Jewish Holy Day: Rosh Hashanah Life-Cycle Events

Jewish Holy Day: Rosh Hashanah

Life-cycle events do not hold back Jewish festivities. Just like all other religions, Judaism observes certain holidays and remembrance days as their holy days. The Jews plan their holy days with respect to the Jewish calendar, based on moon cycles where each month starts with the appearance of the new moon (Hammer, 2005). This is contrary to the secular calendar based on the revolutions of the earth around the sun. Jewish holidays fall on similar date each year with regard to Jewish calendar, but on dissimilar dates with respect to the secular calendar. In every year Jewish celebrate two high holidays which are Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. This paper describes in detail Rosh Hashanah, how Jews celebrate it, and its significance to the Jews.

Rosh Hashanah is among the most significant holidays in the religion of Jewish, and it refers to the Jewish New Year celebration. The holy day usually fall in the month of September or October on a new moon, and the celebration goes on for two days, on the first and second days of the Jewish month of Tishri (Isaacs, 2002). Rosh Hashanah holiday recapitulates four main and linked themes, which include Judgment day, Remembrance Day, Shofar blowing day and more importantly, the Jewish New Year (Bakley, 2011). .

Rosh Hashanah is a High Holiday day besides Yom Kippur, and it is certainly the most crucial period in the calendar of the Jews. Rosh Hashanah represent the prospect for forgiveness and repentance (Teece, 2004). During this holiday, Jews purify their souls and they obtain the prospect to begin a novel life with clean and free conscience. Following this holy day, Jews get the objective of becoming better persons and do better to others in the New Year (Aaron, 2007). Rosh Hashanah is a crucial period in the Jewish faith where every Jewish person contemplates on his/her past mistakes and decides before God not replicate the mistakes in the next year. The day also commemorates the free will of man when a person makes a conscious verdict to reflect on the inner self and make changes; changes that make a person to obtain the mercies of God.

Rosh Hashanah also venerates human race creation, and it is period where renewal and cleansing of soul takes place. Jews get an opportunity to obtain forgiveness (Teece, 2004). While Jews view, Rosh Hashanah, as the New Year in their religion, this holiday does not come on the initial month in the Jewish calendar. Instead, the holiday begins on the first day of the 7th month, Tishri, and it offers a chance for Jewish to abandon the previous sins and move on after receiving forgiveness from God (Aaron, 2007). In this regard, Jews consider Rosh Hashanah as a day of judgment where God weighs an individual's good actions over the past year against his/her bad actions. The balance amid an individual's good and bad actions determines how the following year will be like to him/her.

Jews reckon that God documents His judgment in the "Book of Life" where He determines who will live, who will die, who will enjoy good moments and who will experience bad moments in the coming year (Teece, 2004). During Rosh Hashanah celebration, Jews articulate these words to each other, "May You be Inscribed and Sealed in the Book of Life" (Morinis, 2010). This holy day gives the Jews an option amid life and demise, sin and righteousness where those who seek forgiveness are written in the "Book of Life," and 10 days later, during Yom Kippur, the book is closed. As Remembrance day, Rosh Hashanah remembers the tale of Isaac where Abraham accepted to offer his son as a sacrifice to God, but God provide a ram of sacrifice when Abraham was about to offer his own son. Given his obedience, Abraham was blessed and in this regard, Jews should submit themselves before their God to obtain His mercy

Jews spent a lot of their time in Synagogue during Rosh Hashanah where certain services that accentuate the Kingship of God take place. The rituals performed during this holy day include blowing of a trumpet made of a ram's horn, otherwise known as Shofar. Shofar blowing reaffirms and proclaims God as the creator and leader of all humanity (Morinis, 2010). The sound of Shofar stirs up the Jewish souls and awaken them to an omnipresence and omnipotence God who shows his mercies to those who pray and seek forgiveness. Several prayers are said before Rosh Hashanah to prepare Jews for this Holy Day. These prayers include, Avinu Malkaynu, Unetaneh Tokef, Musef Amidah (Morinis, 2010).