In the first day of the month of Tishrei, there shall be a sacred gathering. On that day, you will not work, but you should observe a day of zichron teruah. – Leviticus 23:24
Those are the simple words that our Torah teaches us about the holy day of Rosh Hashanah. Not much there, right? All we have to do is not work. And yet, there is that second phrase that I left in Hebrew – Zichron Teruah. Basically, this two-word phrase is pretty complicated. The first word, zichron, means memory, while the second word, teruah, means blast. Putting the words together, we learn that Rosh Hashanah needs to be a day of: remembering the blasts or a commemoration with blasting. Or maybe, Rosh Hashanah needs to be a day when the shofar blowers are being commanded to blow the shofar from memory. Obviously, the phrase is unclear.
Like most things in Judaism, perhaps the phrase is not meant to be literal. Perhaps we are supposed to see the phrase as meaning that the blasts that we hear on Rosh Hashanah should cause us to remember. Rosh Hashanah is a time for us to look backwards and see just how far we have come. Looking back is never easy. We see not only our good choices, but also our mistakes. That is why the shofar wakes us up and directs us to do what we need to do. The Torah is teaching us that on Rosh Hashanah we should look back on the journey traveled and recognize just how far we have come with our families, with our friends, and with our own personal journeys.
But looking backwards at the journey traveled is not the end in itself for Rosh Hashanah. Hopefully, as the shofar calls us to look backwards, we are empowered to bring the lessons learned forward. While last year, 5780, was quite challenging on many levels, it is my hope and prayer that we can learn from that journey we all collectively traveled and carry those lessons forward on the journey ahead.
I know that I personally learned a great deal about life, joy, and what is truly important on my journey. It is my prayer, at the dawn of the new year 5781, that I and all of you internalize the messages of the past year, making Rosh Hashanah a true zichron teruah, a true day of introspection that allows us to make the future a brighter place.
May the dawning of this new year bring us much hope, happiness, and especially health for everyone.
Shanah tovah,
Rabbi Robbie
P.S. We will be conducting the ritual of Tashlich. Like our other services, we will be doing this from our own individual spaces. We encourage you to find a natural body of water and sign in to the service from your phones. The Zoom link for the ceremony was shared with the Holy Day links. If you would like to follow along using the Tashlich service, you can download it by clicking here. It is meant to be printed on a double-sided page, folded in the middle, like a Jewish book.
