REMEMBERING
- YOM HAZIKARON
One of the alternate names given by the rabbis for Rosh
Hashanah is Yom Hazikaron, which literally means
"Day of Remembrance". The events of the past are, after
all, intergral parts of our Jewish identity. Our liturgies
and customs have evolved over centuries and millenia from
the Holy Land into the diaspora. Our cultural memory provides
the foundation for Jewish action and identity. So why,
on the New Year of all days, is there little in the way
of a history?
Rosh Hashanah of course has a profound emphasis on
the past, but in a different way than holidays like
Hanukah and Passover, both which have easily summarized
stories. Instead, the beginning of the story of Rosh
Hashanah is the original beginning. In the section
of the morning service called Zichranot, the
cantor (chazzan) thanks the Divine for the creation
of the world and humanity.
The events of the past are then tied in with the commitments
of the present. The chazan recalls the sparing
of Noah and G-d's covenant with the first Jews. Just
as we are to remember the covenant with our patriarch,
the Divine recalls the faith with which the Israelites
followed G-d in the desert.
But this commitment to covenants of the past does
not solely define the tone of Rosh Hashanah. When we
practice customs that originated in the shtetl
or the Holy Land, we acknowledge both ties to the past
and hopes for the future. The telling (and retelling)
of stories and the reading of the Torah portion connects
us with our ancestors and grants us the wisdom
of the past that we need to be active Jews in the world today.
Other names for Rosh Hashanah: Yom
Teruah , Yom
Hadin
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