The Gemara (Rosh Hashanah 27a) teaches: ‘Rabbi Shmuel bar Yitzchak said: “Following whom do we pray today, saying, This day is the beginning of Your works, a remembrance of the first day? Following Rabbi Eliezer, who says (10b), In Tishrei, the world was created.”’
Let us analyze the wording, ‘This day is the beginning of Your works, a remembrance of the first day.’ Seemingly, it should have been phrased the other way round, ‘This day is a remembrance of the first day, the beginning of Your works,’ since the clause ‘the beginning of Your works’ is also included in the remembrance.
Tosafos (s.v. Keman Metzalinan) discusses whether ‘the beginning of Your works’ means the beginning of the world’s creation or whether it refers to the Day of Judgment, which is ‘the beginning of [Hashem’s] deeds of judgment for the world.’ (See also Ritba’s commentary on this passage.)
Now, according to the second explanation, that ‘the beginning of Your works’ refers to the Day of Judgment, the phrasing makes sense, as the term ‘remembrance’ applies specifically to the ‘first day,’ while ‘the beginning of Your works’ is not referring to the remembrance of creation, but saying that the day is the ‘beginning of Your works’ regarding the judgment for the coming year.
However, according to the first interpretation, where ‘the beginning of Your works’ refers to the creation of the heavens and the earth, the clause should read, ‘This day is a remembrance of the first day, the beginning of Your works.’
This can be resolved based on a teaching of the holy Rav Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev zt”l, in his work Kedushas Levi (beg. of First Kedushah for Chanukah):
‘All miracles and illuminations revealed in ancient times reappear every year. For example, on Chanukah... Similarly, on Rosh Hashanah, the illuminations of the world’s creation are revealed, as explained in the writings of the Arizal.’
Likewise, Pri Etz Chaim writes (Shaar Rosh Hashanah, 1): ‘Events return to their original state in their proper times every year... In Tishrei, the world was created, and the matter returns to its original state. In essence, every year, at the appointed time of each festival, the same heavenly illuminations that shone in those ancient days are awakened anew. These spiritual lights, which created and influenced the events of those times, are recreated and reactivated each year.
Thus, on the great day of Rosh Hashanah, the heavenly illuminations present during the world’s creation are awakened and rekindle the process of forming the heavens and the earth. These events repeat yearly with the same spiritual arousal that occurred at the time of creation. As is known, the term ‘year’ (shanah) derives from the word ‘repetition’ (shoneh), as the events of creation are reawakened each year. In essence, the world is recreated anew each Rosh Hashanah, as if it were a fresh act of creation.
Accordingly, the phrase, ‘This day is the beginning of Your works, a remembrance of the first day,’ is precise. ‘The beginning of Your works’ is not merely a remembrance of the first day but an actual renewal of the beginning of creation. Therefore, to describe it as a mere ‘remembrance’ would have been inaccurate. Just as the first Rosh Hashanah was the ‘beginning of Your works,’ so too is each Rosh Hashanah the awakening of the original acts of creation, as if the entire world is recreated in wondrous renewal.
The prayer reveals this to us: ‘From ancient times, You made it known.’ Hashem, Who declared the generations from the beginning, revealed to us that every Rosh Hashanah, the world begins anew as it did on the first day of creation.
The practical lesson: The great and powerful sanctity of Rosh Hashanah lies before us. Everything begins anew on this day, as if nothing had existed before. It is a precious opportunity to start afresh, a clean slate. On this day, the act of creation is renewed, and every Jew is renewed as if born again, like a new creation.
The holy sefarim explain that the term ‘year’ (shanah) also implies ‘change’ (shinui), calling us to transform ourselves into new individuals and free ourselves from all spiritual and physical burdens, in body and soul, collectively and individually. As the Midrash (Bereishis Rabbah 30:8) states: ‘Behold, a new world!’ “This day is the beginning of Your works!”
A Renewal of Creation
‘From the beginning, You made it known, and from ancient times, You revealed it. This day is the beginning of Your works, a remembrance of the first day. For it is a statute for Yisrael, a judgment for the God of Yaakov’ (Zichronos — Mussaf, Rosh Hashanah).
