Rosh Hashana New YearRosh Hashana for Hebrew Year 5787 begins at sundown onFriday, 11 September 2026and ends at nightfall onSunday, 13 September 2026.
“Gaddi’s Notes on the Eternal Wisdom of the Prominent Sages”:
The King Is Calling: The Deeper Meaning of Rosh Hashanah 5787
Rosh Hashanah 5787 — The Coronation of the King and the Renewal of Creation
Rosh Hashanah 5787 — Rosh HaShanah 5787
Rosh Hashanah is often translated as the Jewish New Year, but the teachings of the Jewish sages reveal something far deeper. It is not simply the turning of a calendar. It is the moment when creation itself stands again before its Creator, when humanity is judged, when Divine kingship is proclaimed, and when a new spiritual vitality is drawn into the worlds for the coming year.
The Hebrew year 5787 begins with Rosh Hashanah at sunset on Friday, September 11, 2026, continuing through Sunday night, September 13, 2026—1–2 Tishrei 5787. The first day falls on Shabbat, so the shofar is not sounded that day according to rabbinic law; in 5787 the public shofar sounding takes place on the second day, Sunday, September 13.
Yet before asking what is special about 5787, we first have to understand what the sages believed happens every Rosh Hashanah.
1. The Torah Does Not Call It “New Year”
Remarkably, the Torah itself does not introduce 1 Tishrei with the expression Rosh Hashanah. Instead, it says:
Zichron Teruah —a remembrance through the sounding,and elsewhere:
Yom Teruah —a day of sounding.
The emphasis is therefore not initially on celebrating a new calendar year, but on remembrance, awakening and the mysterious voice of the shofar.
The sages gradually reveal that this day contains several realities simultaneously:
Judgment — From
Kingship — Malchut
Remembrance — Zikaron
Shofar — awakening
Creation — renewal
Teshuvah — return
These are not separate themes. They form a single spiritual movement.
The human being awakens through the shofar, remembers his Source, returns to God, accepts God's kingship, and thereby participates in the renewal of creation.
2. Rosh Hashanah — The Day All Humanity Passes Before God
The Mishnah gives one of the most powerful descriptions of Rosh Hashanah:
At the beginning of the year, all the islands of the world pass before him like the sons of Maron.
“On Rosh Hashanah, all who enter the world pass before Him like benei maron.”— Mishnah Rosh Hashanah 1:2
The Mishnah deliberately speaks about kol ba'ei ha'olam — all who enter the world, not only Israel.
The Gemara offers several images for benei maron:
sheep passing one at a time before a shepherd;
people ascending a narrow mountain path;
the soldiers of King David being reviewed by their commander.
Each image teaches something different.
Like sheep, every soul is individually known.Like travelers on a narrow path, no person can hide behind the crowd.Like soldiers before a king, every human being must ask:
For what purpose have I been placed in this world?
Rosh Hashanah therefore contains both a universal judgment and an intensely personal encounter.
God sees humanity together, yet He examines every human life individually.
3. Not Merely Judgment — The Coronation of the King
One of the greatest insights of the sages is that the central theme of Rosh Hashanah is not simply:
“God judges us.”
It is:
“God is King.”
The Talmud records the extraordinary teaching:
Before Rosh Hashanah, they said, "Malchiot, Remembrances, and Shofars."
“Recite before Me on Rosh Hashanah Kingship, Remembrances and Shofarot.”
The passage explains:
Malchuyot — Kingship:so that you proclaim God King over yourselves.
Zichronot — Remembrances:so that your remembrance should ascend favorably before Him.
Shofarot — Shofar:the instrument through which this proclamation is expressed.— Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 34b
This creates the spiritual architecture of the entire day:
Kingdoms — Malchuyot
Who rules my life?
Memories — Zichronot
What does heaven remember about the life I have lived?
Shofarot
Can I awaken and return?
Rosh Hashanah is therefore a coronation ceremony of heaven.
The shofar functions almost like the royal trumpet announcing:
HaMelech — The King.
But Jewish thought introduces a profound paradox.
God is already Sovereign over all existence.Why, then, must we crown Him?
Because the deepest meaning of Divine kingship is that humanity must freely recognize it.
A kingdom becomes revealed below when creation willingly declares:
Hashem Melech — God is King.
4. Why Is It Called “Rosh” — The Head of the Year?
The Hebrew name is not simply Techillat HaShanah—the beginning of the year.It is:
Rosh HaShanah
“The Head of the Year.”
Chassidic teaching emphasizes the difference.
The head is not merely the first part of the body. The head contains consciousness and sends vitality throughout every limb.
