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 | Rosh Hashanah Prayer Service
| Introduction |
In the Palace. On Rosh Hashanah, we think of ourselves as stepping into the courtyard of the majestic palace, onto the threshold of the Heavenly Court. As such we refer to God as the King; we look up to Him as to the ruling judge with expectation mingled with trepidation. Sentence is soon to be passed.
On Rosh Hashanah we beseech mercy, in recognition of our human frailty. As such we refer to God as our Father who should look down upon his creatures with the same conciliatory attitude as a loving father has to his wayward child.
According to tradition, Rosh Hashanah is the anniversary of the creation of the world. On this day, we appropriately ask the heavenly Father
to look down with compassion on the world that He created. In particular, we ask God to recall in tenderness the merits of the fathers. Specifically, we invoke Abraham's faith and the lengths to which he was prepared to demonstrate his faith in the one God.
These concepts of faith, kingship, remembrance and paternal mercy are among the several major themes running through the Rosh Hashanah Prayer Book (machzor), whether in prose, poem or during the shofar-blowing ceremony. These prayers are read in the synagogue in a special chant with which the members of the congregation often identify and find themselves joining in with the reader or chazan in an undertone.
| Rosh Hashanah service highlights |
Avinu Malkeinu - "Our Father, Our King"
The Torah Readings
The Blowing of The Shofar
Mussaf
Unetanneh Tokef
| Avinu Malkeinu - "Our Father, Our King" |
The Avinu Malkeinu prayer of supplication is a special feature of the Shacharit (morning) service. It was first recorded in the Talmud (Ta'anit 25b) as the improvised prayer of Rabbi Akiva on the occasion of a drought. (Avinu Malkeinu is also recited during all the Ten Days of Repentance and on other fasts.)
From the original number of five lines starting with the refrain "Our Father, Our King," (borrowed from the Book of Isaiah) there are now some 44 such verses. They reflect the frequent persecutions and disasters that gave rise to such outcries as:
"Our Father, our King, abolish all evil decrees... rid us of every oppressor... inscribe us in the Book of Life."
| The Torah Readings |
From the Torah. The Binding of Isaac is the main feature of the Torah reading on Rosh Hashanah. The story recounts Abraham's readiness to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac. By inference, the reading serves as a prototype for future generations of Jewish sacrifice over the generations.
The reading (Genesis 21,22) also connects with the shofar, the horn of the ram offered up as a sacrifice instead of Isaac, at the last moment. The merits of this sacrifice - and others - serve as a source of merit, as it were, for the future. And the shofar's blast serves, for the individual and nation, as a spiritual rallying call for every appropriate situation, in the past, present and future.
From the Prophets (Haphtarah). The prophetic reading of the First Day tells the story of Channah, a barren woman, who prayed for a child. Her prayers were answered and her son, Samuel, became a great prophet in Israel. Channah's prayer became a model for silent prayer, for as such she intoned her pleas to God, incurring the priest Eli's indignation, at the time.
A Mother's Love. The readings over Rosh Hashanah are suffused with the theme of a mother's love. In addition to the stories of Sarah and Channah (longing for children, Isaac and Samuel respectively), the prophetic reading of the Second Day of Rosh Hashanah recalls Rachel mourning for her exiled children, the people of Israel. Rachel weeps until finally God yields to her tears and promises to restore the Jews to the Land of Israel.
| The Blowing of the Shofar |
The shofar is sounded after the Torah readings. From all over, young and old gather in the synagogue to hear its powerful blasts. It is, indeed, an important obligation for every Jew to listen to the shofar on this "Day of Blowing," Yom Teruah.
On Rosh Hashanah, the shofar notes proclaim the sovereignty of God and, symbolically, call the people to repentance.
| Mussaf - Additional Service |
The Additional Service (Mussaf) of Rosh Hashanah contains several important and moving elements: In the first place, additional to the regular festival blessings, three additional sections are added to the standing prayer, each composed almost exclusively from quotations from the Bible. These sections are, respectively, summed up by Eliyahu Kitov, in The Book of Heritage::
Malchuyot - (Sovereignty). "We acknowledge God's creation of all existence, sovereignty over the entire universe, and our acceptance of His dominion.
Zichronot - (Providence). We proclaim faith that the Creator's relationship to all that He fashioned is a providential one; that all of Man's actions are subject to Divine remembrance; and that God bestows reward and punishment for man's actions.
Shofarot - (Revelation). We accept the yolk of Torah as if it were given again with thunder and lightning and mighty shofar blasts. We also await the final redemption which is to be heralded by the shofar of the Messiah."
| Unetanneh Tokef |
Probably the most moving prayer of the Rosh Hashanah Mussaf is Unetanneh Tokef, composed by Rabbi Amnon, a scholar, poet, and leader of the Jewish community of Mainz, in the eleventh century. The text reads as follows:
"The great shofar is sounded... A still small voice is heard...
Even the angels are frightened... the Day of Judgment is here...
Who shall live? And who shall die?
Who shall find rest? And who shall be restless?
Who shall be raised up? And who shall be humbled?
Who shall be rich? And who shall be poor?
But - Atonement, Prayer and Good Deeds
deflect the harsh decree!
As for Man, he comes from dust
And to dust he shall return..."
Man is like...
Grass that withers...
A flower that fades...
A shadow that passes..."
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