Days of Awe

We are currently in the Yomim Nora’im - the 10 days between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur – known as the Days of Awe. During these 10 days, we are to focus on Teshuva (Repentance) and preparation for Yom Kippur. Special insertions are added to our daily prayers, emphasizing the themes of G-d as King, G-d’s judgement, and G-d’s holiness. We also recall prayers referring to the Book of Life.

Remember us for life, O King Who desires life, and inscribe us in the Book of Life – for Your sake, O Living G-d … Who is like You, Merciful Father, Who recalls His creatures mercifully for life … Blessed are You, our G-d, the Holy King. (From additions to the Amidah during the Days of Awe).

These 10 Days of Awe (and the whole High Holiday period) are meant to particularly recall G-d’s mercy. As Rabbi Wayne Dosick notes, although our “prayers are solemn and serious, they are also filled with joy and with hope. For Judaism teaches that G-d is ready and very willing to forgive the transgressions of those who come in sincere repentance.”
HaShem’s desire is for relationship with us and the High Holidays are opportunities to meet with G-d in the most intimate of times. The 10 days help us to more intently focus on, and deal with, those things which hold us back in life, and from the presence of HaShem.
Although we should be focusing on repentance, forgiveness, and overcoming life’s obstacles every day – G-d, also knowing the procrastinate nature of humanity, has built into the calendar specific times in which we are obligated to deal with those shortcomings. Otherwise we might just continue to sweep them under the rug. For most of us, the last thing we want to do is go to someone we may have hurt in the last year to seek forgiveness. Or confront a person for the hurt they have caused us. But by doing so, and allowing forgiveness to take place, we remove more of those spiritual stumbling blocks. We are able to break free of the weight of guilt, shame, anger, and inadequacy.
The Days of Awe are awesome days because they are what you make of them. My deepest prayer is that they would be for you a time of blessing and restoration.
G’mar Chatimah Tovah – May you be sealed for a wonderful New Year!

Rosh HaShanah

HaShem spoke unto Moshe, saying: “Tell the people of Israel, ‘In the seventh month, the first day of the month is to be for you a day of complete rest for remembering, a holy convocation announced with blasts of the shofar. Do not do any kind of ordinary work, and bring an offering made by fire to HaShem (Lev. 23:23-25).’”

The festival of Rosh HaShanah is intimately connected to the sounding of the shofar. It is so bound together with the imagery of the shofar, that the Biblical term for the holiday is actually Yom Teruah – “the Day of Sounding.” The English reference to the holiday, the Feast of Trumpets, also reflects this relationship. So how did this come to be?
The Torah speaks of Rosh HaShanah as a holy convocation to remember, announced with blasts of the shofar. According to the Gemara (Rosh HaShanah 16a) and expounded on by Rashi, remembrance is to be understood in conjunction with the shofar blasts, which call upon God to remember the deeds of the Jewish people for good.
According to Tosefta Rosh HaShanah 1.13, “All things are judged on Rosh HaShanah, and their fate is sealed on Yom Kippur.” Being that Rosh HaShanah is the day that the Book of Life is opened, and judgment begins, the shofar is sounded to call our souls to repentance. The Rambam states that the shofar beckons to our souls: “Awake, you sleepers, from your sleep! Arise, you slumberers, from your slumber! Repent with contrition! Remember your Creator! (Hil. Teshuvah 3:4)” As such, the shofar serves to call us to do teshuvah, and for God to act mercifully toward us and pardon us for our shortcomings.
The shofar is also sounded on Rosh HaShanah to announce the arrival of our Righteous King. To recognize God’s sovereignty and His creation of all that exists. The shofar blasts serve as a reminder of the time to come, when Yeshua, our righteous Messiah, will ultimately return and regather the exiles of Israel.

For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven and with a rousing cry, with a call from one of the ruling angels, and with God’s shofar; those who died united with the Messiah will be the first to rise; then we who are left still alive will be caught up with Him in the air. And thus, we will always be with the Lord. So encourage each other with these words (1 Thess. 4:16-18).

During this Rosh HaShanah, let us hear the calling of the shofar, and let it beckon our souls to repentance. As we seek God to remember us for good in the coming year, let us do so with the confidence that one day that same shofar will sound, and it will bring with it the return of Messiah Yeshua. L’Shanah tovah tikateivu – May each and every one of us be inscribed for a sweet New Year, and may this be the year that we merit the coming of Mashiach!

Copyright: Yinon Blog - Rabbi Joshua