Yaakov Raskin | What is the Jewish New Year, and why is it celebrated in September?

All around the world, birthdays of leaders and important historical figures are marked with national celebrations – George Washington’s birthday in the USA, Victoria Day in Canada, and Heroes Day in Jamaica. On the Jewish calendar, Rosh Hashanah – the Jewish new year – celebrates the birthday of something much bigger: the Universe.

Taking place on September 11-13, the two-day festival of Rosh Hashanah is marked with song and celebration in the synagogue, the blowing of a ram’s horn known as a ‘shofar’, and with prayers asking G-d to bless us with a good and sweet new year.

To understand the significance of the holiday, we must look at its name. ‘Rosh Hashanah’ means ‘Head of the Year’ in Hebrew. This name was picked deliberately. The Rabbis could have called these days, ‘Beginning of the Year’, or ‘Start of the Year’, or just ‘New Year’. Instead, its was named ‘Head of the Year’ since this holiday stands in the same relationship to the rest of the year as the head does to the body. Just as the head makes the decisions for the rest of the body, and afterwards this life force is distributed to each individual organ of the body, so also Rosh Hashanah has hidden within it all of the decisions and life force of the year, and from the holiday it is apportioned to each and every individual day.

Unlike the secular new year, Rosh Hashanah is not just an arbitrary date marking the passage of time, Rosh Hashanah marks the anniversary of the creation of the world. It is not the anniversary of the first day, but the sixth day of Creation, the day when G‑d formed Adam and Eve and breathed into their nostrils the breath of life. Just as a baby spends nine months in the womb, so, too, the first days of creation were a kind of gestation period, and the sixth day is the ‘birthday of the world’.

According to Jewish mystical tradition, as time moves forward, it loops back on itself. Therefore birthdays, holidays, and other significant days carry the same spiritual energy in subsequent years as they did the first time they happened.

On Rosh Hashanah, the same spiritual forces involved in creating the world happen again, and we are able to tune into that potency and use it for our personal growth and spiritual development. Jewish tradition teaches that, on Rosh Hashanah, every living being passes before the Creator. He determines who will live and who will not, who will be prosperous and healthy and who will not. In fact, it is taught that everything which will occur in the coming year is decided on Rosh Hashanah.

That is why Rosh Hashanah is also called the Day of Judgement. On this day, G-d decides who will live and who will die, who will be rich and who will be poor, who will be healthy and who will be sick, who will be barren and who will be fruitful, who will be insane and who will be mentally healthy. Therefore, Jews worldwide flock to synagogues and beseech the Almighty to grant them, their families, and all of humanity a peaceful, happy and prosperous year.

Some scholars have asked “if G-d is infinite, why do we need to ask him once a year for our needs? Couldn’t he provide for all our needs at all times?

Certain things are taken for granted. For example, when we turn on a sink faucet, we expect and assume that water will flow from the tap. Or, a child in most households who opens the refrigerator expects to find food on its shelves. In truth, however, neither the water nor the food appears on their own. There is a well-staffed company which maintains the water pipes and pumps necessary to draw water from the reservoir into the residential home, and parents invest incredible energy to stock the refrigerator.

The same is true with creation. It seems that the world stands on its own. We assume that that which existed a moment ago will continue existing a moment later. But, in fact, the Creator is perpetually maintaining the cosmos. In the absence of the steady flow of divine energy, all would cease to exist, much as the water in the tap would stop flowing if the water company went under.

This is what is happening on Rosh Hashanah. On a spiritual level, we renew our connection with our spiritual source so that our resources are stocked for the next year.

The spiritual potential for all human condition is created on Rosh HaShanah. Subsequently, there is a process of drawing down that spiritual potential by condensing it into something physical. This is the reason that we are so strongly encouraged to use each and every moment of the two days of Rosh Hashanah in a positive way, even taking the trouble to plan how we will use our time in advance, because hidden in every moment is the potential and spiritual force for each of the days of the coming year.

We see this in the actual physical organs themselves; the brain in the head is much more sensitive and delicate than the other limbs and organs of the body. Similarly, a person must treat Rosh Hashanah differently than he would treat the rest of the year. Only when a person’s head is healthy and complete can his body be always healthy too. This is the service of Rosh Hashanah.

So, this Rosh Hashanah, I encourage people of the Jewish faith to listen to the sound of the shofar, have a festive holiday meal, call your friends, relatives and acquaintances to wish them a happy new year and to light candles before the holiday. If you’d like to join Chabad for high holiday services, please reach out and we’d be happy to have you. For those who don’t celebrate the holiday, a universal lesson we can all take away is that we all have the power to renew our intentions, reflect on our actions, and commit to being our best selves in the coming year.

In conclusion, Rosh Hashanah serves as a pivotal time for reflection, renewal, and spiritual alignment. By celebrating the birthday of the world and reconnecting with our Creator on this head of the year, we set the foundation for a life filled with purpose, blessing, and positive potential for all the days ahead.