Sermon for First Morning of Rosh Hashanah 5786
September 23, 2025
The Talmud, in Masechet Ta’anit 29a teaches: When the month of Av begins, one decreases acts of rejoicing. Rav Yehuda, son of Rav Shmuel bar Sheilat, said in the name of Rav: Just as when Av begins one decreases rejoicing, so too when the month of Adar begins, one increases rejoicing.
So, what that Talmudic passage is saying is that when Adar begins, in late winter, we are supposed to increase our joy because of the approach of Purim, arriving on the 14th of the month of Adar. Purim, as you may recall, recounts a tale of how the Jews of Shushan (present day Iran) overcame a genocidal plot against them.
In contrast, when the month of Av begins, in the middle of the summer, we are supposed to decrease our joy because of the approach of Tisha B’Av, the 9th of Av, the anniversary of the destruction of the first and second Temples in Jerusalem, each of those actual historical events having led to massive death and displacement of our ancestors.
What about when the month of Tishrei begins? Today, Rosh Hashanah, is after all the start of the month of Tishrei as well as being the start of the Jewish New Year 5768.
Should we be “increasing our joy?”
But Rosh Hashanah is not a big party time --- like Purim is – or like our secular New Year.
Should we be “decreasing our joy?”
But Rosh Hashanah is not a sad and mournful time – as is Tisha B ‘Av or, as is, among contemporary Jewish observances, Yom Hasho’ah/Holocaust Remembrance Day.
And so, how are we all feeling today?
I saw a meme on Facebook the other day that had this to say:
“Someone asked if I was ready for the fall and it took me a second to realize they meant autumn and not the total collapse of society.”[1]
Notwithstanding such understandable sentiments, I’d say that with the arrival of Rosh Hashanah – which for us also coincides with the arrival of the fall season --- it’s not a time for fatalism and pessimism: It surely IS a thoughtful time and a serious time. But, most profoundly, my sense is that Jewish tradition encourages us to see this season as a HOPEFUL time.
As we read in one of our closing readings yesterday evening,
Now all things are possible:
For the New Year we have found each other
Arm in arm beneath the nurturing night,
Welcoming the day on which the world itself began,
The day which reunites our people in their ancient task:
Messengers of light before the darkness,
Messengers of peace before the world.
We are meant to be full of hope today!
Since this particular Jewish holiday starts on the first day of the Hebrew month in which it is taking place, any spiritual, psychological or emotional preparation we might make for it would come prior to that month.
And that is indeed the case.
I mentioned earlier that we learn from the Talmud that when Av begins (as it did two months ago on the Hebrew calendar) we decrease our joy, given the approach of the 9th day of that month, Tisha B’Av. But already on the afternoon of Tisha B’Av, as that day is coming to a close, the mood starts to change. Tradition teaches that a future messiah will be born in the concluding hours of Tisha B’Av. And beginning with the first Shabbat after Tisha B’Av, we commence a series of seven so called “Sabbaths of Comfort” or “Sabbaths of Consolation”. During these seven Shabbatot we have haftarah readings from the second half of the Book of Isaiah that emphasize the mood of hopefulness, all leading up to Rosh Hashanah --- all leading up to today.
And so, if you were wondering today how we ought to be feeling as we gather here today --- amidst all the crises and challenges we face in our personal lives and in society at large – Jewish tradition counsels us that today is an occasion for being full of hope for the future:
If you attended Shabbat morning services on any of the past seven Saturday mornings, these are some of those messages of hope that you heard chanted in Hebrew during those Seven Sabbaths of Comfort (but I’ll give you the English translations here):
O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion, Get thee up into the high mountain; O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem, Lift up thy voice with strength; Lift it up, be not afraid; Say unto the cities of Judah: 'Behold your God!' (Isaiah 40:9 – in the Haftarah for Parashat Va’etchanan)
Look back to Abraham your father and to Sarah who brought you forth.
For he was only one when I called him, But I blessed him and made him many. Truly GOD has comforted Zion, Comforted all her ruins— Made her wilderness like Eden, Her desert like the Garden of the Eternal. Gladness and joy shall abide there, Thanksgiving and the sound of music. ' (Isaiah 51: 1-2 – in the Haftarah for Parashat Ekev)
All your children shall be disciples of the Eternal
And great shall be the happiness of your children;
You shall be established through righteousness.
