| Today is: Monday, Tishrei 1, 5773 · September 17, 2012
Rosh Hashanah Day 1
• "Good Year"
On the first night of Rosh Hashanah, we extend to one another greetings of Leshana Tovah Tekatev Vitechatem, "May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year."
• Apple & Honey
In the evening meal, we eat apple dipped in honey, the head of a fish, pomogranates , tzimmes (sweet carrots) and other foods signifying a sweet and successful year
• Shofar
In the course of the morning and musaf service, the shofar (ram's horn) is sounded one hundred times, in various combinations of tekiah (a long blast), shevarim (a trio of broken sobs) and teruah (a staccato of short notes), in fulfillment of the primary mitzvah of Rosh Hashanah. The shofar serves to trumpet our coronation of G-d as King of the Universe, as a call to repentance, and to evoke the memory of the Binding ofIsaac. Link: The Cry of the Shofar: Two Parables
• Tashlich
In the afternoon, the Tashlich prayer service, in which we ask G-d to "cast away our sins in the depths of the sea", is recited at a body of water (sea, river, lake, pond, etc.) containing fish.
• Torah Reading
• Links
• Ten Days of Repentance
The 10-day period beginning on Rosh Hashahnah and ending on Yom Kippur is known as the "Ten Days of Repentance"; this is the period, say the sages, of which the prophet speaks when he proclaims (Isaiah 55:6) "Seek G-d when He is to be found; call on Him when He is near." Psalm 130, Avinu Malkeinu and other special inserts and additions are included in our daily prayers during these days. The Baal Shem Tov instituted the custom of reciting three additional chapters of Psalms each day, from the 1st of Elul until Yom Kippur (on Yom Kippur the remaining 36 chapters are recited, thereby completing the entire book of Psalms). Click below for today's three Psalms. Chapter 88 Chapter 89 Chapter 90 Links: About the Ten Days of teshuvah; Voicemail; more on teshuvah
• Adam & Eve Created (3760 BCE)
On Tishrei 1 -- the sixth day of creation -- "G-d said: 'Let us make Man in Our image, after Our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth...'" (Genesis 1:26). "G-d formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul" (ibid., 2:7). "And G-d took the man and placed him in the Garden of Eden, to work it and to keep it" (2:15). "And G-d said: 'It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helpmeet opposite him' ... G-d caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and He took one of his sides, and closed up the flesh in its place. And G-d built the side which He had taken from the man into a woman, and brought her to the man. And the man said: 'This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.' Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother, and cleaves to his wife; and they become one flesh" (2:18-24). Links: The Man In Man; Man & Woman; Parshah Bereishit (Genesis 1:1-6:8) with commentary
• First Sin & Repentance (3760 BCE)
On the very day he was created, man committed the first sin of history, transgressing the divine commandment not to eat from the "Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil." Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden, and mankind became subject to death, labor and moral confusion. But on that day the first man and woman also repented their sin, introducing the concept and opportunities of teshuvah ("return") into the human experience. Links: The Discovery of Darkness; G-d's Business
• Dove's 3rd Mission (2105 BCE)
On the 1st of Tishrei, on the 307th day of the Great Flood, Noach dispatched a dove from the ark, for the third time (see "On This Date" for Elul 17 and Elul 23). When the dove did not return, Noah knew that the Flood's waters had completely drained from the earth. On that day, Noach removed the roof of the ark; but Noah and his family, and all the animals, remained in the ark for another 57 days -- until the 27th of Cheshvan -- when the suface of the earth was completely dry and G-d commanded them to leave the ark and resettle and reppopulate the earth. Links: The Window; Life in a Box
• Binding of Isaac; Sarah's Passing (1677 BCE)
Abraham's supreme test of faith -- his binding of Isaac in preparation to sacrifice him as per G-d's command -- occurred on the 1st of Tishrei of the year 2084 from creation (1677 BCE), and is recalled each Rosh Hashanah with the sounding of the shofar (ram's horn -- a ram was sacrificed in Isaac's stead when an angel revealed that the command to sacrifice Isaac was but a divine test); the Torah's account of the event is publicly read in the synagogue on the 2nd day of Rosh Hashanah. On the day of Isaac's binding, his mother, Sarah, passed away at age 127, and was subsequently buried in the Machpelah Cave in Hebron. Link: The Binding of Isaac
• Baal Shem Tov's vision of Moshiach (1746)
In a letter to his brother-in-law, Rabbi Gershon Kitover, the Baal Shem Tov relates: "On Rosh Hashanah of the year 5507 [from creation] I made an 'ascent of soul' in the manner known to you... I ascended level after level until I reached the chamber of Moshiach... And I asked Moshiach: "When will the Master come?" And he replied: "When your teachings will be disseminated and revealed in the world, and your wellsprings will spread to the outside..." (Keter Shem Tov 1:1). Links: About the Baal Shem Tov; about Chassidism
• Daf Yomi (1923)
The "Daf Yomi" daily regimen of Talmud study (in which the participant studies one folio a day to complete the entire Talmud in seven years) initiated by Rabbi Meir Shapiro of Lublin, was launched on Rosh Hashanah of 1923.
Chitas and Rambam for today: | 
Audio: 
