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The Torah Learning Library of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah

Rosh Hashana

What Happens if One Blows the Shofar When Rosh Hashanah Falls on Shabbat?

The holiday of Rosh Hashanah is so bound up with hearing the sound of the shofar that in those years when Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbat, it feels as though something essential is missing. The practice of refraining from sounding the shofar is due to the concern that in their desire to fulfill the mitzvah, those who do not know how to do it properly would carry it in the public domain on Shabbat in order to bring the shofar to an expert who could blow for them or instruct them how to do it properly.…

Between Shabbat and Teshuvah

The One Where Adam Discovers Teshuva

Let me tell you about the day that humanity first discovered teshuvah.  As the midrash tells it, it all happens on the day Kayin killed Hevel. After that first murder, Kayin accepts HaShem’s verdict as just—he is to be exiled from the land. …

headshot of rabbi linzer smiling and leaning over a bookshelf

Elevation, Not Fear

by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on September 23, 2022

Kingship, malkhut, is one of the most central themes of Rosh HaShanah. But what does this mean to us? How does proclaiming and imaging God as King impact our religious lives or shape the way in which we relate to Rosh HaShanah?…

shofar sitting on a granite countertop

Speaking During Mussaf: To Correct or Not To Correct?

On each day of Rosh HaShanah the shofar is blown no fewer than one hundred times in synagogue. The first thirty blasts before the mussaf service are known as tekiot d’meyushav, while the last seventy blasts blown during and after mussaf are known as tekiot d’meumad.…

What Does Malkhuyot Have to With Rosh Hashanah? (Audio Only)

by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on September 22, 2022

a headshot of rabbi linzer smiling with a library in the background

How Central is Kingship to Rosh Hashanah?

by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on September 21, 2022

The Shofar: Object and Meaning in Hasidic Thought

by Dr. Biti Roi
Posted on September 21, 2022

How Many Jewish New Years are There and How Do We Know?

by Rabbi Jeffrey S. Fox
Posted on September 21, 2022

God Is King. What Does That Mean for Us?

by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on September 2, 2021

What is the meaning of Rosh HaShanah as a day of kingship? The idea of kingship is central to Rosh HaShanah. In the third blessing of Shmoneh Eisrei, starting with Rosh HaShanah and moving all the way through Yom Kippur, we say that God is not HaEl HaKadosh, “Holy God,” but rather HaMelech HaKadosh, or “Holy King.”…

a headshot of rabbi linzer smiling with a library in the background

Rosh HaShanah 5782 Greetings: A Letter from Rabbi Dov Linzer

by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on September 2, 2021

Dear Friends, Lately, I find myself thinking about breath.  We breathe–and punctuate those breaths–in order to make the distinct sounds of the shofar when we blow it on Rosh HaShanah. As Rosh HaShanah marks the first day of God’s Creation of the World, I also think about the Divine breath that “hovered over the water,” before the Divine speech brought light into the world.…

Crying on Rosh Hashanah

Though rarely spoken about, one of the more fascinating themes of Rosh Hashanah is that of tears. The haftarah of the first day recounts the story of Elkanah and his wives Chana and Penina. Each year, they make the trek to Shilo to bring offerings to God, and each year Chana is mocked by Penina for not having children.…

Silence; sculpture of face holding finger up to mouth for in a library

Listening to the Silence

In the Time of Coronavirus

Rosh HaShanah is referred to as a zikhron teruah, of remembrance of shofar blasts, and when it falls out on Shabbat, as it does this year, we only have the memory of the blasts, not the blasts themselves. On one level this is a loss: we will be denied the stirring, powerful sounds of the shofar.…