Yom Teruah - The Day of Blowing

Yom Teruah —
The Day of Blowing

Countdown to Yom Teruah
September 19, 2009

(Days : Hours : Minutes : Seconds)

Vayikra 25:8
⁸You shall count for yourself seven cycles of sabbatical years, seven years seven times; the years of the seven cycles of sabbatical years shall be for you forty-nine-years.
Vayikra 25:9
⁹You shall sound a broken blast on the shofar, in the seventh month, on the tenth of the month; on the Day of Atonement you shall sound the shofar throughout your land.

Vayikra 23:23-25
²³HASHEM spoke to Moses, saying, ²⁴“Speak to the Children of Israel, saying: ‘In the seventh month, on the first of the month, there shall be a rest day for you, a remembrance with shofar blasts, a holy convocation. ²⁵You shall not do any laborious work, and you shall offer an Eshayah-Offering to HASHEM.’ ”

Commandment 116
B’midbar 29:1
¹In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, there shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall do no laborious work, it shall be a day of shofar sounding for you.

Commandment 388
B’midbar 29:2-6
²You shall make an Olah-Offering for a satisfying aroma to HASHEM : one young bull, one ram, seven male lambs in their first year, unblemished ³And their Minchah-Offering: fine flour mixed with oil — three tenth-ephah for the bull; two tenth-ephah for the ram; ⁴and one tenth-ephah for each lamb of the seven lambs ⁵One male of the goats for a Chatat-offering to provide you atonement. ⁶Aside from the Olah-Offering of the New Moon and its Minchah-Offering, the continual Olah-Offering and its Minchah-Offering, and their libations according to their law — for a satisfying aroma, an Eshayah-Offering to HASHEM.

Commandment 574
Vayikra 23:25
²⁵You shall not do any laborious work, and you shall offer an Eshayah-Offering to HASHEM.

Thus are the commandments of Yom Teruah, the day of blowing horns. It is a biblically mandated festival, which tradition holds is also the birthday of the world. Since the Babylonian exile, it has come to be known as Rosh HaShanah, the "Head of the Year". It was not called Rosh HaShanah until Talmudic times.

Traditions

There are several traditions about Yom Teruah, the most prevalent being that during these ten days between Yom Teruah and Yom Kippur, the books of life are opened, and everyone's fate decreed for the coming year. This explains the customary greeting, "L'shanah Tovah Tiktevu", or, "May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year." Messianics also have a tradition, that places the Rapture on Yom Teruah. This is a marked difference from most Christians, who simply don't know when it will happen, but hope desperately it will happen before the Tribulation. We'll not get into that here! I tend towards the Yom Teruah — "Rapture" view myself. But again, I'll not get into that here. Any way you look at it, Yom Teruah is a joyous time, unless you're the one blowing the shofar! (Have you ever blown one 100 times?).

There are three shofar sounds: takiah — one long blast; shevarim — three short blasts; and teru'ah — nine staccato blasts. The Torah does not state explicitly how many shofar blasts are required, but the rabbis (based on a complicated exegesis of Vayikra 25:9; 23:24, and B’midbar 29:1) derive the necessity to have three blasts of teru'ah preceded by and followed by tekiah. The only question for the rabbis is what constitutes a teru'ah. One opinion is that it should sound like groaning (our shevarim sound); another is that is should sound like sobbing (what we call the teru'ah); and a third opinion is that it should sound like both together (our shevarim teru'ah). Therefore, we have a pattern of tekiah teru'ah tekiah, tekiah shevarim tekiah, tekiah shevarim teru'ah tekiah) to cover all possibilities.

Tashlich

On Yom Teruah afternoon, it is customary to go to a flowing body of water (a river, lake, or ocean rather than a pond) and symbolically cast our sins away by throwing bread crumbs into the water. This ceremony is accompanied by reciting Mikhah 7:18-20, Mizmor 118:5-9, and Tehillim 33 and 130. The verse "You will cast (tashlich) our sins into the depths of the sea" (Mikhah 7:19) is cited as support for this custom. Tashlich has been widely opposed by rabbinical scholars who are afraid the symbolism will be taken too literally and people will believe they can rid themselves of sin through this ceremony rather than through the arduous process of repentance. Despite this opposition tashlich is still widely observed.
Below are suggested types of bread (depending on the type of sin committed) which can be used for the tashlich service:

