Presence

The Shofar

24 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying: In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall be a solemn rest unto you, a memorial proclaimed with the blast of horns [Zichron Teruah], a holy convocation. 25 Ye shall do no manner of servile work; and ye shall bring an offering made by fire unto the LORD.

and again in Numbers 29:1

1 And in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, ye shall have a holy convocation: ye shall do no manner of servile work; it is a day of blowing the horn [Yom Teruah] unto you. 2 And ye shall prepare a burnt-offering for a sweet savour unto the LORD: one young bullock, one ram, seven he-lambs of the first year without blemish; 3and their meal-offering, fine flour mingled with oil, three tenth parts for the bullock, two tenth part for the ram, 4and one tenth part for every lamb of the seven lambs; 5 and one he-goat for a sin-offering, to make atonement for you; 6 beside the burnt-offering of the new moon, and the meal-offering thereof, and the continual burnt-offering and the meal-offering thereof, and their drink-offerings, according unto their ordinance, for a sweet savour, an offering made by fire unto the LORD.

And that is it. No mention of the new year (in fact, the holiday listed here is said to be in seventh (7th) month, which is because Nissan (in the spring) is the first of the year for the holidays, as set down in Parshas Bo. The first (1st) of Tishrei is recorded as the first of the year for other things, c.f. Mishnah Rosh HaShannah), the Day of Judgement, nothing to do with repentence, no 'each and every person passing before God as sheep.'

The only thing, in fact that sets this holiday apart, and helps us recognize it as what we call Rosh HaShannah, is the roundabout commandment to blow the Shofar (even this is indirect - the word Shofar is never used!). Two phrases are used: first, "Zichron Teruah", a remembrance of Teruah, and "Yom Teruah", a day of Teruah (teruah is hard to translate, the JPS uses 'blowing of horns', which is basically correct, but the word signifies more than that. Teruah, for example, is different that Tekiah, another common word for blowing of horns).

So basically, after a simple reading of the sources, we are left a bit confused. How did we go from the scant descriptions provided in the Torah, to the full-blown High Holiday we have today (I am putting aside the answer that we had an Oral Tradition for the content and context of Rosh HaShannah - that might be, but my approach is going to focus on understanding it from the perspective of the Chumash/Torah. I am not ruling out the possiblity that what we have today is mostly Rabbinic in nature).

The only clues we have in discerning this engima are the words we are given to work with. As we noted before, the only things that stand out are the references to Teruah, which we associate with the Shofar. We know of one previous time when the Shofar figured in the narrative of the Chumash - way back in Exodus 19:19, when God's Presence descends on Mt. Sinai to give the B'nei Israel the Torah:

17 And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount. 18 Now mount Sinai was altogether on smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire; and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. 19 And when the voice of the horn waxed louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by a voice.

A short while later, we again have the image of a Shofar (20:14):

14 And all the people perceived the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the voice of the horn, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled, and stood afar off.

It seems that when God's Presence appeared to the B'nei Yisrael, they heard the Shofar! You might also recall that these verses are a major part of the liturgy on Rosh HaShannah, comprising the 'Shofarot' section of Mussaf (The Mussaf being comprised of Malchiot, Zichronot and Shofarot). The beginning of Shofarot as well seems to concentrate on the revelation at Mt. Sinai, rather than Rosh HaShannah:

"You were revealed in Your cloud of glory, to Your People, to speak with them. From heaven You made them hear Your voice, and were revealed to them in clouds of purity. The whole world as well was terrified of You, and creatures present at the Beginning trembled before You; When You revealed Yourself, our King, over Mount Sinai, to teach Your People the Torah and its Commandments. You made them hear the majesty of Your voice, and Your Holy Utterances from flames of fire."

"In thunder and lightning You were revealed to them, and with the sound of the Shofar You appeared to them, as it is written in Your Torah: 'And it was on the third day, as morning arrived, and there was thunder and lightning, and a thick cloud on the mountain, and the sound of the Shofar very strong, and all the people in the camp trembled.' (Shemot 19:16)"

I think this presents us with an answer to our quandry. The holiday detailed as the first day of the seventh month, although not explicitly related to us as Rosh HaShannah, refers us back to the moment of God's revelation on Mt. Sinai. At the moment when God revealed Himself, the B'nei Yisrael were swallowed up in Din - for if God is present, what justification can you offer for your sins. We live in a world where God's Presence is hidden, and so we are able to rationalize things that, were He standing over us, we would not even consider. This palpable sense of God's Presence led the Jews to fear for their very lives (this, I think, is what it means when it is said that no one can see God and live. No person would be justified in his actions when fully present before God). So much so, that they immiedietly beseeched Moshe to ask God to pull back a bit.

This is what we recall on Rosh HaShannah - the revelation of God's Presence. The sense of Din that accompanies this is inevitable. As such, we voluntarily crown God King on this day and submit ourselves for judgement before Him (and, as the tradition states, the rest of the world is judged as well; recall the Medrash states the whole world was aware of Sinai). In addition, the themes of the day instill in us a hope for a future world, where the world is a place of justice, where each man is judged according to his deeds, where bad things do not happen to good people. We then begin the Days of Repentence, culminating in Yom Kippur, where we ask God for mercy.

A side note, I think the reason we have a Makrei (the person who calls out the type of Shofar blast to the Shofar Blower) is based on the verse: "Moshe YiDaber, V'HaElohim Y'Annenu B'Kol", "Moses spoke, and God answered him by a voice." We now see that the voice was the sound of the Shofar.