It is written in Vaykra 23.24: “Speak to the Children of Israel and say to them: In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a day of rest, a sacred occasion which you shall commemorate with trumpets.” Also in Bamidvar 29.1 it says: “In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a sacred occasion: you shall not work in your occupations. You shall observe it as the day on which the horn is blown (Yom Teruah).”

The first thing that is interesting to note is that the term Rosh Hashana is not used in the Torah, so it seems that in biblical times they did not celebrate a holiday with that name. What they celebrated at that time was the Feast of Harvest, which had rituals that are now associated with Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Sukkot. In Shmot 23.16 it says: “You must observe… the Feast of Harvest (Hag Haasif) at the end of the year,…” referring to the end of the harvest and the beginning of a new agricultural cycle.

The celebration of Rosh Hashana as an independent holiday began after the Babylonian Exile. It was in the time after the destruction of the Second Temple, in the writings of the Tanaim, that a group of sages of the Talmudic era used the term Rosh Hashana. Thus, the autumn festival was divided into three separate festivals: Rosh Hashana on the first day, Yom Kippur on the tenth day, and Sukkot on the fifteenth of the month of Tishrei.

It is in the Mishnah, compiled in the second century of our era, where Rosh Hashana is spoken of as the day on which God judges men (Rosh Hashanah 1:2) and in the Gemarah, completed in the fifth century, the subject is expanded. Since the Torah states that the shofar must be blown on that day, the sages included the story of the Sacrifice of Isaac to be read on that day, because of the connection with the ram and its horns entangled in the bush, which Abraham uses to replace Isaac in the sacrifice.

From that time on, the New Year began to be celebrated in synagogues, by blowing the Shofar and praying. The prayer began to be led by several people, one leading Shacharit and another the additional Musaf prayer. Over time, more parts were added to the prayer, such as the Piyut part, a liturgical poem from the Middle Ages.

The structure of Rosh Hashana has remained more or less the same as it was celebrated in the time of the Talmud, although over time new readings and rituals of great beauty have been added, the result of the creativity of the Jewish People over the centuries. But all this does not explain why the Jewish New Year begins in the seventh month.

By Marcos Gojman

Bibliography: The Jewish Festivals, History and Tradition by Hayyim Schauss.