Rosh Hashanah 5766

The name of the New Year festival, Rosh HaShanah, literally means not "beginning of the year," but "head of the year." I.e., the relationship of Rosh HaShanah to the other days of the year parallels the relationship of the head to the other organs of the body.  

Rabbi Isaac Luria (Ari z'l) beautifully explains what the Zohar says of this period of Rosh Hashanah to Simchat Torah as it occurred in the time of creation in the time of Rosh Hashanah, the world was created.  And so when Rosh Hashanah returns each year, we too connect to the spiritual process that was In the Beginning.  This is coded in the first word of the Torah - Berashiet - When you rearrange the letters you have B'Aleph Tishrei (On the First of Tishrei).

Rosh Hashanah is traditionally understood as the time of judgment, when the Creator takes a reckoning of our deeds for the past year.  But according to the Zohar, this depiction is inaccurate. It is not about observance for the sake of tradition.

Science can offer some insights into the true significance of Rosh Hashanah - a principle of physics states that for every action there is an equal reaction. For every cause there is an effect. Rosh Hashanah is built upon this foundation - the universal laws of cause and effect.  Think about it - every word that we speak, every action we perform is like a boomerang that we fling into the cosmos. Every Rosh Hashanah all of these boomerangs, the positive and negative, return into our lives.  Moreover, this system of cause and effect is not exclusive to the Jews. According to wise sages, all mankind shares this system of cause and effect. Putting it simply, life operates like a cosmic mirror- when we smile, a mirror smiles back, when we perform a negative action in our world, this negative energy is reflected back upon us.

So it is not the Creator that stands in judgment of us and we are never required to stand in judgment in front of the creator.

There is only one force. On divine energy that flows through the cosmos just as there is but one electrical force flowing through your home.  The force is only good, infinite and compassionate.

Now consider this, no one would argue that electricity enriches our lives, but this same force can also be destructive - stick your finger into a light socket and you can die.  But, the nature of electricity has never changed.  It would be senseless to say that electricity has punished you.  In the same way the Creator never punishes us. Never. We ourselves choose to put our finger in the socket knowingly or unknowingly.

We mistakenly think we have many decisions in life - an infinite number of choices of how to act.  But the truth is there are two possibilities in life - Light and Darkness.  Sharing or selfishness.  Only two choices in any given thing.  And guess how many results there are? The same.  It is not infinite - it's two: Light or Darkness.

When you understand that there are real repercussions associated with our negative behavior, large and small, we may be tempted to ask for a pardon, or seek exoneration, through the ignorance of the law of cause and effect.

Sorry.

Ignorance of the laws of the universe is no excuse, and natural laws of the universe cannot be violated without consequences.  Just as you cannot plead ignorance of the law of electricity while touching a high voltage wire.

But, it is also a spiritual law of a universe that when a person achieves a basic change in his or her own nature, the universe must respond and reflect the miraculous energy back to us.  We can then use that energy to alter destiny and deflect judgments.

The first thing you must do in order to bring about change is to accept responsibility. You need to become accountable for your actions. That first stage begins leading up to Rosh Hashanah.

STAGE 1.  CLEANSING

The first stage of the holidays is this month of Elul - the month of cleansing. This month, Elul, is all about figuring out what you need to change about yourself so that you can overcome whatever it is inside of you that is stopping you from getting everything you want out of life.  It’s the first stage of the holidays. It’s the month of cleansing where we can get rid of a lot of negativity in order to get the all the energy of the following month.  We want to bring up all that we need to see so that we can cleanse it before Rosh Hashanah.   We need to reverse the hostile situation we’re in.  We think what’s hostile is terrorism and wars, but what’s really hostile is closer to home – it's the chaos and the fighting we create in our own homes - it’s the pollution we create in our own environment. This affects everyone and everything – so that’s why all people and all things need Rosh Hashanah.   It is about removing all the negativity from all of our lives.  You have to know that you can take care of it all by doing this month right.

What we’re really doing is creating a structure for our vessel that determines what kind of Light we want to have.  And it’s all in our control.  There really are no dead ends in life, and there is no chaos we can’t get through.  But we need to figure out what we need to do to break through our chaos, and then we need to tap into the laws of the universe to help us make it happen.

So from now until Rosh Hashanah, it's important for us to think about what we really want for our whole next year - what are our priorities?  How much more do we want to have?  What do we want to accomplish?

That’s why Rosh Hashanah is in the month of Libra, which is related to balance.  On Rosh Hashanah, you have to do something to earn that balance, though.  During those two days, it is said that the world sits in judgment.  Meaning, it is decided how pollution will take place – how much you’re going to get, and how it will affect you.