Likewise, Rosh Hashanah is understood as the spiritual head from which vitality flows into the entire year.
The way one stands before God at the “head” influences the spiritual direction of the months that follow.
Therefore Rosh Hashanah asks something deeper than:
What do I want during the next twelve months?
It asks:
Who do I want to become?
And deeper still:
What does God desire my life to become?
5. Rosh Hashanah and the Creation of Adam
Jewish tradition associates Rosh Hashanah especially with the creation of the human being.
This explains why the day is simultaneously connected with:
creation,
kingship,
responsibility,
judgment.
The physical universe already existed before Adam.
But only when the human being appeared could creation consciously recognize its Creator.
Human beings possess the extraordinary ability to stand inside creation and say:
There is a Creator.
Adam's task was therefore not merely to live in God's world.
His task was to reveal God within God's world.
This gives Rosh Hashanah its universal dimension.
It is not only the anniversary of an ancient event.
Every Rosh Hashanah asks humanity to become Adam again—the creature capable of recognizing the Creator.
6. The Shofar — The Voice Before Words
Perhaps the deepest symbol of Rosh Hashanah is the shofar.
The shofar does not speak sentences.It contains no sophisticated theology.It is simply a cry.
And precisely because it has no words, Jewish mysticism hears within it a level of the soul deeper than language.
Ordinary prayer says:“I need.”“I regret.”“I hope.”“I believe.”
But the shofar says something before all sentences:
I belong to You.
The cry comes from the place where the soul has not forgotten its Source.
This is why the shofar is simultaneously:
a cry of repentance,
a royal trumpet,
a remembrance of the covenant,
an awakening from spiritual sleep,
and a movement from judgment toward mercy.
The sound penetrates the layers behind our identities and accomplishments.
It asks:Who are you beneath everything you have accumulated?
7. Tekiah, Shevarim and Teruah — The Journey of the Soul
The traditional shofar sounds can themselves be heard as a spiritual map.
Tekiah — Tekiah
A long, whole sound.It can symbolize the original wholeness of the soul—the Divine unity from which life begins.
Shevarim — Fractions
Three broken sounds.The word comes from the root connected with breaking.The soul recognizes fragmentation:I have wandered.My priorities have become divided.Something inside me is broken.
Teruah — Teruah
Rapid, trembling cries.The inner heart awakens.The masks become unstable.Teshuvah begins.
Tekiah
Again, a whole sound.But this is not simply returning backward.The final wholeness comes after brokenness.The soul returns with greater consciousness.Thus the movement can be read:Wholeness → Brokenness → Cry → Higher Wholeness.
This is one of the great patterns of teshuvah.
8. The Three Books — Life Is Being Written
The Talmud teaches in the name of Rabbi Yochanan:
Three books are opened on Rosh Hashanah
“Three books are opened on Rosh Hashanah.”The righteous, the wicked and the beinoni—the intermediate person—are described in relation to these books, with the judgment of the intermediate suspended between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
This teaching should not be reduced to an image of God keeping a simplistic accounting ledger.
The imagery of a book is itself profound.
A book contains a story.Rosh Hashanah therefore confronts us with the question:
What story is my life writing before God?
Every choice becomes another line.Every act of kindness becomes another sentence.Every act of repentance can redirect the chapter.
Teshuvah teaches that the story is not yet finished.That is why the Days of Awe contain both fear and extraordinary hope.
9. Teshuvah — Returning Rather Than Merely Repenting
The common translation of teshuvah as “repentance” is incomplete.
Teshuvah literally means:
Return.
Return to what?To the source of the soul.To covenant.To truth.To the life one was created to live.
Teshuvah therefore does not begin with the assumption:“I am worthless.”
It begins with the recognition:“I have become distant from who I was meant to be.”
Rosh Hashanah awakens that memory.Yom Kippur deepens the purification.The Ten Days of Teshuvah form a bridge between them.
10. The Hidden Moon — The Hidden Kingdom
Rosh Hashanah occurs at the new moon when the moon is largely concealed.
Kabbalistic teaching sees the moon as a symbol of Malchut — Divine Kingship.
Unlike the sun, the moon possesses no visible light of its own; it receives and reflects.
So too, creation reveals Divine light when it becomes receptive to its Source.
At the beginning of Tishrei, the moon is hidden.Symbolically, Malchut is concealed.
The work of Rosh Hashanah is to reveal the kingship that appears hidden.
This is accomplished through prayer, submission and the shofar.
The world seems independent.Rosh Hashanah says:Look again.Behind creation is the King.
11. A New Divine Light Enters the World
One of the most extraordinary Chassidic teachings concerning Rosh Hashanah appears in Tanya, Iggeret HaKodesh, Epistle 14.
Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi teaches that every year a new and renewed Divine illumination descends—an illumination that has never previously shone in precisely that manner.
He explains that the vitality associated with the previous year withdraws toward its source on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, and through the prayers and sounding of the shofar a new, higher light is drawn forth to sustain the worlds during the coming year.
This radically changes our understanding of the New Year.Rosh Hashanah does not mean merely:“The old year starts again.”
It means:
A spiritual possibility enters creation that did not exist before.
According to this teaching, no Rosh Hashanah is spiritually identical to another.
12. The Mystery of 5787 — A Light Never Previously Revealed
This becomes perhaps the deepest way to approach Rosh Hashanah 5787.We cannot know beforehand every event that the year will contain.But Jewish mystical teaching allows us to say something profound:
5787 is not merely another repetition of history.
A new or—a new Divine light—is being drawn into creation.The Alter Rebbe teaches that this yearly illumination is so new that it has not shone in the same form since the beginning of creation. Therefore the correct question is not:“What will 5787 bring me?”
The greater question is:
“What light does God want me to reveal in 5787?”
Perhaps a person spent 5786 battling a limitation.The new year may contain spiritual capacity that was unavailable before.Perhaps a community experienced division.The coming year contains the possibility of a higher unity.Perhaps the world appears increasingly concealed.Then the task may be to reveal Divine kingship precisely within that concealment.
13. Rosh Hashanah 5787 Begins on Shabbat
There is an especially meaningful feature of Rosh Hashanah 5787:1 Tishrei 5787 falls on Shabbat, September 12, 2026.
Therefore, according to traditional halakhah, the shofar is not sounded on the first day when it coincides with Shabbat; in 5787 the shofar is sounded on the second day, Sunday, September 13.
This produces a beautiful conceptual meeting:
Shabbat
testifies that God is the Creator.
Rosh Hashanah
proclaims that God is the King.Creation and Kingship therefore meet at the entrance to 5787.
Shabbat says:The universe has a Creator.
Rosh Hashanah says:The Creator must become King within human consciousness.
And so 5787 begins not primarily with human activity but with Shabbat rest—with recognition that creation ultimately belongs to God.
14. Judgment and Mercy Are Not Opposites
Rosh Hashanah is called a day of judgment, yet it is also a festival.How can the two coexist?
Because Divine judgment in Judaism is not merely punishment.Judgment means that human life has meaning.
If our choices had no eternal significance, there would be no reason for judgment.
To stand before God means:Your life matters.Your words matter.Your kindness matters.Your failures matter.Your repentance matters.Your mission matters.
Judgment therefore contains hidden mercy.God judges the person because the person was created for greatness.
15. The Akedah — Abraham, Isaac and the Shofar
The Torah reading of the second day of Rosh Hashanah is Genesis 22, the Akedat Yitzchak—the Binding of Isaac. For Rosh Hashanah 5787, that reading falls on Sunday, September 13.
The connection with the shofar is profound.At the conclusion of the Akedah, Abraham sees a ram caught by its horns.
The ram therefore enters Jewish memory as a symbol of:
Abraham's faith,
Isaac's willingness,
covenantal merit,
surrender before God.
The shofar thus carries memory across generations.Its sound says:Remember Abraham.Remember Isaac.Remember the covenant.
But it also challenges us:Will we become worthy heirs of that covenant?
16. Sarah, Hannah and the Mystery of Birth
The first-day Torah reading concerns Sarah and the birth of Isaac, while the Haftarah tells of Hannah and the birth of Samuel.
Why speak about barren women giving birth on the Day of Judgment?Because Rosh Hashanah contains the mystery of impossible beginnings.
Sarah's closed future becomes open.Hannah's tears become prophecy.Where human possibility appears exhausted, God creates a new beginning.
This is the secret of teshuvah as well.A person may think:“This is simply who I am.”
Rosh Hashanah answers:No human being is spiritually imprisoned by yesterday.
The Creator who created the world can create a new beginning within the soul.
17. From Sarah to Hannah — Prayer Born From the Depths
Hannah's prayer becomes especially significant in rabbinic tradition because the sages derive important laws of prayer from her behavior.She stands before God with inward concentration.Her lips move.Her voice is not heard.
Rosh Hashanah therefore places beside the thunderous sound of the shofar another sound:the almost silent prayer of a broken heart.
The shofar cries outward.Hannah cries inward.Both ascend.
This teaches that heaven hears both:
the cry that shakes the community
and
the tear that no one else notices.
18. Rosh Hashanah Is About the Entire World
The Rosh Hashanah liturgy repeatedly looks toward universal Divine kingship.
