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.…
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. …
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?…
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.…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on September 22, 2022
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by Rabbi Jeffrey S. Fox
Posted on September 21, 2022
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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.”…
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.…
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.…
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.…
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