Rosh Hashanah begins the season of repentance and is a key holiday in the Jewish faith. The season of repentance is important because it contains two major holidays, the Day of Atonement (Yom Kipper) and Feast of Booths (Sukkot). Between Rosh Hashanah
and Yom Kippur are the ten days of penitence. It marks the beginning of the agricultural autumn season and marks a new beginning or New Year. In ancient times, it marked the first day of the autumn season, a day of "memorial" or "blowing of the horn" (Leviticus 23:24-25, Numbers 29:1-6) and received little notice.
Three books are opened on Rosh Hashanah including one for the righteous, one for the wicked, and one for the in-betweens. The righteous are marked in the Book of Life, the wicked in the Book of Death, and in-betweens put into a probationary state until Yom Kipper. Actions during that probationary period then determine whether the person is recorded in the Book of Life or the Book of Death.
While many of the Jewish holidays are practiced privately in the home, Rosh Hashanah is accompanied with elaborate services held in the synagogue. Besides recitations of verse (piyyutim), public readings of the story of Abraham's obedience in preparing Isaac, his beloved son, for sacrifice are recounted in the synagogues. This event and the divine promise of the prophet Samuel's birth were to have occurred on Rosh Hashanah.
Another important tradition in the celebration of this holiday is the blowing of the Shofar or ram's horn. An experienced horn blower blows three times in a prescribed fashion. The first blast proclaims a royal fanfare to God's sovereignty, the second is blown for remembrance and the last is a reminder of important seasons and events. After each horn blast, recitation from the scriptures are read by the congregation.
