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Rosh hashana

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Covers What is Rosh Hashana, The Shofar and Its Sounds, Rosh Hashana in the High Holiday Season and more.

Lessons12 lessons
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Final assessmentAfter the last lesson, for your diploma
About

“Rosh hashana” is a 12-lesson course at Pro level, created with soclever, a personal AI teacher. Each lesson takes a few minutes and ends with a check-in question; finish the curriculum and you can take a certificate test to earn a diploma. Try the first lesson without an account — or make your own course on any topic. Shared by @jjea.

What you'll learn

  1. What is Rosh Hashana. Rosh Hashana doesn't appear in the Torah as the "New Year."
  2. The Shofar and Its Sounds. Most people know the shofar is blown on Rosh Hashana — the Jewish New Year — but the sequence isn't arbitrary noise.
  3. Rosh Hashana in the High Holiday Season. Think of a long journey that begins with a loud bell at the station: you hear it, you stop, and you realize you are about to set out. Rosh Hashana works like that bell.
  4. Divine Judgment, Inscription, and Cosmic Renewal. Think of a company's annual review: the year's work is weighed, and the outcome shapes the year ahead.
  5. The Rosh Hashana Prayer Service. Think of a royal court on coronation day: first the crowd proclaims the monarch, then the records are opened, then the trumpets sound.
  6. The Shofar as a Cry of the Soul: Hasidic Depth. Think of a child who is lost in a crowd and, long before finding any words, simply cries out. No one needs a sentence to understand it, and the cry comes from deeper than speech.
  7. Coronating the King: Chabad's Theology of Malchuyot. Without the annual re-coronation of God on Rosh Hashana, the Chabad framework holds that creation does not merely drift — it actively loses its source of vitality.
  8. Tzimtzum, Hishtalshelus, and the New Year's Cosmic Reset. The Arizal forced the problem into focus in 16th-century Safed: if God is infinite, where does a finite world fit?
  9. Din and Chesed: The Kabbalistic Balance of Judgment and Mercy. Think of a good teacher who is both strict and loving: the standards are real, yet the warmth is what lets a student actually grow.
  10. Teshuva as Return to Essence: Hasidic and Chabad Perspectives. Think of a child who wanders off at a fair and is found at the lost-and-found desk. No one asks whether the child is still the family's child; the only question is how to get home.
  11. Bitul and Ratzon: Self-Nullification as the Key to Divine Favor. Think of a violin string that is tuned perfectly to a tuning fork: it does not strain to match the tone, it simply stops sounding its own pitch and resonates with the other.
  12. Living Rosh Hashana Year-Round: Chabad Avodah in Practice. Think of a house that has had a thorough spring cleaning and a fresh coat of paint. The real work is keeping it livable on an ordinary Tuesday.

Lesson 1: What is Rosh Hashana

Rosh Hashana doesn't appear in the Torah as the "New Year." The biblical text in Leviticus 23 calls it Yom Teruah — the Day of Blasting — and places it on the first of Tishrei, which the Torah elsewhere designates as the seventh month, not the first. The rabbis reconciled this by recognizing four distinct new years in Jewish tradition, each governing a different domain: Nisan for kings and festivals, Elul for animal tithes, Shevat for trees, and Tishrei for years and human judgment.

That last function — judgment — is the theological center of gravity. The Talmud in tractate Rosh Hashana describes God opening three books on this day: one for the wholly righteous, one for the wholly wicked, and one for the vast middle. Most people land in that third book, their fate suspended until Yom Kippur ten days later.

The shofar blast isn't merely ceremonial — it's the coronation cry, proclaiming God as sovereign king for the coming year. Without that framing, the day is just a calendar marker; with it, the entire ten-day period of Yamim Noraim (Days of Awe) becomes a structured trial with a known verdict deadline.

Questions this course answers

What is Yom Teruah?

Yom Teruah is the Day of Blasting, which is how the biblical text in Leviticus 23 refers to Rosh Hashana.

What are the four calls of the shofar?

The four calls of the shofar are Tekiah, Shevarim, Teruah, and Tekiah Gedolah.

What is teshuva?

Teshuva is usually translated as repentance but literally means return, involving acknowledging wrongdoing, regretting it, ceasing it, and committing not to repeat it.

What are Malchuyot, Zichronot, and Shofarot?

Malchuyot, Zichronot, and Shofarot are three special sections inserted into the central Amida of the Rosh Hashana Musaf service.

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