Shabbat Rosh Hashanah - 5784

Shabbat Rosh Hashanah - 5784

Rabbi Hal Miller Recite before Me on Rosh Hashanah kingship, remembrance and shofar. Kingship in order to accept My sovereignty upon yourselves, Remembrance so that your remembrance should rise before Me favorably, and with what? With a shofar. [Rosh Hashanah 16a] The Gemora quotes a Baraisa here directing us to recite the three primary portions of the Rosh Hashanah service, Malchuyot, Zichronot and Shofarot. On 32a and b it tells us where this is derived from the Torah since there is no direct Torah command to recite the verses we have. We acknowledge God's sovereignty over us and all creation, we blow the shofar, but what is remembrance about? Who is to remember what? There are two possibilities for the 'who', either God or the Jewish people. Our Baraisa indicates that the reference is to God, that He will have us "in mind" for good. In many of our prayers we ask that He will remember us for life. But in other places we see the indication that it is we who are to remember. In his describing the purposes of the shofar, Rav Saadyah Gaon lists ten things that the shofar blowing is to remind us of: the beginning of Creation, the first of ten days of repentance, the revelation at Sinai, the warnings of the prophets, the destruction of the Temples, the ram sacrificed in place of Yitzchak, the trepidation of our forefathers, the forthcoming Day of Judgment, the future ingathering of exiles, and the resurrection of the dead. Rav Kook cites Tehillim [118:5], "From my straits I called out to God. He answered me and set me in a wide expanse." He explains that we are to first remember our own sins, correct them, and then those of the community. In still other places we find remembrance more or less in general without specifying who is to remember. Tehillim [81:4] reads tik'u ba'chodesh shofar ba'keseh l'yom chageinu. This is variously translated as "Sound the shofar to mark the ​new month, the time of concealment of our festival day" [R'Kitov], "Blow the shofar at the renewal of the moon, at the time appointed for our festival day," [Artscroll], and "Blow the shofar on the new moon in the hidden time on our festival day." [Rav Kook]. All of these in some form indicate that something is hidden or concealed, referring to the fact that this is the only holiday to occur at the beginning of a month when the moon is not visible. Remembering the moon could be applied to God or to the people. Then we ask what it is to be remembered. Rabbi Sacks says that this "is the day He remembers our lives and those of our ancestors, and we pray to be judged favorably, if not for our sake then for theirs." Rav Saadyah Gaon's list is noted above. Others point to various other historical occurrences said to have occurred at this time, such as: - Sarah, Rachel, Chanah were all granted remembrance for their barrenness - Yosef was freed from Egyptian prison - the redemption from Egypt began and bondage ceased All of these ideas apply and have the same purpose. We hear the shofar and it reminds us to repent from sin and return to God. We ask Him to return us and the world in general to the state it was when He created it. We remember all these things and ask Him to remember us for good in the merit of our forefathers.