Rosh Hashana: Truth or Tradition?

This is a longer article, which is why I've included an index below. If you're looking for something specific, you can use the index to jump to that section. But if you're interested in Rosh Hashanah, its history, and the traditions surrounding it, I believe this will be worth your time. While this isn't an exhaustive study, I'm going to try to explain the historical context, traditional practices, and key takeaways surrounding Rosh Hashanah as I understand them from Scripture and historical sources.

INDEX

1. WHAT IS ROSH HASHANAH?

   a. The Name and the Date

2. THE RABBINIC CALENDAR SYSTEM

   a. Four New Years, One Month

   b. Aviv: Scripture's Actual First Month

3. WHAT SCRIPTURE ACTUALLY COMMANDS

   a. Leviticus and Numbers on Yom Teruah

   b. One Day, Two Names

4. WHERE THE NEW YEAR MEANING CAME FROM

   a. Babylonian Influence and the Mishnah

   b. Creation, the Patriarchs, and Adam

   c. Ezekiel 40:1 and the Name Itself

5. A PATTERN OF TRADITION BUILDING

   a. Adding to the Word

   b. Yom Kippur Already Exists

6. TRADITIONAL BELIEFS & PRACTICES

   a. Yom HaDin and the Three Books

   b. The Jubilee Timing Question

   c. Tashlich

   d. The Ten Days, Day by Day

   e. Food Customs

7. KEEPING IT STRAIGHT

   a. Four Things to Separate

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1. WHAT IS ROSH HASHANAH?

a. The Name And The Date

A God-ordained moed (appointed day), later renamed to signify the first month of the year, but is actually in the seventh biblical month so it's worth a closer look. So let's take a look at Rosh Hashanah, which translates as "Head of the Year." The day it lands on is the first day of the month called Ethanim in 1 Kings 8:2, later became more commonly known as Tishrei.

2. THE RABBINIC CALENDAR SYSTEM

a. Four New Years, One Month

Rabbinic Judaism recognizes more than one calendar starting point depending on what is being reckoned, the same way a country can run its government fiscal year on a different schedule than its regular calendar year. Nisan stays month one for counting festivals and for dating a king's reign. Tishrei becomes month one for legal/calendar reckoning, for tracking sabbatical years and jubilee years. The Mishnah (an early compilation of Jewish oral/rabbinic traditions and teachings) specifically identifies the first of Tishrei as the beginning of the year for the Shemitah (means release or letting go) and Jubilee cycles, giving Rosh Hashanah another purpose that Scripture does not explicitly assign to Yom Teruah. The Mishnah lists four separate new years: Tishrei for years, Nisan for kings and festivals, Elul for tithing animals, though Rabbi Eleazar and Rabbi Shimon say 1 Tishrei, and Shevat for trees, though the rabbis don't fully agree on the details. Rabbi Elazar and Rabbi Shimon place the animal tithe on Tishrei instead of Elul, and Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel split on whether the new year for trees falls on the first of Shevat or the fifteenth. So depending on what's being counted, and which rabbi you ask, a different month gets to be "the beginning."

b. Aviv: Scripture's Actual First Month

That might be a workable system for running a nation's civil affairs, but it isn't what Scripture establishes, and it isn't why this day carries the theological weight it does today. According to Scripture, Aviv, the month of Passover, which is in the spring, is the actual beginning of the year. Exodus 12:2 says "This month shall be to you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you." Yahweh didn't say this is the beginning of the so-called religious year while some other month is the beginning of the civil year or what have you. He said Aviv is the beginning of months, period.

3. WHAT SCRIPTURE ACTUALLY COMMANDS

a. Leviticus And Numbers On Yom Teruah

What does Scripture actually say about this day? Leviticus 23:23-25 says "Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 'Speak to the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a solemn rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. You shall do no regular work; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh.'" Numbers 29:1 reiterates this, "In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a holy convocation: you shall do no regular work. It is a day of blowing of trumpets to you." Neither Scripture uses the term Rosh Hashanah or calls this a New Year. Actually, nowhere in Scripture is the seventh month referred to as the beginning of the year or beginning of months. What Yahweh commanded was a memorial of trumpets, a solemn rest, and a holy gathering. That's it. Also, notice, what Numbers 29:1 says, "this day is a day of 'blowing' of trumpets." Yet Jewish tradition says the priority is to "hear" the shofar.