On Rosh Hashanah, you get the opportunity to clean out all the wrong messages our body and souls give us.  For example, the reaction of feeling jealous, a fear of being betrayed, even something as small as the craving for sugar…  We are not born with these things.  But through our lives we have experiences that impact us greatly.  They make enormous impressions on us.

We have 2 days during Rosh Hashanah to eliminate all our negativity: Rosh Hashanah is a time where there is an opening in the cosmos - that creates a virtual time tunnel in which our thoughts and meditations allow us to travel back in the moments of the past year that require correction. Our consciousness during Rosh Hashanah plants the seed for our entire next year.  Rosh Hashanah is not the New Year as commonly believed, but the head or the seed of the year.  Just as an apple seed begets an apple tree, Rosh Hashanah is our opportunity to choose the seed we wish to plant for our coming year. Just as your head, your brain, controls your body, Rosh Hashanah controls your entire year. The harder we work at changing our ways and removing our negative traits, the more positive energy we inject into the seed level, the more seeds of prosperity, peace and blessings will sprout in our life.

On Rosh Hashanah, you are basically writing your movie for next year.  In the two days of Rosh Hashanah, we are illuminating our vessel in one shot, not through a process, and we can do it.

All Jewish Holidays are only one day in Israel.  Rosh Hashanah is the only holiday that is two days, even for Israelis. Why? The first day is for removing harsh judgments - nullifying all of the major short circuits that we have created that cause tremendous chaos in our lives. Hurting people, anything. The second day is for nullifying soft judgments.

What does that really mean?

The judgments for murder and stealing are not the same.  You can destroy a person's life without a gun, but a gun is more real. However, there are judgments for both.  On the first day, we remove the pollution we have created for the most negative things, and of course we have the most potential to change on the first day too.  On the second day, soft judgments are nullified - minor relationship problems, minor illnesses.

Another way to look at it, the first day of Rosh Hashanah is like building the frame and the second day is drawing what's in the picture.  If you do the days right, your next year will be different. And it is not about doing it right technically; it is about doing it right with consciousness.  It's nothing that can be explained, but you'll feel it and know if you did it right.  It is a commitment for us to go into Rosh Hashanah with the right intention.  We have a responsibility - it’s not just about fixing yourself, but supporting the others as well.

STAGE 2 - BLOWING OF THE SHOFAR

Unfortunately, most people associate blowing of the Shofar with tradition, a symbolic act of commemoration. This could not be further from the truth, and frankly, symbolism and traditional rituals offer no practical benefit to our modern day existence. Because we have remained ignorant to the true purpose of the Shofar, its effect in our lives has remained negligible. Instead of being an awesome instrument of power, the Shofar has remained a fruitless symbol of tradition. The power of the Shofar can only be expressed when the knowledge of its true purpose is expressed in our consciousness.  Yes, knowledge is power, and knowing why we sound the Shofar is the electrical current that turns it on.

So what is the Shofar?

The Shofar can be an instrument of astonishing mystical power when used by someone that has gained the necessary understanding and has completed the essential spiritual preparations. As it is written in the Zohar, “There is no sound of the Shofar, which does not ascend to a certain firmament, and all in that firmament make room for that sound." In preparation for this part of the spiritual observance, the Rav devotes three days to his own spiritual cleansing in order to become a pure channel for the energy of this holiday. When the Rav brings the Shofar to his lips and sounds a note, this is not merely a symbolic act. The blowing of the Shofar is a tool that has immediate cleansing and purifying effect on the negative forces affecting the lives of everyone in the synagogue, and even on the negativity in the world as a whole. The mystical sound emanating from the Shofar operates like a spiritual laser beam that dissolves all the blockages of negative energy that we have created over the past 12 months. A spiritual ultrasound whose vibrations permeate every crack and crevice in our being removing negative residue and purifying our soul.

With every blast of the Shofar, we transcend the every day parameters of time and space.  We revisit the moments of our negative behavior and we rescind the judgments.  Like travelers in time, we literally construct a new universe -- one in which both our transgressions and the judgments they engendered never existed.

The Shofar can only be made from a ram’s horn.  Why?

The ram exhibits what is the most negative behavior, even for humans.  You can see this in how they act when they eat. If three rams all have food in front of them, and plenty of it, one will push the other away from his food so he can’t have it.  It’s not that the other needs it – he has his own food!  It’s just that he doesn’t want the other ram to have his food.  The ram wants what he has, and does not want any other ram to have it even if he does not need it.   People have these same qualities - selfishness for no reason - and we have to vaccinate against this quality.

