The term “Rosh Hashanah,” the Jewish New Year, is not used in the Torah. The Torah refers to the holiday as “Yom Ha-Zikkaron” (the day of remembrance) or “Yom Teruah” (the day of sounding of the shofar), and it commemorates the creation of the world.
The holiday is instituted in Leviticus 23:24-25, which records this commandment from God:
“In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe complete rest, a sacred occasion commemorated with loud blasts. You shall not work at your occupations; and you shall bring a gift to the Lord.”
Jeff Mandell, a student at the University of Chicago Law School, who lived in Israel last year, has a beautiful reflection on Rosh Hashanah as a celebration of creation, occasioned by his visit to the Jerusalem Zoo:
In the minimal time I have previously devoted to the chagim [holidays], I have always focused, as I think most Jews tend to, on self-reflection as a path to teshuvah, or repentance. . .
[But] amidst the animals, just a few days before the High Holidays, I heard a metaphorical shofar call in the trumpet of the elephants and the insistent cawing of the parrots. . . Rosh Hashanah came alive to me as much more than merely the start of the new year.
Unbidden, from recesses of memory I did not know I had, the liturgy of the shofar service echoed in my head: “Hayom horat olam, This is the birthday of the world, the anniversary of creation.”
As I walked to synagogue on Rosh Hashanah . . . through Jerusalem streets redolent with the fragrance of honeysuckle, I tried to keep the zoo in mind, to see every tree, every firefly, every one of the city’s countless stray cats, as a reminder of creation.
Once the service started . . . I thought of the zoo animals and tried to take seriously the idea that Rosh Hashanah is an opportunity to celebrate creation. . . In the face of nature, the only possible response is fundamental awe. . .
[And] as we give thanks for creation [we] confront our place within it. . . The Book of Life is more than a register of who shall live and who shall die; it is a collection of contracts, with each of us signing on for another year of living fully by actively partnering with God. .
[By] looking beyond ourselves and focusing on creation, we can find another level of meaning, purpose and resonance in the holidays.
Shanah Tovah to the world, and to everyone in it.