Ordinary Sins — White Bread Erotic Sins — French Bread Particularly Dark Sins — Pumpernickel

Complex Sins — Multigrain Twisted Sins — Pretzels Tasteless Sins — Rice Cakes

Sins of Indecision — Waffles Sins Committed in Haste — Matzoh Sins of Chutzpah — Fresh Bread

Substance Abuse — Stoned Wheat Use of Heavy Drugs — Poppy Seeds Petty Larceny — Stollen

Auto Theft — Caraway Timidity / Cowardice — Milk Toast Ill-Temperedness — Sourdough

Silliness, Eccentricity — Nut Bread Not Giving Full Value — Shortbread Jingoism, Chauvinism — Yankee Doodles

Excessive Irony — Rye Bread Unnecessary Chances — hero Bread War-Mongering — Kaiser Rolls

Dressing Immodestly — Tarts Causing Injury to Others — Tortes Lechery and Promiscuity — Hot Buns

Promiscuity w/Gentiles — Hot Cross Buns Racist Attitudes — Crackers Sophisticated Racism — Ritz Crackers

Being Holier than Thou — Bagels Abrasiveness — Grits Dropping in Without Notice — Popovers

Overeating — Stuffing Impetuosity — Quick Bread Raising Your Voice Too Often — Challah

Pride and Egotism — Puff Pastry Sycophancy, Kissing Butt — Brownies Being Overly Smothering — Angel Food Cake

Laziness — Any long loaf Trashing the Environment — Dumplings Telling Bad Jokes and Puns — Corn Bread

Ten Days of Repentance

The days between Yom Teruah and Yom Kippur are seen as part of the High Holiday process called aseret Yemeni teshuvah — the ten days of repentance. This is the period of time when those of us who are not utterly wicked or entirely righteous can still repent and be sealed into the Book of Life. The Talmud advises:

A man should always consider himself evenly balanced, i.e., half sinful and half righteous. If he performs one mitzvah, happy is he, for he has tilted the scales toward righteousness. If he commits one sin, woe unto him, for he has tilted the scale toward sinfulness.
Rabbi Elazar the son of Simon said: "Inasmuch as the whole world is judged in accordance with the majority of its deeds, and the individual is judged in accordance with the majority of his deeds, if he performs one mitzvah, happy is he, for he has tipped his scales and the scales of the world toward merit. If he commits one sin, woe to him, for he has tipped the scales toward sinfulness for himself and for the world [Kiddushin 40a-b].

Thus this is a period of heightening tension: Like Atlas, we bear our fate and even the fate of the world increasingly on our shoulders.

The first blessing of the New Year is:

Baruch Ata Adonai Elohaynu Melech HaOlam, Asher Kidshanu B'mitzvotav v'tsivanu l`hadlik ner shel Shabbes v'shel Yom Tov.

Blessed Are You, HASHEM our God, King of the Universe, who has sanctified us by your commandments and has caused us to kindle the Light for Sabbath and the festival

The second blessing is:

Baruch Ata Adonai Elohaynu Melech HaOlam, she'he'kheyaynu v'kiyemanu v'higi'anu la'z'man ha'zeh.

Blessed Are You, HASHEM our God, King of the Universe, who has kept us alive, sustained us, and privileged us to reach this season.

(This incidentally, serves as the blessing for the Jubilee Year as well). By the light of Sabbath, we see that HASHEM has sustained us and kept us alive, not by our own powers. The only new blessings and prayers we have on Yom Teruah is the Shofar blessings, and the changes to the Amidah (See The Artscroll Mahzor, the Prayer Book for Holy Days).

How do we observe Yom Teruah? Through penitent prayers (called "selichot"). Yom Teruah traditionally is a great time to become a Baali Tshuvah (see the article on Repentance — Biblical Style), because so many prayers in the liturgy tend in that direction.

On Yom Teruah, we enjoy many good things, but the knowledge is tempered with the knowledge that we are coming to Yom Kippur soon. It is customary to eat apples with honey, and to eat ladder-shaped Challah. Remember that Yom Teruah is a Shabbat. All rules of Shabbat observation are in effect!

Have a good Yom Teruah — L'shanah Tovah Tiktevu!

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