What is a vaccination – it usually uses a bit of the disease to cure.

That’s what the Shofar does. The Shofar goes against the power of the ram and changes us.

There is another very specific reason that the ram's horn is used which is explained in the Zohar and is a bit more complicated…Rosh Hashanah is the head of the year which takes place in the Hebrew month of Tishrei.  This month is known as the Head of all Months although, according to the Zohar, it is the seventh month of the year in the Hebrew calendar.  The Shofar helps to clarify the connection between the head of the year (the month of Tishrei) and the actual Jewish New Year (the month of Nissan).

The ram is the zodiac sign of Aries, the Hebrew month of Nissan.  Kabbalists through the ages explain that the month of Nissan represents the true New Year in the Hebrew calendar. By no coincidence, Passover is celebrated in the month of Nissan - As it is written in the Zohar, Rosh Hashanah is the seed or conception of the year, but Passover is actually the birth of the New Year.

So, we actually DO connect, to the concept of the New Year, but we do so at the Head of the Year or on a seed level.  So in short, we are connecting to both the conception of the year, and the birth of the year.

Shofar meditations:

The 101 sounds of the Shofar are divided into four levels.  Each has its own spiritual connections, and each focuses on eliminating a specific aspect of negative energy.  This can eliminate judgment and provide protection.  The sound of the ram's horn literally CONFUSES Satan - it's 25th century technology.

What do we do during the blows? This is very important - we need to meditate on very specific things. With the right consciousness, using the right meditations to guide us, the Shofar functions like a powerful laser removing the negativity of our actions eliminating our biggest fears, negativity, major health problems - things we are not aware of - replacing it with Light.

The First 30 Soundings are connected with Abraham, who represents the divine energy of mercy and kindness.  These soundings erase negativity associated with idol worship.  This does not refer to idolatry in the narrow sense of bowing down to graven images. Kabbalistically, we worship idols whenever we give power in our lives to something or someone other than the Light of the Creator - anything that controls you.  It could be fear, anger, money, sex, ego, judgment, or drugs!  Anything that makes you forget about the Light and your purpose in this life. Things you have to change but you can't because you're reactive.  Meditate to eliminate this part of your movie to get clarity.

The Second 30 Soundings are a connection to Isaac, and to the energy of receiving.  Kabbalah teaches that these sounds cleanse the negative effects of incest, which like idol worship is defined in the broader sense.  Here incest refers to any negativity engendered through improper sexual acts.  This is also about relationships.  Any form of relationship you want to fix or cleanse to make them better.  Or, it can be about relationships you want to create - your soul mate...

The Third 30 Soundings are a connection with Ya’akov, and to the define balance between mercy and judgment.  These blows of the Shofar annul the effects of bloodshed -- which includes not just physical violence, but any intention to cause harm and pain.  In this sense, Kabbalah even defines causing embarrassment to another person as bloodshed, in the sense that shame can cause blood to rush to someone's face.  This also includes your physical health so you do not have bloodshed in your own life.

The Final 11 Soundings are connected to King David, and to the spiritual energy of Malchut, which is the foundation of the physical world.  These last soundings deal with the negativity of evil speech and the damage that is done by any form of gossip or slander.   This takes care of airborne diseases.  Things you don't have control over, things that just travel around.  Things that manifest because of speaking about others.

There are 4 types of notes blown:

Tekiyah – is a big note

Sh’varim – 3 notes

Teruah – 9 or more broken notes

Tekiyah Gedolah – long blowing

The broken Shofar blows are like crying sounds - they take care of crying that can be created in our lives due to misery.  The longer notes surround the broken notes to encapsulate the negativity and eliminate it.

We stand during the Shofar blowing because sitting connects you to manifestation, and you don't want that grounding.

Watch out - during the actual Shofar blowing, when you are trying to have the best thoughts – to think of all you want to cleanse – you might have the most negative thoughts ever!  You might even have the worst feelings for other people!  Don’t worry its okay. It’s even good. Because all that negativity is floating up so that you can knock it out!

Normally, we blow the Shofar on both days of Rosh Hashanah, but if Rosh Hashanah lands on Shabbat we do not blow the Shofar. Shabbat is so powerful that it takes care of the negativity itself - no added actions are necessary.  That day will also be easier for us than normal because we have the power of Shabbat. Even though we don’t blow the Shofar, we still do meditations on the sounds as though we were hearing them.

- Various Sources

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Baila Lazarus is a freelance painter, writer, editor and
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