b. One Day, Two Names

Yom Teruah and Rosh Hashana are not describing two different days. They're describing two different beliefs and understandings of the same day. Yom Teruah is what Yahweh commanded. Rosh Hashanah is the name and the meaning that rabbinic tradition gave the date instead, centuries after the command was given. Over time, that meaning became so dominant that most people, Jewish and Christian alike, have never heard the day called anything but Rosh Hashanah. I've seen that firsthand. I've had Christian people wish me a happy new year at this time of year before. Chabad.org even says that the most common name used for this "holiday" is Rosh Hashanah, which is the name used in the tractate of Talmud devoted to the holiday. Yet they acknowledge that the Torah refers to this day as Yom Teruah (Day of Shofar Blowing).

4. WHERE THE NEW YEAR MEANING CAME FROM

a. Babylonian Influence and the Mishnah

Where did the new year meaning come from, if not from the Bible? Some scholars connect it to Babylonian influence during the exile, since the Babylonians ran their own calendar with fall observances tied to creation and kingship, and the Jewish name for this month, Tishrei, comes from a Babylonian root. Other scholars disagree with that connection, pointing out that Babylon's main new year festival, the Akitu, was primarily a spring observance, which makes a direct link harder to prove. What's clear either way is that the change didn't come from Scripture. It shows up in the Mishnah, generations after the exile, as a rabbinic concept. There is no text anyone can point to in the Torah itself that did this.

b. Creation, the Patriarchs, and Adam

The Talmud goes further into this than most people realize. Bavli Rosh Hashanah 10b preserves a dispute between Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua. Rabbi Eliezer places creation and the patriarchs' births in Tishrei; Rabbi Yehoshua places creation in Nisan. Genesis never gives a date for creation and never says the dates of the birth of Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob are in the month of Tishrei. Adam being created gets tied to the first of Tishrei specifically, a later rabbinic addition built on that Tishrei-creation concept rather than something Rosh Hashanah 10b states outright, turning the day into a birthday for mankind, a claim that is not upheld in Scripture either.

c. Ezekiel 40:1 and the Name Itself

The name itself has the same problem. "Rosh Hashanah" never appears in the Torah as the name of this feast. The term shows up once in the Tanakh, in Ezekiel 40:1, which reads, "In the twenty-fifth year of our captivity, in the beginning of the year, in the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city was struck, in the same day, Yahweh's hand was on me, and he brought me there." Here it isn't naming a holiday, it is simply noting when in the year it was. The use of this name for the day came later, becoming the common name through rabbinic tradition.

5. A PATTERN OF TRADITION BUILDING

a. Adding to the Word

There is a pattern that plays out with Jews and Christians alike. Yahweh gives an instruction in Scripture. Time passes. The surrounding culture influences them. Tradition builds layer on layer, a fence built around the original fence, until the fence itself becomes the thing being guarded. Jesus confronted the Pharisees directly for this: "You have left the commandment of God, and hold tightly to the tradition of men." Eventually an explanation gets constructed to make two competing systems sound compatible, until the man-made tradition is what people end up keeping and the original biblical instruction given by God through Moses gets ignored.

The problem isn't that every tradition surrounding this day is necessarily wrong. It is when those traditions redefine an appointed time that God already defined in Scripture and add meanings and practices that He never established. Scripture tells us not to add to His Word. Deuteronomy 4:2 says, "You shall not add to the word which I command you, neither shall you take away from it," and Deuteronomy 12:32 repeats that pretty much verbatim. When Yahweh has already given a specific purpose and command for an appointed day, we should be careful about adding new meanings and practices to it and then treating them as though they are biblical and part of the faith.

b. Yom Kippur Already Exists

There is certainly nothing wrong with examining ourselves, turning away from sin, and preparing our hearts for Yom Kippur. But Scripture already gives us Yom Kippur for that purpose. We don't need to create ten days of judgment and repentance around Yom Teruah and give that period a meaning God never gave it. How is that any different from Christians taking Passover, replacing it with Easter, and then creating biblical explanations for traditions God never commanded?

6. TRADITIONAL BELIEFS & PRACTICES

a. Yom HaDin and the Three Books

As I said earlier, Chabad.org says the most common name used for this day is Rosh Hashanah. They go on to say, "In our prayers, we often call it Yom Hazikaron (Day of Remembrance) and Yom Hadin (Day of Judgement) since this is the day when G‑d recalls all of His creations and determines their fate for the year ahead. Together with Yom Kippur (which follows 10 days later), it is part of the Yamim Nora'im (Days of Awe, or: High Holidays)."

