From Adam Harishon to Ezra HaSofer: 3,400 Years of Rosh Hashanah Moments That Changed Jewish History; Including the Astonishing Brisker Psak that Saved a Jewish Soldier from Execution

There are days in the Jewish calendar upon which great events occurred, and there are days whose very mahus seems to disclose itself through the events that occurred upon them. Rosh Hashanah belongs unmistakably to the latter category. From Adam Harishon through Avrohom and Yitzchok, Sorah and Rochel, Yosef Hatzaddik and shibud Mitzrayim, Chanah and Shmuel, until Ezra Hasofer, one encounters not merely a succession of maasim sharing a date, but a sugya in the geder of the day itself. Each episode is another giluy in the tzurah of Rosh Hashanah: din and teshuvah, pekidah and brocha, mesirus nefesh and hatzolah, all recurring as expressions of a single zeman.

The first Rosh Hashanah was the sixth day of the briah, when Adam Harishon was formed from the adomah, received his neshomah, and stood before a world complete in seder and chochmah. He recognized the Borei, named every creature according to its shoresh and inyan, called himself Adam because “min ha’adomah lukachti,” and acknowledged Hakadosh Boruch Hu as Adon hakol. Yet before that day ended, he transgressed the tzivuy of the eitz hadaas, and mankind’s birthday became the first Yom Hadin. Middas Hadin demanded punishment; Adam recognized his cheit, sought rachomim, and did teshuvah, which Hakodosh Boruch Hu accepted. Thus the first chiddush of Rosh Hashanah was established: man can fail, stand in din, and nevertheless be granted the koach to return.

Forty years later that yesod appeared with startling force in Kayin. The Gra explains why his korban could contain inferior produce only then: the produce of maaseh Bereishis had emerged complete, whereas man’s own planting required forty years to yield. Kayin’s rejected korban led to jealousy and ultimately to the murder of Hevel, yet after hearing the gezeirah of “Na va’nod tihyeh ba’aretz,” he did teshuvah. Adam, hearing that even after shefichus domim a door of return remained open, exclaimed, “Kach gadol kocha shel teshuvah?” and opened with “Mizmor shir leyom haShabbos.” Rosh Hashanah therefore does not merely impose a chovas hateshuvah; its earliest history reveals the extraordinary koach of teshuvah.

The day then emerges as the great zeman of pekidah. Chazal teach, “BaRosh Hashanah nifkedah Sorah, Rochel v’Chanah.” Sorah Imeinu’s apparently sealed matzav was reopened with “VaHashem pokad es Sorah.” The Chasam Sofer and other Acharonim explain that her uniqueness lay in the immediacy of the pekidah: not merely a decree for later, but a yeshuah beginning at once. Rochel’s zechus was forged when, rather than allow Leah to be humiliated, she surrendered the simanim she had arranged with Yaakov. According to the Zohar, that marriage occurred on Rosh Hashanah. On the day when each person’s chelek is weighed, Rochel relinquished the most natural claim of “mine,” and generations later that act became the source of “Mine’i koleich mibechi… v’shavu bonim ligvulom.” Chanah, after nineteen years of barrenness, poured out a tefillah in Shiloh so inward that “rak sefoseha naos ve’kolah lo yishomei’a,” and on Rosh Hashanah was remembered with Shmuel Hanovi. The Kisei before which man trembles in din is also the source of pekidah and yeshuah.

Akeidas Yitzchok reveals another yesod in the mahus hayom. According to the Pesikta (Perek 40), the Akeidah occurred on Rosh Hashanah. Avrohom was commanded to be makriv his son upon whom his entire future rested, the son of “Ki b’Yitzchok yikorei lecho zora.” The Soton argued, obstructed, and even placed a river in their path, yet Avrohom and Yitzchok remained unwavering; Yitzchok himself asked to be bound lest an involuntary movement interfere with the ratzon Hashem. When the call of “Avrohom, Avrohom” finally stopped the knife, the mesirus nefesh was already complete. Avrohom asked that just as he had conquered his natural rachmanus to fulfill the ratzon Hashem, so should Hakodosh Boruch Hu remember the Akeidah when Yitzchok’s children stand in din. The shofar thus became not merely a mitzvas hayom but the kol of that mesirus nefesh entering the Bais Din shel Maalah.

