Jewish New Year Time of Rejoicing: Rabbi Tells Story

Julius T. Loeb, “Jewish New Year Time of Rejoicing: Rabbi Tells Story,” Washington Post (Washington, DC), Sept. 5, 1926.

JEWISH NEW YEAR TIME OF REJOICING; RABBI TELLS STORY

Rosh Hashanah Held as Day of Remembrance Among the Israelites.

RECALLS MARTYRDOMS OF FAITH’S LEADERS

Celebrated by Prayer and Joy; Calls Wanderers Back to the Fold.

    Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, will come Wednesday evening. The holy season which it inaugurates will end September 30 with the Shemini Atzereth—the Feast of the Conclusion. In the Jewish tradition, the Rosh Hashanah marks the anniversary of the creation of the world, 5,687 years ago. In the following article, prepared for The Post, Rabbi J. T. Loeb, of the Ohev Sholem congregation, explains the significance of the event.

By RABBI J. T. LOEB.

    The Jewish New Year is a solemn event which stands forth preeminently above all events of human making. It comprises in itself a complex of the verities and philosophies of life in all its phases.

    Rosh Hashanah is an occasion for feasting and rejoicing and social entertainment, as decreed by Ezra the Scribe (Nehemiah VIIIi); yet, nonetheless a strict form of reverent joy and solemnity, which will admit of no manner of hilarity nor vulgar amusement. “For it is a day holy unto the Lord.”

    Rosh Hashanah is an harmonious blending of both the gladsome and the sorrowful, the tragic and the joyous.

Season of Repentance.

    The lesson of divine retribution is also brought home to us in the order of the day and “season repentance” at the beginning of Israel’s New Year.

    “Repentance,” “Teshuva,” is the keynote in the observance of the ten days intervening between the feast of Rosh Hashanah and the Yom Kippur fast. The slogan in the liturgy of the day is “Teshuva, tefillah u’zedakah” — repentance, prayer and benevolence.

    “Yom Hadin,” day of judgement, is likewise a significant term applied to the event of Rosh Hashanah—Yom Kippur. For at this appointed time every one who is of Israel must engage in a conscientious self-searching, rendering an account of life’s conduct before the Judge of all the world. 

    In the language of Holy Scripture Rosh Hashanah, first day in the Hebrew calendar year, is designated simply as “Yom Haziekoron”—day of memorial or remembrance. No further explanation is given in the Bible text to this term, save for the ordinance of blowing the trumpet. Tradition supplies the meaning of this mystic term, pronouncing it to be a memorial of creation. A commemoration not merely of one single incident in the life story of any man or nation, but an annual memorial of the entire order of creation wherein God reigns supreme, and His rule of eternal justice is extended to all created beings. 

Recalls Martyrdom.

    In the remembrance of the day and the ordinance of blowing the shofar, we recall also the binding of Isaac, the trials of Abraham and the many sacrifices of martyrdom, wanderings and sufferings of his children throughout the succession of the ages. 

    The tremulous notes of the old ram’s horn are again resounded in Israel’s dwelling, enunciating the entrance of the “King of Glory” into the portals of the New Year. The trumpet tones of the shofar are also to sound an alarm against the wonted apathy and back-sliding of those who go astray from the fold of Judaism. Also a reechoing of the awful manifestation of Divine revelation on Sinai, the giving of the law from amidst thunder and lightning and the strong sound of the shofar.” And finally, also, a prognostication of the day of God, when the great shofar shall be resounded for the restoration of Israel and the spiritual regeneration of all mankind. 

    This blessed Day of Memorial is a demonstration, true and sublime, that the world is not a mere accident; but that there is a “first cause;” a potential essence to all the elements within nature (each one after its kind), brought into being by the supreme Architect of the Universe. 

    This remembrance day is an event of universal bearing—a blessed opportunity to return from evil ways and to set aright with God and all the world.