This brings us to another major part of the traditional understanding of Rosh Hashanah: Yom HaDin, the Day of Judgment. In the Babylonian Talmud, tractate Rosh Hashanah 16, the rabbis teach that mankind is judged on Rosh Hashanah, with the judgment being sealed on Yom Kippur. The same passage describes three books being opened on Rosh Hashanah, the righteous inscribed in the Book of Life, the wicked inscribed for death, and the intermediate remaining suspended until Yom Kippur. But Scripture never calls Yom Teruah the Day of Judgment, nor does it establish a ten-day period between Yom Teruah and Yom Kippur for this purpose. Later in midrashic and homiletical material, a related tradition developed which ties the choice of this day to Adam. It holds that Adam was judged, repented, and was forgiven on this day, making it fitting as a day of judgment for his descendants.

b. The Jubilee Timing Question

The Mishnah teaches that the first day of Tishrei starts the count toward the Shemitah and Jubilee cycles, while the actual proclamation of the Jubilee happens on Yom Kippur, ten days later. The rabbis themselves point this out, the year's count begins on the first of Tishrei, but the release itself is dated to 10 Tishrei, in line with Leviticus 25:9, which says, 'Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land.' So Scripture and the Mishnah aren't in direct conflict on the date of proclamation, the real issue is that Scripture never assigns Yom Teruah itself any role in starting a Jubilee count to begin with.

c. Tashlich

There is a tradition that draws from Micah, Tashlich. Tashlich means "you will cast" or "you will cast away." Micah 7:18-19 reads, "Who is a God like you, who pardons iniquity, and passes over the disobedience of the remnant of his heritage? He doesn't retain his anger forever, because he delights in loving kindness. 19 He will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities under foot. You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea." The "You" in verse 19 is Yahweh, and "their sins" refers to His people, meaning the passage is describing what God will do with their sins. It is not saying for His people to cast their own sins into water. The earliest known Tashlich source is Sefer Maharil, around 14th or early 15th century, roughly 800 years after Micah. Oddly, Maharil actually objected to bringing or throwing bread into the water to feed the fish. The practice became more common later, while other Jewish authorities also objected to the practice because feeding wild fish on a festival could violate halakhic restrictions (rabbinic Jewish law and practice) and because it could make the custom appear superstitious.

d. The Ten Days, Day by Day

The Days of Awe, also called the Ten Days of Repentance, is the ten-day period between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, from the first day of Tishrei through the tenth. Counting the traditional two-day observance of Rosh Hashanah, there are seven days left between the end of Rosh Hashanah and the start of Yom Kippur, yet the whole span is called the Ten Days of Repentance because Rosh Hashanah's two days and Yom Kippur's one day are folded into that count. The traditional understanding is that Rosh Hashanah begins a period of judgment, repentance, prayer, and seeking forgiveness that culminates in Yom Kippur. This is where the concept of teshuvah, meaning "return" or "repentance," becomes a major focus. During these ten days, tradition encourages self-examination, confession, genuine regret over sin, turning away from wrongdoing, making restitution and reconciliation with those who have been wronged, and seeking forgiveness. Prayers of contrition called Selichot, meaning "forgiveness," are also encouraged in most communities. The Babylonian Talmud, in Rosh Hashanah 18a, gives importance to this period in connection with judgment and repentance and applies Isaiah 55:6 to these days: "Seek Yahweh while he may be found, call on him while he is near."

The issue is God already gave a day for this. Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement, commanded to be observed on the tenth day of the seventh month. Leviticus 23:26–32 says, "28 It is a day of atonement, to make atonement for you before Yahweh your God. 29 For whoever it is who shall not deny himself in that same day shall be cut off from his people... 31 It is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. 32 It shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for you, and you shall deny yourselves." Leviticus 16:29–31 also says this command applies "whether native-born or a stranger who lives as a foreigner among you," and declares, "It is a statute forever." So this is not another day just for the Jews or just for the Old Testament. If you are grafted in, it applies to you as well. And yes it still applies today.

