Each year we come back to the same place, once again, moving through the contemplative time of the month of Elul, preparing for the coming Holy Day, Rosh Hashanah, the New Year. It is a circle that repeats yet also elevates, a sphere that rises a little higher from the year before. It is a familiar journey yet totally different from year to year.
Rosh Hashanah is the 1st day of Tishrei, however, the rabbis teach that it is six days before the New Year begins that we celebrate Creation, the time in which the Light of the Divine, the all-encompassing infinite light enters the world yet it is on Rosh Hashanah that we celebrate the birth of the human being. Both are a recognition of G-d’s ability to bring life into existence. Tradition teaches it is with words that the Creation comes into being while the human is formed, as Torah teaches, “And HaShem, our G-d, formed the Adam from dust of the earth and then blew into the nostrils the soul of Life and the Adam became a Living being.” All of Creation is spoken into existence while the human is intimately formed by Hashem and connects each one of us through the breath/spirit of G-d, enlivening the human with a spark of the Divine.
There are so many levels of honoring and celebrating this coming moment. We attempt to detoxify the past, everything from discretions to missed opportunities to the awareness that whatever was not fulfilled has another opportunity, a clean slate and a fresh start. On another level it is having an opportunity to be mindful of where one is in their life, their challenges, their successes, for themselves and their relationships with others.
On a more Kabbalistic level there is a very different goal and awareness. It is in the understanding that the original Adam, the human, is androgenous with male and female qualities. On Rosh Hashanah we honor and remember the wholeness of being, male and female, when they were joined together as one. Then, the separation occurs. Once they were joined at the back, they are then able to be “face to face,” each with their own unique identity.
Hassidic commentary points out that at the New Year we go back to that original time, the moment of wholeness of being human, in his/her original form, a time of simplicity and being connected to the original light of the Holy One. Once separated, on their course and journey, life becomes encrusted with “garments,” those things that we attract, attach, and/or surround ourselves with that bring, not only reality, but complication and distance from the infinite light that filled the world at its beginning. We unknowingly create separation from the Holy One and G-d’s deep desire to be in proximity which each one of us.
At this time when so many are filled with toxicity, trauma, complexity and chaos from all that occurs in the world and especially in this country, we have layers of shmutz on our N’shamahs that have caused us to lose touch with the beauty and simplicity that Rosh Hashanah is here to remind us. Rosh means head, shanah means year but also change and renew. We all desperately need to renew our deep well of pure, uncomplicated and simple way of being. We need to rediscover the excitement and amazement of life by going back to the beginning, which is what Rosh Hashanah, on one very deep level, is about.
Rosh Hashanah is also called The Day of Remembrance when we are to recall and remember, through the head of our consciousness, the place of awareness and understanding, that it is the birthday of the human, a time of renewal, letting go of the destructive forces that prevent seeing the positive and the possibility of hope and light shining through.
The sound of the shofar, with all of its depth of meaning, is also a simple call from G-d to come back, “return,” rediscover the glory of the pure self, being renewed and rebirthed, once again, as in the beginning, whole, integrated, and one with our Creator.
Eva Robbins is a rabbi, cantor, artist and the author of “Spiritual Surgery: A Journey of Healing Mind, Body and Spirit.”
