Shana Tova uMetuka - a good and sweet new year for all!Elul 29, 5783/September 15, 2023 On the sixth day of creation, the day that is celebrated by Rosh HaShana, G-d gave to man the greatest gift - the gift of life! Taking a lifeless lump of clay, G-d "breathed into his nostrils the soul of life, and man became a living soul," (Genesis 2:7) a human being, created in the image of G-d. That same Divine breath of life continues to swirl through all of Adam's children, invigorating us, causing us to stand upright, and beseeching us to be truly righteous souls, giving honor to our Benefactor and Creator. The Divine breath of life that fills our bodies and our souls carries with it both an unparalleled privilege and an awesome responsibility. And for this reason we are called upon on Rosh HaShana to stand before HaShem and account for ourselves. We approach haShem on Rosh HaShana with prayers and supplications, but our ultimate mode of communication is via the blowing of the shofar. For we blow the shofar with the very same breath that G-d placed within us on the day of our creation. What have we done with the breath that G-d placed within us? Have we used it for good? Have we appreciated the wondrous world that G-d has created and set before us? Have we done our utmost to enhance and perfect G-d's creation? have we used our breath to reach out to one another, to assist one another, to speak words of encouragement, words of peace, words of love? Are we making the most of G-d's gift to us of life, or are we taking it for granted, thinking that our breath belongs to us alone, and to no one else. Sounding the shofar and listening to the shofar, Rosh HaShana's single commandment, is nothing less than listening to the moments of our life, the moments that are now behind us and the moments that lie before us. The wordless wail of the shofar penetrates into every crevice, every nook and cranny of ourselves. It touches every nerve, it awakens every silent thought and long forgotten sense of who we are, of who we are meant to be. If we truly hear the shofar, if we truly allow it to penetrate our broken selves it will begin the process of mending our souls and reaffirming our real selves - the me that G-d intended when He filled my nostrils with the soul of life. The sound of the shofar leaves us reinvigorated, reinformed with purpose and one step closer to Hashem and to our real selves. The Hebrew word shofar, meaning a ram's horn, shares the same three root letters, Shin, Peh and Resh, with the word leShaPeR - to improve! Am I a better person today than I was yesterday? Will I be a better person this year than I was last year? These are the questions we are required to answer on Rosh HaShana. For what is a new year if we ourselves are not new people, rededicated to the path that G-d has set before us, and newly determined to be the best people we can be? "And in the seventh month, on the first day, there shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall not perform any mundane work. It shall be a yom teruah (a day of shofar sounding) for you." (Numbers 29:1) In the Holy Temple three kohanim would stand together on the steps leading up to the great entranceway to the Temple Sanctuary, facing the assembled worshipers. The kohen in the center would sound a shofar plated with gold. The two kohanim on either side of him would sound silver trumpets, as is written: “With trumpets and the sound of a shofar, raise your voices before the King, HaShem." (Psalms 98:6) The kohen sounding the shofar gave a long blast and the trumpet blowers a shorter one, to make clear that the unique commandment of the day is the sounding of the shofar. The Temple Institute extends our best wishes and blessings to the entire nation of Israel and to G-d fearing people around the world, and to our friends and followers, and our steadfast and loyal supporters. May we all be blessed with a good new year, a year of health, happiness, peace, love and family, safety and prosperity. Shana Tova uMetuka - a good and sweet new year for all! . |
Tune in to this week's Temple Talk, as Yitzchak Reuven turns toward G-d - the Judge who loves us, insists that we are here because G-d needs us, and focuses on gearing up for the great New Year of 5784! The year of 5783 is about to conclude and the year of 5784 is about to begin. On Rosh HaShana we all stand before HaShem and give account of who we have been and who we intend to be, our trepidation tempered by the knowledge that HaShem Who created us wants only the best for us. Wishing all our listeners a very good year ahead - Shana Tova veGmar Chatima Tova - may we all be inscribed in the Book of Life! |
Help To Build The Holy Temple In Our Time! Donate Generously To Help The Sacred Work Of The Temple Institute! Every contribution helps to rebuild the Holy Temple in our Time! |