A striking Brisker maaseh gives this yesod a sharp halachic expression. In the first years of the rov’s rabbonus in Brisk, army officers came on Rosh Hashanah before tekios demanding that he accompany them to a Jewish soldier sentenced to death for falling asleep on guard duty, who wished to say viduy before a Jewish rov. The rov refused. Even when the officers threatened retaliation against the city’s Jews, and respected elders urged the 32-year-old rov not to endanger the kehillah by withholding this chesed, he would not yield. Hours later the officers returned: during the delay the soldier’s family had filed an appeal, the execution was postponed, and ultimately his life was spared. The rov later explained that the Rambam in Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah, perek hei, had been his ner leraglav: one may not hand over a particular Jew for execution to save the many when that Jew is not chayav misah. By going to hear the viduy, he would, in effect, have facilitated the immediate execution of a man who, according to din Torah, was not chayav misah. What had appeared to be dangerous inflexibility became the instrument of hatzolah. It is pure Brisk: rachamim do not override the precise geder of din; at times, the deepest rachomim emerge precisely from fidelity to din Torah.

The Zohar, cited by the Gra (in Biur Hagra Orach Chaim 583), further teaches that Yitzchok’s brachos to Yaakov were given on Rosh Hashanah. This gives deeper meaning to the apple, for Yitzchok declared, “Re’eih rei’ach beni k’rei’ach sadeh asher beiracho Hashem,” understood as the fragrance of an apple orchard. Rosh Hashanah is therefore also a zeman of brocha, when birkas Yitzchok passes into the destiny of Klal Yisroel.

Yosef Hatzaddik adds the dimension of sudden reversal. After twelve years in prison, Paroh dreamed, the chartumim failed, and Yosef was rushed from the pit on Rosh Hashanah. His first words before Paroh were not self-promotion but bittul: “Bilodai, Elokim yaaneh es shalom Paroh.” Within hours the prisoner became mishneh lamelech. The same yesod appeared nationally when, although Bnei Yisroel did not leave Mitzrayim until Pesach, the avodas perech ceased on Rosh Hashanah. The Radak connects “Tiku bachodesh shofar” to the shofar of Yovel: both proclaim release from bondage. Geulah can thus begin in its shoresh before its full expression becomes visible.

Finally, Ezra Hasofer found Klal Yisroel broken by golus, weakened in Torah and mitzvos, and gathered men, women, and children on Rosh Hashanah to hear the Sefer Torah explained. The people wept, but Ezra would not allow teshuvah to end in despair. He proclaimed, “Lechu ichlu mashmanim u’shesu mamtakim… ve’al tei’otzeivu, ki chedvas Hashem hi ma’uzchem.” Their tears were to become the beginning of a new avodah, from which came renewed Torah life, an extraordinary Sukkos, and the later struggle against the yetzer hara of avodah zarah.

Viewed as one continuous sugya, the pattern is striking. Adam and Kayin reveal teshuvah; Avrohom and Yitzchok, mesirus nefesh and the zechus of the Akeidah; Sorah, Rochel and Chanah, pekidah; Yitzchok’s brachos, brocha; Yosef and the end of shibud, hatzolah; and Ezra, the power of Klal Yisroel to begin anew. The maasim differ, but the yesod is one. Rosh Hashanah is the day upon which the world is not merely judged but renewed. What was closed can be opened, what was imprisoned can be released, what was barren can bear fruit, and what was spiritually shattered can be rebuilt. That was the chiddush of Adam Harishon’s first Rosh Hashanah, and it remains the chiddush of every Rosh Hashanah thereafter.