The holiday we call Rosh Hashanah is never called that in Chumash. In Parshas Emor, the Torah refers to Rosh Hashanah as zichron teruah, and we therefore refer to it in our davening, Kiddush, and bentching as Yom Ha’Zikaron, the Day of Remembrance. What does memory have to do with the New Year? The simple understanding is that on this Day of Judgment, Hashem invokes the memory of all we have done, for good and for bad. We describe Hashem as Zocheir kol ha’nishkachos, He remembers all that is forgotten. Indeed, one of the central components of our Musaf, Zichronos, is dedicated to this idea.
But perhaps there is a deeper meaning to the aspect of zechirah and zikaron on Rosh Hashanah and in the teshuvah process.
Zichron teruah, Yom Ha’Zikaron. What teruah is the Torah commanding us to remember?
Rosh Hashanah is a day of remembering, but it isn’t Hashem who is remembering us; it is a day for us to remember Him. For us to remember the day that we heard the unadulterated voice of Hashem at Har Sinai. Hashem spoke to us then through the sound of a shofar, and He speaks to us again through the sound of the same shofar, an echo reverberating from that great day of revelation, a day when we received our mission from headquarters. A mission to be a mamleches kohanim v’goy kadosh. And this mission is more important now than ever.
On Rosh Hashanah, we blow the shofar to coronate Hashem as our King and proclaim that we are His loyal subjects. But we need to connect with the shofar on a personal level as well. The Rambam (Hilchos Teshuvah Perek 3) famously states:
אַ ף עַ ל פִּ י שֶׁ תְּ קִ יעַ ת שׁוֹפָ ר בְּ ר ֹאשׁ הַ שָּׁ נָה גְּ זֵרַ ת הַ כָּתוּב רֶ מֶ ז יֵשׁ בּוֹ כְּ לוֹמַ ר עוּרוּ יְשֵׁ נִ ים מִ שְּׁ נַתְ כֶם וְנִ רְ דָּ מִ ים הָ קִ יצוּ מִ תַּ רְ דֵּ מַ תְ כֶם וְחַ פְּ שׂוּ בְּ מַ עֲ שֵׂ יכֶם וְחִ זְ רוּ בִּ תְ שׁוּבָ ה וְזִ כְ רוּ בּוֹרַ אֲ כֶם.
Even though the sounding of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah is a decree, it contains an allusion. It is as if [the shofar's call] is saying: Wake up, you sleepy ones, from your sleep, and you who slumber, arise. Inspect your deeds, repent, remember your Creator.
Many know the beginning of the Rambam that the shofar wakes us up, but to what? The Rambam continues: It wakes us up to remember something, something that we can easily forget, Someone we can easily be lulled to sleep about. In our day-to-day slumber of life, we can forget perhaps the most important thing of all — that we have a Creator.
The Rambam quotes a passuk to prove teshuvah gemurah, and what is it? “Remember Hakadosh Baruch Hu, remember there is a Ribbono Shel Olam.” Rosh Hashanah ultimately is really as simple as that. It is a day of going back to the basics and making the main thing the main thing: that there is a Creator, He brought us into this world for a reason, and to make a difference. When we remember Him, we live a mission-driven life, we ask how we can serve Him. When we forget Him, we get confused, we show poor judgment, and we make mistakes.
To be clear, we daven for ourselves today, for our family’s health, wellbeing, livelihood, and more. There is nothing wrong with that, and in fact, that is our responsibility. But why are those things important? What is our argument to have them? Because we remember there is a Ribbono Shel Olam, because we want to fulfill His vision and mission for us, because we think we can be most efficient and productive, we can accomplish the most for Him and His vision if we have them.
Rosh Hashanah is Yom Ha’Zikaron, it is the day we give a big klop, not on the bimah, but on our hearts, and, like R’ Levi Yitzchak, we announce: “There is a Ribbono Shel Olam, there is a Creator, we are here to serve at the pleasure of the King.”
TORAH TAVLIN
RABBI EFREM GOLDBERG
