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Rosh Hashanah

Rosh Hashanah with the Early Israelites

The New Year was celebrated on the festival of ingathering of grapes, accompanied by a sacrificial meal and wine. YHWH was declared to be Israel’s king and judge, and his presence, as it was manifest in the ark, was paraded before the Israelites by the king.

Prof.

Karel van der Toorn

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Reciting Ready-Made Prayers in Biblical Times and Today

The haftarah (prophetic reading) for the first day of Rosh Hashanah features Channah's two prayers. In the second prayer, she thanks God for the birth of Samuel by reciting a ready made royal hymn about defeating one's enemies, hardly relevant to her situation. Why does the Bible choose such a prayer and how might this help us better understand prayer in the context of the contemporary Rosh Hashanah?

Prof.

Marc Zvi Brettler

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The Psalm of the Shofar: Its Use in Liturgy and its Meaning in the Bible

Prof.

Alan Cooper

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Rosh Hashanah Between Tanach and Mishna

The missing links

Dr. Rabbi

Zev Farber

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Prof.

Marc Zvi Brettler

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The Essence of the Hebrew Calendar

The Hebrew calendar marks multiple news year’s days to express different values: nature and history, universal and particular.

Prof.

Aaron Demsky

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Zichronot: Asking an Omniscient God to Remember

Do we really want God to remember all that we did?

Prof.

Marc Zvi Brettler

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Akeda and Rosh Hashanah: Invoking the Original Oath God Was Forced to Make

Prof. Rabbi

David R. Blumenthal

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A Shofar-less Rosh Hashanah: A Karaite’s Experience of Yom Teru’ah

Shawn Joe Lichaa

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Babylonian Rosh Hashanah

Battle, creation, enthronement, and justice

Dr.

Uri Gabbay

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Rosh Hashanah: Celebrating the Creation of the Individual or the Community?

A New Appreciation of “Adam the First” 

Prof. Rabbi

David Frankel

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Rosh Hashanah: Why the Torah Suppresses God’s Kingship

Several biblical passages imply that God was ritually enthroned as king during the new year celebrations. In the Torah itself, however, this is suppressed. God as king appears only in three ancient poetic passages, never in the Torah’s prose or laws, including in its description of Rosh Hashanah.

Prof.

Israel Knohl

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