The ultimate hope is not simply that one individual receives blessing.It is that creation recognizes its Creator.
This is why the prophetic vision associated with God's kingship reaches toward the day when Divine unity is universally recognized.
Rosh Hashanah begins with Israel proclaiming God's kingship, but its horizon includes all humanity.
The Mishnah's language is again significant:קל באי הואלם — all inhabitants of the world.
The King's concern encompasses every nation and every human being.
Israel's task is therefore not merely inward preservation.Israel bears witness to the One God.
The nations retain their distinct identities, languages and callings, but the prophetic destination of humanity is the recognition of the one Creator.
19. The Shofar and Sinai
The shofar also carries us backward to Mount Sinai.
The Torah describes the sound of the shofar becoming exceedingly strong as the Divine revelation unfolds.
Thus the Rosh Hashanah shofar reminds Israel:You once stood at Sinai.
Before Sinai Israel said:Na'aseh v'nishma — We will do and we will hear.
Rosh Hashanah renews that surrender.The question becomes:Will Torah again become the voice governing my life?
The shofar therefore does not merely awaken emotion.It calls Israel back to covenantal obedience.
20. The Shofar and the Future Redemption
The shofar simultaneously looks backward and forward.Backward—to the Akedah and Sinai.Forward—to the prophetic vision of redemption.
Isaiah declares:“And it shall be on that day thata great shofar shall be sounded.”— Isaiah 27:13
Thus every Rosh Hashanah shofar contains an echo of the future.It calls the scattered home.It awakens sleeping souls.It points toward the restoration of Divine kingship.
The shofar therefore stands at three points in sacred history:
Sinai — RevelationRosh Hashanah — RenewalFuture Redemption — Restoration
21. Why Sweetness After Judgment?
Rosh Hashanah meals contain symbolic foods, most famously apple dipped in honey.
At first glance this seems almost contradictory.We have just spoken about judgment.Why immediately request sweetness?
Because Judaism does not teach that holiness means expecting darkness.After repentance and surrender comes trust.
We ask not merely for: Shanah Tovah a good year,but commonly: Shanah Tovah U'Metukah a good and sweet year.
There can be goodness that remains hidden from us.We therefore ask that God's goodness become revealed goodness—goodness that can be experienced as sweetness.
22. The Movement From Fear to Awe
The High Holy Days are called:
Yamim Nora'im — Days of Awe.
Awe is deeper than ordinary fear.Fear says:“What will happen to me?”Awe says:“Before Whom am I standing?”
This is one of the great transformations demanded by Rosh Hashanah.
At first we may come because we want:health,provision,protection,success.
These are legitimate prayers.But the deeper movement is from:“God, give me what I need”toward:
“God, let my life serve Your purpose.”
That is the movement from self-centered prayer to Malchut.
23. Gaddi Ephraim Notes
1. Rosh Hashanah is the restoration of Divine order
The deepest crisis of humanity is not first economic, political or technological. It is the loss of awareness that creation belongs to its Creator.Rosh Hashanah restores the correct order:
God above.Humanity below.Torah as Divine instruction.Creation as God's kingdom.
When the order is restored inside the human heart, the repair of the world can begin.
2. The first question of 5787 is not “What do I want?”
Every secular new year encourages personal resolutions.Rosh Hashanah begins somewhere deeper.The question is:
“What does the King require of me?”
Before building my plans, I must recognize the One whose world I inhabit.The proper order is therefore:Malchut → Teshuvah → Mission → Blessing.First crown the King.Then return.Then understand your mission.Then ask for blessing to accomplish it.
3. Humanity must recover the consciousness of Adam
Adam was placed in creation to recognize the Creator and serve Him.The nations of the world likewise possess responsibility before the Creator.Rosh Hashanah therefore contains a universal message:Humanity is not owner of creation.We are trustees within God's world.Technology may increase human power, but only Divine wisdom can teach humanity what that power is for.5787 should therefore become a year in which knowledge is brought back beneath wisdom, and human strength beneath the sovereignty of God.
4. Israel must reveal the King's light, not replace the nations
The biblical vision is not the destruction of human diversity.The prophetic vision is unity under the Creator.Israel's covenantal calling is to bear witness to God and Torah.The nations are called to recognize the Creator while fulfilling their proper responsibilities before Him.The world does not need uniformity.It needs unity under Divine kingship.
5. The shofar is the voice beneath religious performance
It is possible to know many teachings yet remain spiritually asleep.The shofar bypasses intellectual pride.It asks:Where is your heart?Have you merely accumulated knowledge?Or has Torah transformed your character?The shofar calls the soul from information toward transformation.
