Holidays So Nice We Do Them Twice

When this blog posts it will be the second day of Rosh Hashanah—that is, the second day of celebrating the Jewish New Year.  I have been asked many times by my non-Jewish friends why Jews need two days to celebrate the New Year.  Like all of our traditions, we have very good reasons for the things we do.  And like my favorite Yiddish expression, which translates “two Jews, three arguments,” we have a debate that accompanies every explanation. 

My understanding is that the dates of Jewish holidays are set according to the Jewish calendar, which is based upon lunar cycles.  A lunar cycle is between 29 and 30 days, with the new moon signaling the start of a new month.  In ancient times, the official sighting of a new moon had to be done by direct observation at the Temple in Jerusalem.  Depending upon when the new moon was witnessed, the last month of the year (Elul) could be either 29 or 30 days in length.  In order to comply with the requirement to celebrate on the 1^st day of the month Tishre, Rosh Hashanah was celebrated for 2 days—ensuring that prayer was conducted at the required time in remote towns and villages regardless of when the new moon occurred.  We do not consider Rosh Hashanah to be a two-day observance; rather, it is considered an extension of a single holy day.

This kind of redundancy is typical in Jewish tradition—where the need to comply with law is so compelling that it is better to overdo than risk not doing at all.  It is also important to us as a people to ensure that we are working off the same calendar.   The synchronicity of our observance is an important and powerful part of what we do.  As children of the Diaspora, the small numbers of us have been widely distributed across the globe.  We draw strength from the knowledge that we are united when we celebrate—saying the same prayers, observing the same rituals, and eating the same foods at the same time.    

The two-day rule is important for Rosh Hashanah as it occurs on the first day of the month--not allowing time for witnesses to return with accurate accounting of the new moon.  There are four other holidays during the year where it is tradition in America to practice this redundancy even though they fall later in their months, making them less susceptible to error of new moon observation.  These are the so-called pilgrimage holidays—Sukkot, Shavuot, Shmini Atzeret, and Passover.   The largest family production of the year—the Passover Seder—is recreated in all its glory on both the first and second nights of Passover.  It is interesting that we continue to observe this tradition even though we can now use scientific calculations to predict the new moons without relying on witness observation and the ancient two-day “confidence interval.”  Only Reform Jews in America have abandoned the practice of the second Seder.

In our family we enjoy celebrating both Rosh Hashanah and Passover for two full nights.  It is a reminder of the lengths that we go to preserve our traditions and to maintain the connections with all other Jews.  I have always thought of it as a sort of global “wave,” each of us playing an important role in conveying the holiday spirit around the world.  It is this spirit from which we draw our strength, renew our heritage, and summon the dignity to survive.