A certain ambivalence lies within our experience of Rosh Hashanah as Yom Hadin the Day of Judgment. The piyutim of the day refer to the angels themselves trembling. And many of the customs of Rosh Hashanah — e.g. that of not sleeping during the day — reinforce our sense of awe and apprehension. Yet at the same time Rosh Hashanah is a time of joyous celebration of festive meals and apples dipped in honey.
Both aspects of the day are true. But it is perhaps most important for us to understand wherein lies the cause for rejoicing given the awesomeness of the day. For clues to that answer Rabbi David Fohrman (featured in this issue) points us to the only mention of observance of Rosh Hashanah in Tanach chapter 8 of Nechemiah.
There it describes how on the first day of the seventh month the small group of exiles who had returned to Jerusalem under the leadership of Ezra and Nechemiah asked Ezra to read to them from Torah of Moshe. Ezra did so from the break of day until noon.
And the people wept over their ignorance of the Torah. The verses describe how the Leviim had to explain the words to them. They wept too over their failure to observe the Torah properly. Intermarriage was rife among the returnees.
