and a minyan (quorum) is made up of 10 males over age 13. The number 10 represents perfection. During these 10 days, our souls, which are a part of G-d and are directly connected to Him, are the closest they are all year.
Rabbi Yisroel Salanter (1810-1883) OBM, founder of the Mussar movement, asked why Yom Kippur doesn’t come before Rosh Hashanah? With a full day of purification and repentance on Yom Kippur behind us, wouldn’t we be in a much better position to ask and be granted a New Year full of blessings?
Rabbi Salanter answers that, on Rosh Hashanah we ask G-d to grant us life, health, livelihood, etc., but He knows that we are human and sometimes we do make mistakes. On Rosh Hashanah, we accept and recognize that everything is in His hands, and it is important that we do so before we come to ask forgiveness for all our errors on Yom Kippur. Then we can be confident that G-d, our loving Father, will seal us in His Book of Life for another year.
May we all merit to be inscribed and sealed in the Book of Life for this coming year and may we all merit to see true peace in Israel and around the world. With wishes for the immediate redemption with the coming of Mashiach, shana tova u’metuka.
Esther Tauby is a local educator, writer and counselor.
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