Who Celebrates Rosh Hashanah?

Rosh Hashanah is for those who accept upon themselves the system of correcting our qualities from egoistic to altruistic. In other words, such people then become included in the chronology called “Hebrew” from the word for “crossing” (“Ivri”) the barrier between our egoistic world and the upper, altruistic world. Therefore, the count shifts up a year for any person who wishes to cross that barrier between egoistic and altruism, even if they have yet to do so in practice.

Such people call themselves “Jews” from the word for “unity” (“Yihud”). It is because the transition from egoism to altruism can only take place in people’s unity. This is the essence of celebrating Rosh Hashanah, a moment where people’s hearts and minds awaken with the awareness on how to shift from our egoistic world to the higher, altruistic world.

The calendar date is much less important than the holiday’s spiritual essence. Its key point is that we need to change from being egoists, i.e., aiming to benefit ourselves at others’ expense, to becoming altruists, i.e., aiming to benefit others over self-benefit. By doing so, we shift from being opposite to nature’s altruistic form to equalizing with it, and we then experience a newfound vitality and spirit fill our lives.

If we wish to undergo this inversion in our qualities, and we approach such a transformation, then we receive this state called a “new year.” On Rosh Hashanah, we say “May we be the head and not the tail,” since Rosh Hashanah does not just mean “the new year,” but it literally means “the head of the year.” It means that we need to examine what we want to live for this year, what it should give us, what we should rise up to, and what we should demand from ourselves. Such scrutinies are performed in the head.

What, then, should we rise up to? What should we demand from ourselves? We need nothing other than to positively connect among each other, and by doing so, draw closer to the positive force of connection, love, and bestowal that dwells in nature, which we call “the Creator.” That is our only solid foundation that we can completely depend on. It is why we were given the name, “Israel,” from the words “Yashar-El,” “straight to the Creator.”

Rosh Hashanah is thus a state where we set the groundwork for the whole of the coming year. After aiming ourselves at a higher state of unification among each other and with the Creator, we then set off to build that very connection.

The date of Rosh Hashanah is thus purely symbolic of a state we undergo on our spiritual path. Accordingly, every day can be a new year because every day we can — and should — calibrate ourselves anew toward our connection among each other and with the Creator.