- Q. I still have another question. On a Shiur (On-Line), I think I heard that Rosh Hashana itself is a hidden Holiday. How and why is that?
A. The Magen Avohom (O.H. 284:7) mentioned above, seems to understand that this pasuk sited on last question, hints that not only is the moon covered on this holiday, but the holiday itself is in a sense also “covered” or hidden. The reason seems that we don’t make a great ostentation and serve great meals, that we would have to prepare for it, as we do on the other Yomim Tovim.
There is another Halacha, that reflects a similar idea. In “Sefer Maharil” on the customs of Ashkenazi Jews, the Maharak notes: “It is a proper custom to blow the shofar from Rosh Chodesh Elul, in order to confuse the trial Accuser, so he does not know when to prosecute us.
Therefore, we don’t blow the shofar on Rosh HaShana eve, so that the Accuser will think that the day of judgment has already passed.” (Maharil Minhagim, Days of Awe).
According to this explanation, the custom of blowing the shofar during Elul is expressly intended to create confusion for the accusing Satan, by hiding the exact day when Rosh HaShana falls and thus disrupt his malignant intentions.
In fact, the entire Rosh HaShana holiday exhibits a pattern of seeming ambivalence. For instance, on Rosh HaShana we do wear clean clothes and groom ourselves for the holiday (O.H. 581:3) but we do not wear our best Yom Tov clothes (Taz, ibid). Similarly, “We eat and drink and rejoice, and do not fast on Rosh HaShana” (O.H. 597:1) Even so, the continuation of this same chapter explains that we shouldn’t eat to satiety, and that according to some traditions even fasting may be permissible.
All of these laws reflect the essential paradox of Rosh HaShana. On the one hand, the Day of Judgment is inherently a day of awe. Who is in the mood for festivities on the day of a court appearance even for a minor infraction?! Certainly on the day of our judgment before the King of Kings we should be in a state of awe. Yet HaShem made this day a holiday as well, and it becomes “a covering for the day of our holiday”.
The Tur (O.H. 581) explains that this shows our confidence that HaShem will judge us favorably. Certainly, at the communal level we don’t want the day of judgment to seem like an ominous day, as we are confident that the merit of the community of Israel and our forefathers will result in a favorable judgment.
In order to show our confidence in the merit of the Jewish people, Rosh HaShana is marked as a festive day. But in order to experience the awe of judgment, and not to display arrogance as if we have nothing to fear from our heavenly trial, we take pains to obscure the day a bit and not to make it appear that we are too anxious for its arrival.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by, Horav Yaakov Hirschman, Horav Dovid Pam, Horav Aharon Miller, Horav Chanoch Ehrentreu, Horav Kalman Ochs and Horav Dovid Bartfeld quoting Horav Berkovits Shlit’a .
Important Numbers
