Hersh Goldman
This year the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, begins Monday night, Sept. 22.
The Bible calls this day the “Day of Blowing the Horn” (Numbers 29:1). The special horn traditionally blown on Rosh Hashanah, usually a ram’s horn, is called the shofar. The synagogue congregants respond in unison to many of the sets of shofar blasts sounded in the New Year service, with the Hebrew words translated below:
“Today is the birthday of the world; today all creatures stand in judgment, whether as children or as servants. If as children, have mercy on us as a father has mercy on his children; if as servants, our eyes beseech thee to be gracious to us ….”
It is interesting that the zodiac sign for both Rosh Hashanah and the Day of Atonement — which falls 10 days later — is Libra, the scales of justice. Both Jewish holidays are designated as Yom HaDin, Hebrew for “Judgment Day.”
I live in Swampscott, and the nature here puts me in the mood for the holiday that celebrates the anniversary of Creation. Sometimes the frequent enclosures of daily life — home, workplace, school, market, social halls — can get in the way of our awareness of the outdoors and our sensitivity to the majesty of God’s Creation.
Take a walk down to the beach. See Kings Beach, for instance. Look at the sun, sky, ocean, sand and Egg Rock rising from the water. Gaze at the gliding birds. Listen to the rhythm of the waves and the sound of the gulls. This could be what the unspoiled world at the time of Creation was like. The atmosphere sometimes arouses my feelings of awe for Rosh Hashanah more than being inside a synagogue.
That said, in my opinion — and I confess I’m not a rabbi — it is very important for observant Jews to attend synagogue on Rosh Hashanah to fulfill the biblical command of hearing the shofar sounded. If a Jew owns a shofar and knows how to use it, it may not be as incumbent to attend synagogue services as it would be if the only way to hear the ritual sounds was by going to synagogue.
Rosh Hashanah is a holiday for especially intense prayer — a holiday when Jews everywhere pray not just for themselves, but for the welfare of the world. May people here on the North Shore, and everywhere in this country and beyond, have a good year.
Speaking of Rosh Hashanah on a global level, I recently Googled “Rosh Hashanah” and saw these closing sentences in Wikipedia:
“In 2020 the Jewish president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, announced that Ukraine would declare Rosh Hashanah a national holiday. This makes Ukraine the only country besides Israel where the day is a national holiday.
Hersh Goldman is a Swampscott resident.