You shall be safe from oppression, and unafraid
safe from terror -- it shall not come near you. ' (Isaiah 54: 13-14 – in the Haftarah for Parashat Re’eh)
And from the haftarah for Parashat Nitzavim, which we read just this past Saturday morning:
I will recount GOD’s kind acts,
GOD’s praises—
For all that GOD has wrought for us,
The vast bounty to the House of Israel
That was bestowed upon them
According to God’s mercy and great kindness. (Isaiah 63:7 )
But I’d like to go back now to speaking about Purim. You may have heard the famous pun that Yom Kippur (which in the Torah is referred to as Yom HaKippurim) is Yom Ki Purim --- A Day like Purim.
Maybe I’ll speak more about that next week when we gather for Yom Kippur.
But Rosh Hashanah is also a day that evokes Purim. How so? Take a look at our liturgy --- The Amidah for Rosh Hashanah includes an extended special section within its third blessing that expresses hopes for a better future, each of these hopes being introduced by the Hebrew word “UVECHEN” which means “AND THEREFORE” [You can see all that on pages 143 through 146 of our machzor]
The 14th century Spanish Jewish commentator Rabbi David Abudarham noted that that exclamation “AND THEREFORE”/ “UVECHEN” reminds us of what Queen Esther says in Megillat Esther that we read on Purim.
Esther, faced with the news that her people are being threatened with genocide by the evil court official Haman decides that she must advocate for her people to her husband, King Achashverosh, and, in doing so, to reveal that she is a Jew, a fact that she had hidden from him up until that point. That was a potentially fatal step because it was against the law to approach the King without having been summoned.
But nevertheless, Esther bravely decides to go through with it, declaring:
וּבְכֵ֞ן אָב֤וֹא אֶל־הַמֶּ֙לֶךְ֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר לֹֽא־כַדָּ֔ת וְכַאֲשֶׁ֥ר אָבַ֖דְתִּי אָבָֽדְתִּי׃
“THEREFORE” – I shall go to the king, though it is contrary to the law; and if I am to perish, I shall perish! (Esther 4:16)
Abudarham and other commentatos connect Esther’s “UVECHEN” / “AND THERFORE” with our repeated exclamation of “UVECHEN”/ “AND THEREFORE” in the High Holiday versions of the third blessing of the Amidah.
As the comment in the Metsudah Machzor explains:
If Esther who had fasted for three days in penitence and prayer in preparation for her appearance before the king was nevertheless so terribly frightened that she declared: וְכַאֲשֶׁ֥ר אָבַ֖דְתִּי אָבָֽדְתִּי וּבְכֵן אָבוֹא אֶל הַמֶּלֶךְ אֲשֶׁר לֹא כַדָּת ” (“And [therefore] I will go into the king, even if it is unlawful, and if I am to perish, I shall perish!”) then we should certainly tremble in awe before the presence of Hashem on this Day of Judgment, knowing deep in our hearts how little and how poorly we have prepared ourselves. Thus our Sages ordained that we open the prayers with the word וּבְכֵן [“and therefore”] recalling the words of Esther; therewith shattering our delusions of spiritual complacency, and causing us to bow before [God] with broken hearts and tear-filled eyes.[2]
Still, I would prefer to understand that exclamation – UVECHEN – in a more optimistic light:
If you break that word, “UVECHEN” down into its component parts you get – U (“and”) VE (“with”) CHEN (a “YES”) . UVECHEN – AND WITH A YES!
YES!
YES! --- We look to a brighter future of a more just society.
YES! – We look to a time of peace and harmony.
YES! – We look to a time of understanding and friendship
We well understand that our hopes might not be realized tomorrow, or the next day, or even in the next year, or even in the next generation -- but we’re still called upon to put the vision out there.
And so Rosh Hashanah, this day that we mark as the Birthday of the World, may it also be for us a Birthday of Hope.
Rosh Hashana is indeed a “day like Purim” in all its aspects --- a day of hope and a day of awe – as we approach the big questions of the day.
And so, how are we all feeling today?
Is our joy increasing? (like tradition says it should be in the month of Adar)
Is our joy decreasing? (like tradition says it should be in the month of Av)
Is our hope increasing? (like tradition says should have been the case during these past seven weeks?)
Is our mood one of bravery tinged with fatalism like Queen Esther before she was sure of a happy ending?
Perhaps all of these….
No doubt we live in a stressful, complex time.
But amidst all the mayhem, let us keep our spirits up and continue to look to God, however we might understand God, and let us continue to look to one another for support and encouragement.
YES!
L’shanah tovah tikatevu --- May we be inscribed for a better year to come.
© Rabbi David Steinberg (2025/5786)
[1] https://www.facebook.com/1211106/posts/10117010481016493/?rdid=Ib8D5VaJZnuxgbrB#
[2] Machzor Rosh Hashanah Ashkenaz Linear, Maariv, Amidah 53 with Connections (Slightly adapted for clarity. See hyperlink to note 36 there)