Within the traditional observance of the Ten Days of Awe, different days within this period have specific meanings. The first two days are Rosh Hashanah, marked by the blowing of the shofar and prayers emphasizing God's kingship, remembrance, and judgment. The central themes of the Rosh Hashanah Musaf service (a special additional prayer service said after the regular morning service on Rosh Hashanah) are Malchuyot (God's kingship), Zichronot (God's remembrance), and Shofarot (the shofar); these themes became central to the traditional observance. The third of Tishrei is the Fast of Gedaliah, commemorating the assassination of Gedaliah and the resulting collapse of Judah's remaining community after the exile; if the third falls on the Sabbath, the fast is postponed to the fourth. The intervening days are traditionally marked by increased repentance, charity, prayer, reconciliation, and Selichot. The Sabbath that falls between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is called Shabbat Shuvah, meaning "Sabbath of Return," from Hosea 14:1, "Israel, return to Yahweh your God; for you have fallen because of your sin," and a repentance-focused teaching is given. The tenth day is Yom Kippur, the Torah-commanded Day of Atonement, commonly observed with fasting, confession, and extended prayer. There is also a later devotional idea that the seven days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur correspond to the seven weekdays, with each day providing an opportunity to review and correct failures committed on that particular weekday during the previous year.

Scripture never calls these days the "Days of Awe" or the "Ten Days of Repentance," nor does it command or even hint at a ten-day period beginning with Yom Teruah for judgment and repentance. Yom Kippur already has a specific purpose and commandments given by Yahweh. The traditional progression of Rosh Hashanah as the beginning of judgment, followed by ten days of repentance, and culminating in Yom Kippur is man-made even though it is built on biblical concepts, rather than an instruction Yahweh gave.

The traditional understanding of Rosh Hashanah builds upon these ideas in a progression that goes beyond what Scripture says about Yom Teruah. The day becomes associated with Adam's creation and the birthday of the world, then with Yom HaDin, the Day of Judgment, the opening of the three books, and the beginning of the Ten Days of Repentance that culminate in Yom Kippur. Each of these concepts may be connected to biblical themes, but Scripture itself never gives Yom Teruah this theological construct.

e. Food Customs

Another familiar Rosh Hashanah custom is the food. Food traditions vary widely among Jewish communities. But in the West, we're probably most familiar with traditional Ashkenazi food such as apples dipped in honey, round challah, pomegranates, and other sweet foods as symbols of hope for a good and sweet year. Round challah is often associated with the cycle of the year or divine kingship, while pomegranates are associated with abundant merits or commandments.

Sephardic and Mizrahi communities often observe a more elaborate symbolic-food meal called a seder simanim. Simanim means "signs" or "omens," because the foods are eaten as symbolic signs, with prayers or wordplay expressing hopes for what the coming year will bring. The custom is connected to a Talmudic tradition that mentions certain foods at the beginning of the year, such as gourds, fenugreek or black-eyed peas, leeks, beets or chard, and dates, because their names can be used in Hebrew or Aramaic wordplay and accompanying prayers.

Depending on the community, the meal may also include figs, pomegranates, fish, or the head of a fish, ram, or other kosher animal. The head is often eaten with the prayer that Israel may be "the head and not the tail."

7. KEEPING IT STRAIGHT

a. Four Things to Separate

Throughout all of this, we need to keep four things separate: what Yahweh commanded in Scripture, what the rabbis taught in the extra-biblical texts or reasoned from Scripture, what later traditions and customs developed from those teachings, and what believers today may choose to practice. Those are not all the same thing. Something can have a biblical connection without being a biblical command, and a tradition can be meaningful without becoming part of what Yahweh commanded us to observe.

Let me reiterate that these customs and traditions are not necessarily bad just because they are traditions. They are often thought to be grounded in Scripture, and specific passages are frequently referenced as the basis for them. But finding a biblical connection to a tradition does not make that tradition biblical. Christians make the same claim about Easter, Christmas, Sunday worship, and so on. As I said earlier, the issue is that this day, the first of Tishrei, already has a purpose assigned to it by Yahweh: Yom Teruah, the Feast of Trumpets. He already prescribed what we are to do on that day: rest, blow the trumpets, have a holy convocation, do no work, give an offering, and observe it as a memorial of blowing. Why add all these extra traditions and change the original meaning of the day?

Yom Teruah was a wake-up call, not a new year. A trumpet meant to shake a comfortable people into examining their lives before the Day of Atonement arrived ten days later. Rosh Hashanah is remembered today as the start of the year and the day Adam was born, neither of which Genesis ever says.

Yahweh gave us Yom Teruah. Man gave us Rosh Hashanah. Which one are we going to obey?