Rosh Hashanah, Rosh Hashanah

The Mishnah also sets this day aside as the new year for calculating calendar years and sabbatical ( shmita ) and jubilee ( yovel ) years. Rosh Hashanah commemorates the creation of man whereas five days earlier, on 25 of Elul, marks the first day of creation.

The observance of a second day is a later addition and does not follow from the literal reading of Leviticus. In Reconstructionist Judaism and Reform Judaism , some communities observe only the first day of Rosh Hashanah, while others observe two days.

The sound of the shofar is intended to awaken the listener from his or her "slumber" and alert them to the coming judgment. Maimonides, Yad , Laws of Repentance 3:4 Orthodox and some Conservative Jewish communities do not blow the shofar on Shabbat. There is an exception. Jewish Law permits the Shofar to be blown in the presence of a rabbinical court called the Sanhedrin, which had not existed since ancient times. A recent group of Orthodox rabbis in Israel claiming to constitute a modern Sanhedrin held, for the first time in many years, an Orthodox shofar-blowing on Shabbat for Rosh Hashanah in 2006.

It falls on the 29th day of the Hebrew month of Elul, the day before the 1st of Tishrei. Some communities have the customs to perform Hatarat nedarim - a nullification of vows - after the morning prayer services during the morning of Erev Rosh Hashanah. The mood becomes festive but serious in anticipation of the new year and the synagogue services. Many Orthodox men have the custom to immerse in a mikveh in honor of the coming day.

Many also have the custom to throw bread or pebbles into the water, to symbolize the "casting off" of sins. In some communities, if the first day of Rosh Hashanah occurs on Shabbat, tashlikh is postponed until the second day. The traditional service for tashlikh is recited individually and includes the prayer "Who is like unto you, O God...And You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea", and Biblical passages including ("They will not injure nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea") and , 121 and 130, as well as personal prayers.

The passage in referring to the solemn feast which is held on New Moon Day, when the shofar is sounded, as a day of " mishpat " (judgment) of "the God of Jacob" is taken to indicate the character of Rosh Hashanah.

It is written in the Talmud, in the tractate on Rosh Hashanah that three books of account are opened on Rosh Hashanah , wherein the fate of the wicked, the righteous, and those of an intermediate class are recorded. The names of the righteous are immediately inscribed in the book of life, and they are sealed "to live." The middle class are allowed a respite of ten days till Yom Kippur, to repent and become righteous ; the wicked are "blotted out of the book of the living" ().

The taking of an annual inventory of accounts on Rosh Hashanah is adduced by Rabbi Nahman ben Isaac from the passage in , which says that the care of God is directed from "the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year". 1 Tishrei was considered as the beginning of Creation.

Source: Wikipedia > Rosh Hashanah