Rosh Hashana In The Holy Temple! Yom HaTerua - the Day of the (shofar) Blast - is what Rosh HaShana is referred to in the Torah. Sounding and hearing the shofar was the single essential commandment in the days of the Holy Temple, just as it is today. Learn how the shofar was sounded by the kohanim, the tremendous preparation made in advance of Rosh HaShana, and the special offerings made on the day, in the Temple Institute's beautifully illustrated Rosh HaShana teaching! |
Are our lives predetermined? Or do we have a say in our lives trajectories? Does G-d really decide on Rosh HaShana who will live and who will die? And if so, do we have any say in the matter? The answer to all these questions is yes. G-d does determine, but we, through our thoughts and actions have a say in our own destinies. Shana Tova - Have a very good new year! On Rosh HaShana the following Torah portions are read:
Day One: Tishrei 1, 5783/September 16, 2023: Genesis 21:1-34, Numbers 29:1-6
Day Two: Tishrei 2, 5783/September 17, 2023:Genesis 22:1-24, Numbers 29:1-6 |
Today, The 29th Day Of Elul Is The Anniversary Of The Fifth Day Of Creation We continue our countdown to Rosh HaShana - the anniversary of the creation of man on the sixth day of creation. Today, the 29th day of Elul is the anniversary of the fifth day of creation: "And G-d said, 'Let the waters swarm a swarming of living creatures, and let fowl fly over the earth, across the expanse of the heavens...'" |
Make Your New Year Sweet! Rosh HaShana, like all Jewish holidays, has its unique cuisine. We begin our evening meal on the first day of Rosh HaShana with the traditional "simanim" - foods which are symbolic, for example, the head of a lamb, so that we shall be the "head and not the tail," as per Deuteronomy 28:13, or whose Hebrew names can be woven into various blessings for the new year. |
Rosh Hashana: The Beit Ya’zek Courtyard In Tractate Rosh Hashanah (23b) we read that in light of the many new-moon witnesses who came each month, the sages instituted the construction of Beit Ya’zek – a courtyard in Jerusalem where the witnesses could rest and be generously fed. This would encourage them to continue coming in the future. The painting shows witnesses who have already testified resting and eating, while two new witnesses (in the center) have just arrived and are being shown the way to the Holy Temple (background) where they will give their testimony. |
The Beautiful Sound Of The Shofar! Listen to the beautiful sound of the shofar booming across the plaza of the Western Wall of the Temple Mount. May HaShem hear our cry and may the Temple soon be rebuilt! |
The World Of Shofars Every morning during the month of Elul, shofarot (rams horns) are heard all throughout the land of Israel and in Jewish communities around the world. The sounding of the shofar each morning is in anticipation of the upcoming High Holidays of Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur. Does a kosher shofar have to be the horn of a ram? Or do the horns of other animals also qualify? Where did the tradition of blowing the shofar originate? Can a ram really entangle itself by its horns in a thicket as recorded in the story of the Akeida - the binding of Yitzchak? |
Today, The 28th Day Of Elul Is The Anniversary Of The Fourth Day Of Creation We continue our countdown to Rosh HaShana - the anniversary of the creation of man on the sixth day of creation. Today, the 28th day of Elul is the anniversary of the fourth day of creation: "And G-d said, 'Let there be luminaries in the expanse of the heavens, to separate between the day and between the night, and they shall be for signs and for appointed seasons and for days and years..." |
The Shofar Of Dreams While we usually associate the blowing of the shofar with the High Holidays, sometimes it’s more about where it’s blown than when. So it was in 1956 that Rabbi Shlomo Goren received a knock at his door from a man from Tel Aviv who had recently returned from abroad and held an object wrapped in rags. The man, a shofar maker, had received instructions in a dream. “Go to Turkey,” his dream instructed him. “And buy a large ram’s horn. Make it into a shofar for Rabbi Goren to blow on Mount Sinai.” |
Getting Ready For Rosh Hashana! In the days of the Holy Temple, the declaration of the appearance of the new moon was dependent on the testimony of two reliable witnesses who saw the new moon. Witnesses would travel to Jerusalem to testify before the judges of the Sanhedrin. All haste needed to be made so that the New Moon (Rosh Chodesh), and in our case, Rosh HaShana, could be declared and observed on time. |
Today, The 27th Day Of Elul Is The Anniversary Of The Third Day Of Creation We continue our countdown to Rosh HaShana - the anniversary of the creation of man on the sixth day of creation. Today, the 27th day of Elul is the anniversary of the third day of creation: "And G-d said, 'Let the water that is beneath the heavens gather into one place, and let the dry land appear,' and it was so. And G-d called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas, and G-d saw that it was good..." |