6. 5787 carries a light that 5786 did not carry
The Chassidic teaching concerning the new illumination of every year gives tremendous hope.Do not enter 5787 assuming:“Nothing can change.”The coming year contains a Divine possibility that did not exist in exactly the same form before.But the Alter Rebbe adds an important principle: the revelation of that light below is connected to the deeds, merits and teshuvah of human beings during the Ten Days of Repentance. Heaven supplies the light.Human beings must prepare the vessel.
7. The vessel for new light is teshuvah
People often ask for greater blessing while carrying the same old vessel.Rosh Hashanah teaches:New light requires renewed vessels.
A vessel may mean:greater humility,greater Torah obedience,greater justice,greater charity,repairing relationships,guarding speech,returning stolen or improperly held property,forgiving where appropriate,asking forgiveness where necessary.
Spiritual renewal without ethical renewal is incomplete.
8. Shabbat and Rosh Hashanah meet at the gate of 5787
Because the first day of Rosh Hashanah 5787 is Shabbat, there is a powerful symbolic message.Shabbat declares:The Creator completed creation.Rosh Hashanah declares:The Creator rules creation.Therefore 5787 begins under two testimonies:
Creation belongs to God.
History belongs to God.
Human beings participate, but God remains the King.
9. The silence of the first-day shofar can itself teach
In 5787 the first day falls on Shabbat, and the public shofar is not sounded.There is a spiritual lesson we may draw from this circumstance without presenting it as a formal halakhic reason:Sometimes the deepest acknowledgment of God is not another sound.It is silence before the King.Shabbat itself becomes testimony.Then, as the second day arrives, the shofar breaks the silence.Silence prepares the heart.Sound awakens the mission.
10. From the individual to the seventy nations
Rosh Hashanah begins with the individual standing before God, but it cannot end there.The ultimate vision reaches toward a repaired humanity.Each nation.Each language.Each people.All recognizing that there is one Creator above creation.The great purpose is not domination by one human civilization.It is recognition of:
Malchut Shamayim — the Kingdom of Heaven.
24. A Spiritual Pattern for Entering 5787
The sages' teachings can be summarized as a seven-stage spiritual journey:
1. Awakening
Hear the shofar within the soul.
2. Recognition
Recognize the Creator.
3. Kingship
Crown God as King.
4. Remembrance
Remember who you are and why you were created.
5. Judgment
Examine your deeds truthfully.
6. Teshuvah — Repentance
Return to God and repair what can be repaired.
7. Renewal
Become a vessel for the new Divine light of 5787.The movement can therefore be expressed:
Shofar → Awakening → Teshuvah → Malchut → New Light → New Life
25. The Central Message of Rosh Hashanah 5787
Rosh Hashanah does not merely announce:“A new year has arrived.”It announces:
“The King is calling creation back to its purpose.”
The shofar awakens what has fallen asleep.Judgment reveals that life matters.Teshuvah proves that yesterday does not have to control tomorrow.Malchut restores the Creator to the center of human consciousness.And the mystical teachings reveal that from Above a new Divine illumination is being made available for a year that has never existed before.
Therefore the entrance into 5787 should not be merely:“May I receive more.”It should become:“May I become more faithful to the purpose for which I was created.”
And beyond the individual:May Israel fulfill its covenantal calling.May the nations turn toward the Creator.May justice overcome corruption.May mercy overcome cruelty.May knowledge become joined with wisdom.May the scattered be gathered.May the Divine Name be sanctified throughout the earth.
And may the prophetic vision move closer to fulfillment:
And the Lord shall be king over all the earth.
In that day the Lord will be one, and his name one.
“Hashem shall be King over all the earth; on that day Hashem shall be One and His Name One.”— Zechariah 14:9
Conclusion — 5787: Do Not Merely Enter the Year; Crown the King
The greatest preparation for Rosh Hashanah 5787 is therefore not prediction.It is alignment.Do not first ask:What will happen in 5787?Ask:Who will I become before the King in 5787?
Do not merely ask:Will the year be blessed?Ask:Will my life become a vessel capable of revealing the blessing?
And when the shofar of 5787 finally sounds, hear within it more than a horn.Hear Adam being called again.Hear Abraham and Isaac.Hear Sinai.Hear the covenant.Hear the scattered souls being summoned home.Hear the King calling His creation.And hear the possibility of a Divine light that has never before entered history in exactly this way.
5787 — a new year, a new illumination, and a renewed call to reveal the Kingdom of Heaven below.
Shanah Tovah U'Metukah — Happy New Year .May 5787 be a year of Torah, teshuvah, justice, mercy, unity, Divine revelation and peace.
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