The Jewish High Holy Days-- Their Inner Meaning
Diocesan Press Service. September 7, 1966 [46-2]
Rabbi Solomon S. Bernards, Director, Department of Interreligious Cooperation, Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith
Beginning at sundown on Wednesday, September 14, and continuing for ten days, the Jewish High Holy Days will be celebrated. Jewish people in the United States and in every other country in the world where Jews live will use the Hebrew greeting, "L'shana Tova Tikatevu" "May you be inscribed (in the Book of Life) for a good year."
In the Jewish religious calendar, these ten days are mountain peaks of spirituality and piety. Their true "inwardness" is to induce profound soul-searching, to stimulate a powerful inner surge for forgiveness and reconciliation with God and with man.
In traditional communities, Rosh Hashanah is observed during the first two days of the High Holy Day period. Reform Jews observe it for one day only. Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of the Jewish religious year, for in the Jewish tradition Rosh Hashanah is the anniversary of the creation of the world! As the prayer puts it: "This day the world was created; this day all the creatures of the universe stand in judgment before You, O God."
To celebrate the birthday of the world, leads one inevitably to acknowledge many things: that the world was not just always there, but came into being as an act of positive creation at God's hand; that God is directly and constantly involved in caring for the world and for each and every one of us; that we human beings are constantly in scrutiny and judgment before Him.
The most important rite on Rosh Hashanah is the blowing of the Shofar, a primitive instrument suitably shaped out of a ram's horn, which is played like a trumpet. It has a loud and rather wild sound, consisting of short, abrupt blasts; a long, resonant sound; and a series of nine staccato notes.
What do the sounds of the Shofar mean? They symbolize the acceptance by the individual and the community of God's Kingship and sovereignty. They are a call to conscience, a warning against smugness, self-righteousness, and complacency. They herald the emancipation of the spirit, and the power to understand things in a new, creative way.
The tenth day of the High Holy Days is Yom Kippur, twenty-four hours during which virtually all of the waking time is spent in prayer, with no food eaten, nor work done.
The basic mood of Yom Kippur is distilled in the Hebrew word, "Teshuvah." Ordinarily, it is defined as repentance, but it expresses many deeper and less obvious things; remorse over sin, a change in the sinner's heart, a turning from the path of evil to the path of Godliness, a response to God's plea to man to return to Him.
The words of Isaiah 55: 6-9 speak in this spirit: "Seek the Eternal while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near, let the wicked forsake his way, and the man of iniquity his thoughts; and let him return unto the Almighty, and He will have compassion upon him, and to our God for He will abundantly pardon. For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says the Eternal."
In the Jewish understanding, three steps are necessary on Yom Kippur to achieve reconciliation with God and with man; first, an acknowledgement of one's sins; then, a feeling of deep regret over these sins; and finally, a decision to turn to a new path in the future.
FOR FURTHER READING
"The Living Heritage of the High Holy Days," by Solomon S. Bernards, New York: Anti- Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, 1962 (pamphlet).