Getting The Holiday Spirit! Today, in front of the golden menorah made by the Temple Institute, which stands in the main plaza of the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City, we spotted a group of school kids dancing and singing "Am Yisrael Chai - the People of Israel Live!" |
Today, The 26th Day Of Elul Is The Anniversary Of The Second Day Of Creation We continue our countdown to Rosh HaShana - the anniversary of the creation of man on the sixth day of creation. Today, the 26th day of Elul is the anniversary of the second day of creation: "And G-d said, 'Let there be an expanse in the midst of the water, and let it be a separation between water and water.' And G-d made the expanse and it separated between the water that was below the expanse and the water that was above the expanse, and it was so..." |
Today, The 25th Of Elul: Nechemiah Completes The Walls Of Jerusalem When 42,360 Judean exiles returned to Jerusalem following Cyrus' historic decree, they were confronted not only with the Holy Temple in ruins but also with the complete devastation of Jerusalem, including its defensive walls. Rebuilding the walls to defend the city from gangs of thieves and wild animals was of the utmost urgency and required the active participation of all the returnees to Jerusalem, as recorded extensively in the book of Nechemiah. |
Today, The 25th Day Of Elul, The First Day Of Creation! Rosh HaShana (which begins this Friday evening) does not mark the first day of creation, but rather it marks the sixth day of creation, the day of the creation of Adam, the day that Adam first transgressed by eating from the Tree of Knowledge, and the day that Adam was first judged by HaShem. This is the reason we stand before HaShem in judgment on Rosh HaShana. |
Mikdash Monday - Shofar (Part 2 ) “And in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a holy gathering; you shall do no servile work: it is a day of blowing the horn to you.” (Bamidbar 29:1) |
The Temple Institute's Levitical Choir Rehearsing For The Upcoming Holidays! The Temple Institute's Levitical Choir continues to rehearse Psalms 113–118, which make up the Hallel prayer said throughout the eight days of Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret (Simchat Torah).
In this short video clip we hear the choir singing the following verses, from Psalm 117-118:4 |
"Purify Me With A Hyssop, And I Will Become Pure" "For the conductor, a song of David. When Natan the prophet came to him when he went to Batsheva. Be gracious to me, O G-d, according to Your kindness; according to Your great mercies, erase my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly of my iniquity, and purify me of my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me..." |
Shavua Tov from the Temple Mount! "You are all standing this day before HaShem, your G-d..." (Deuteronomy 29:9) We read these words which open parashat Nitzavim this past Shabbat, and we read parashat Nitzavim every year on the Shabbat before Rosh HaShana. There is no better place for all to stand before HaShem our G-d than on the Temple Mount, where we see and are seen by HaShem. May the incoming year of 5784 witness the continued return of Jews and Jewish prayer to the place of the Holy Temple, "a house of prayer for all nations." (Isaiah 56:7) |
Build a House for HaShem! "Be strong and have courage! Build a House for HaShem!" In this scene from a film soon to become an integral part of the Temple Institute's Jerusalem based Visitors Center experience, the prophet Samuel charges King David with the task of building the Holy Temple! |
The Glory of this Last House Shall be Greater than the First! "The Glory of this Last House Shall be Greater than the First!" In this scene from a film soon to become an integral part of the Temple Institute's Jerusalem based Visitors Center experience, Zerubavel from the house of David and Kohen Gadol (High Priest) Yehoshua consult with the prophet Haggai who instructs them to waste no time in rebuilding the Holy Temple! |
Red Heifers Arrive In Israel! On Thursday, September 15, 2022, 5 PM, 5 perfect, unblemished red heifers arrived in Israel from the USA. A modest ceremony was held at the unloading bay of the cargo terminal at Ben Gurion airport, where the new arrivals were greeted and speeches were made by the incredible people who have put their hearts and souls and means into making this historic/prophetic day become a reality. |
Biblical Red Heifer Could Bring Million Visitors To Samaria The Ancient Shiloh heritage site will soon host a Red Heifer research center. Hundreds of visitors flocked to Shiloh in Samaria’s Binyamin region on Thursday to welcome a biblically pure red heifer. The 22-month-old cow, which was brought to Israel from the United States, found a new home at the Ancient Shiloh heritage site, where the biblical Tabernacle once stood. |
Shana Tova uMetuka - a Sweet & Good New Year from the holy city of Jerusalem!
Yitzchak Reuven
The Temple Institute |
|
Posts