As the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) approaches, Jewish students throughout the country are already buying train or airplane tickets home and figuring out how to be exempted from classes. This is another part of the yearly routine, built in as the first of multiple holidays that massively disrupt everyone’s schedule. Yet, in all the noise, no one stops to ponder why it lands at this time of the year. Other Holidays like Passover and Shavuot have clear purposes and reasons for their dates on the calendar: both commemorate events that happened on those dates. On Passover, we practice refraining from leavened bread, and on Shavuot we dedicate ourselves to a full night of Torah study to mark the giving of the Torah. What, then, is Rosh Hashanah aligned with?
The source for Rosh Hashanah’s timing is found in a verse in Numbers:
“And in the seventh month, on the first of the month, you shall have a holy convocation; no servile work shall you do. It shall be a day of blasting for you.” (Numbers 29:1)
Similarly, verses earlier in Leviticus express the same sentiment. This day is defined by two things: a lack of work and some form of trumpet or instrument blowing. Judgment or repentance, one of the fundamental components of our Rosh Hashanah experiences, is completely unmentioned. In fact, even the name “Rosh Hashanah” is nowhere to be found.
The name seems to come, over a thousand years later, from the first Mishnah in tractate Rosh Hashanah:
There are four New Years (Rosh Hashanahs): … on the first of Tishrei is the New Year for counting years, Sabbatical years, Jubilee years, planting, and vegetables; …
(Mishna Rosh Hashanah 1:1)
Nonetheless, even here, where we first learn the holiday’s title, the theme differs greatly from what we are accustomed to. Where does the Mishnah get this idea that Rosh Hashanah is about plants? The Torah verses mention nothing about plants.
Furthermore, it is not until the second Mishnah in the same tractate that judgement is finally mentioned:
At four times of the year the world is judged: … on Rosh Hashanah all inhabitants of the world pass before Him like a flock of sheep, as it is stated (Psalms 33:15), “He who fashions the hearts of them all, who understands all their deeds”; …
(Mishna Rosh Hashanah 1:2)
Additionally, the verses mention blowing; the first Mishnah mentions agriculture and the second one mentions judgment. How are these concepts intertwined?
To appreciate the connections between the Mishnahs, one must understand the difference between agriculture and other forms of income. Business, for example, is based on the ability to think logically and take advantage of opportune situations. Of course, G-d is present in these interactions, but what He does is hidden. This differs drastically from growing food from scratch. Even with a deep biological understanding of how plants grow and perfect planting techniques, if it doesn’t rain, nothing will grow; if pestilence unexpectedly comes, the crops disappear, and there’s nothing that can be done. No matter how prepared a person may be, at the end of the day, your and everyone else’s source of sustenance for the year is based on how well the plants grow. It seems clear, then, that the beginning of the plant season coinciding with judgment day is actually incredibly logical; when else is everyone more obviously helpless and in need of G-d’s presence in their lives?
Still, another question remains: why blow a trumpet? To understand what the trumpet represents, we must see where else the Torah mentions the trumpet: travel. In multiple places, the Torah mentions blowing the trumpet alongside the movement of the Israelite camps in the desert. In Numbers, the Torah explains the reasoning for this blowing:
He does not behold any trouble in Yaakov; he does not see toil in Israel. Hashem, his God, is with him; the king’s trumpet blast is in his midst.
(Numbers 23:21)
This verse illuminates how the trumpets act as a ceremonial response to the King. This fits very well with the idea that a trumpet would be blown before the camp’s movement. If an army or country were to start moving, of course there would be fanfare for the King. For the Israelites, it is G-d as he moved with his people.
In our case on Rosh Hashanah, the King has come to judge his people in all of their provinces, and there should be ceremonial blasts in response. In turn, the blasts remind the people that the day of Judgement has arrived; we welcome the King into our midst and demonstrate our reliance upon him in our lives, just as our early agricultural ancestors did.
Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi was incredibly insightful to say that the trumpet blowing is like saying the king is in the field. It isn’t a nice side point; it seems to be the main implication of the verses.
