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TORAT HAMIZRACHI

Rabbi Doron Perez

The PERSONAL

and the PUBLIC

THE DUAL JUDGMENT OF ROSH HASHANAH

e are all judged not once transformational idea at the heart only a one-day festival as explicitly
but twice. Two days of of Jewish life in general and Rosh mentioned in the Torah. However,
WRosh Hashanah – two Hashanah in particular. The Zohar, at some point during the Second
very different judgments. We are the great book of Jewish mysticism, Temple period, our Sages extended
judged once as an individual and the comments that the reason there it to a two-day festival, even in
other as part of the collective. One are two days of Rosh Hashanah is Eretz Yisrael. Being the only festival
is a reckoning of our private mis- indeed because there are two very celebrated on Rosh Chodesh, the
sion while the other is of our public different types of judgment: the beginning of a new month, many
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role. One is of a personal nature, the judgment on the first day is called difficulties arose as to the process
other of a communal one. One is Dina Kashia – a harsh judgment, of sanctifying the New Moon, then
about י ִ מ ְ צ ַ ע ןּו ּ ק ִּ ת, bettering ourselves, and on the second day, Dina Rafia fully reliant on its sighting by wit-
and the other is about ם ָ לֹוע ןּו ּ ק ִּ ת, – a weaker judgment. The first has nesses who testified before the Beit
making the world a better place. the harshness of an exact strict judg- Din HaGadol, the rabbinic court in
We may fare exceptionally well in ment and the second is somehow Jerusalem. It was not always clear
one but fail miserably in the other. blended with that of mercy. which was the first day of the new
These judgments together represent month. In order to overcome these
our dual mission and the essence of AN UNUSUAL FESTIVAL technical difficulties around doubt-
what G-d wants from every one of ful lunar sightings at the beginning
us. It is worth pointing out that this of Tishrei, Rosh Hashanah became
mystical insight of the Zohar is a two-day festival throughout the
A REMARKABLE ZOHAR based on a halachic anomaly – an Jewish world. Based on this prac-
unusual fact about Rosh Hashanah. tical halachic rationale, the Zohar
We have gotten way ahead of our- This festival is the only one that is offers a deeper spiritual reason for
selves; skipped many stages. Let observed for two days both in Israel this unusual change in the calendar,
us return to the source of this and the Diaspora. Originally it was which goes to the core of our mis-
sion as Jews and sets the spiritual
tone for the new year.
I was first exposed to the above
commentary over two decades ago
while studying in yeshiva. We were
joined one Elul by a Chassidic Rebbe
from the Spinka court. His words
that day struck a deep chord with
me. He mentioned that the Zohar
based its idea on the fact that there
are two almost identical verses
in the book of Job about a day of
judgment: “And it was on that day
when the sons of G-d came to pres-
ent themselves before G-d and the
Satan was also amongst them.” The
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sons of G-d is referring to the min-
istering angels on high. Both the
Targum Yonatan and Rashi point
out that this day is referring specif-
ically to Rosh Hashanah. After all,
this is the primary day the minis-
tering angels gather before G-d. It
is the time of judgment when the
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