Rosh Hashanah is called the Day of Judgement. Taking the three steps that places him before God with every Amidah prayer, a Jew on Rosh Hashanah takes his/her stand before eternity. Anyone who ever wonders at the order of the universe, at its beauty, at the fact that something exists rather than nothing at all – any such person can confront eternity, for, even though a fleck of dust, he can know himself to be one. He therefore stands in judgment for the way he uses, or wastes, the small amount of time allotted to him. A Jew does not know who he is until he finds himself judged.
Rosh Hashanah stresses the universalist motif of Judaism: the prayers are not for the individual, or only for Israel’s people, alone. There is a wonderful Hebrew phrase: Heshabon Hanefesh, the taking stock of one’s soul, a kind of sitting in judgment upon oneself, an inner accounting.
Tikun Olam – the mending of the world, is the center, the leitmotif of Rosh Hashanah prayers. There is a powerful plea not only for Israel, but for the redemption of the entire world. Rosh Hashanah stresses the universalist motif of Judaism. In truth, one prays for brotherhood, and for the entire world, for the annihilation of hatred and discrimination. The prayers of Rosh Hashanah oppose any forms of racism that menace the world today! The prayers are a clear and strong plea for the establishment – in the entire world – of brotherhood and peace.
There is a poignant plea in those prayers for the establishment of righteousness and truth, for the spirit of brotherhood, and the conquest of tyranny and inequality. Rosh Hashanah prayers are universal for the redemption, not only of Israel alone, but of the entire world.
In the words of the Psalmist, to rejoice with trembling is in itself a sublime lesson. On the Day of Judgement, motivated by profound and earnest meditation, we render an accounting of our life and actions. Through the sounding of the shofar, we recall Creation and Revelation of Mount Sinai, and anticipate Messianic advent and Return to Zion!
May good health, peace, and joy be bestowed upon the House of Israel, on the entire world, and upon all CIJR friends and supporters for the coming year 5775!
(Baruch Cohen is Research Chairman of CIJR,
and a member of the Holocaust Memorial Center)
