Rosh Hashanah: The 48 Hours That Shape Your Coming Year

One of the special poems recited on Rosh Hashanah says: “Today is the pregnancy of the world. Today, all the creatures of the worlds stand in judgment, whether as children or as servants. If as children, have mercy on us as a father has mercy on his children; and if as servants, our eyes are fixed upon You until You show us grace and bring forth our judgment like light, Awesome and Holy One.”

What do the words “Today is the pregnancy of the world” mean?

Simply put, today, Rosh Hashanah, is the day of the world’s formation and creation. The Abudarham proves from another verse in the Bible that the word “pregnancy” can also mean birth. The Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 11a) discusses when the world was created, and the opinion established as halacha is that the world was created on the 25th of Elul, while humanity was created on the first of Tishrei, Rosh Hashanah. Since humanity is the crown of creation, we say, “Today is the pregnancy of the world.”

Let us look a little deeper into the meaning of the world’s “pregnancy” and discover an important point about our inner work on Rosh Hashanah.

Rosh Hashanah: The Pregnancy of the Coming Year

The author of Sefer HaRokeach (Rosh Hashanah prayers, section 135) explains it this way: Rosh Hashanah is the day of conception and pregnancy for the entire year.

Just as a woman who is pregnant today will give birth later, and pregnancy is the period during which the fetus develops, so too on Rosh Hashanah: What Hashem decrees on Rosh Hashanah is precisely what will be “born” in the coming year. Everything is determined on this day. Rosh Hashanah is the “pregnancy of the world.” During the days of Rosh Hashanah, all the events of the world take form and are created, from this Rosh Hashanah until the next one.

We need to make use of every moment of Rosh Hashanah to proclaim the Creator as our King and pray for a good year.

The Rokeach writes that the phrase “pregnancy of the world” is taken from a verse in the Book of Jeremiah. Let us look at the verse and discover an astonishing insight.

Jeremiah says: “Cursed be the day on which I was born; may the day on which my mother bore me never be blessed. Cursed be the man who brought news to my father, saying, ‘A son, a male child, has been born to you,’ making him very happy. May that man be like the cities Hashem overturned without relenting; may he hear a cry in the morning and a shout at noon. For he did not kill me in the womb, so that my mother would have been my grave and her womb eternally pregnant. Why did I emerge from the womb, to see toil and sorrow, and to end my days in shame?” (Jeremiah 20:14–18).

Jeremiah “curses” the day he was born, regretting that his mother’s womb was not for him a “pregnancy of the world,” meaning pregnancy alone, so that he would never have entered the world at all.

What is the deeper connection between the prophet Jeremiah’s words, his wish to remain a fetus and not be born, and the essence of Rosh Hashanah?

The answer becomes clear in light of another question.

The Kohen Gadol’s Remarkable Prayer

One of the moving prayers we recite on Yom Kippur is the prayer of the Kohen Gadol when he emerged unharmed from the Holy of Holies. In his prayer, the Kohen Gadol encompasses the concerns of the world, and among his requests is the following: “May this be a year in which no woman loses the fruit of her womb.”

This is an immensely important prayer, and there is no way to describe the pain of a woman who loses the child she is carrying. But why does the Kohen Gadol pray specifically about miscarriage rather than any other illness?

The relationship between Hashem and the Jewish people is compared in many places to that of a man and a woman. In a certain sense, every Jew is a “pregnant woman.” Every Jew has infinite and eternal potential, the potential for generations upon generations. Every person has dreams, aspirations, and, of course, abilities. Every person has opportunities in life that can build their future. Every person has received from Hashem all the tools personally suited to building their life.

The Kohen Gadol prays that no “woman” in the world should lose the “fruit of her womb,” that every Jew in the world should merit realizing their potential and “giving birth” to countless merits that will stand by them for all eternity.

“Today is the pregnancy of the world.” Rosh Hashanah is a day of pregnancy. Everything develops on this day. This day is the “womb” of the coming year, and its development depends on the person themselves, with help from Heaven, of course. Each person must decide whether they want to be buried in the womb or emerge into the world and continue growing spiritually.

Are We Fulfilling Our True Potential?

There is a well known story about the head of the Volozhin Yeshiva, Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Yehuda Berlin, of blessed memory, known as the Netziv. The story appears in several versions, all with the same message.

The Netziv wrote many books on many areas of Torah, and when he published his commentary Haamek Davar on the Torah, he held a celebratory meal for the mitzvah, where he told the following story:

“As a child, I struggled with my studies and was considered one of the weaker students. One day, I heard my father expressing his sorrow to my mother. He told her, ‘All my life, I hoped that Naftali Tzvi would grow up to be a great Torah scholar, but apparently that will no longer happen. There is no choice: I arranged with our neighbor, the carpenter, that tomorrow Naftali Tzvi will begin learning carpentry from him. Our Naftali has good hands, after all. At least he will develop in carpentry.’

“When I heard these words,” the Netziv recounted, “my father’s pain touched my heart. At that moment, I made a firm decision to work and strive very hard in Torah study, aspiring to rise and grow in Torah. I burst into the room where my parents were speaking, told them of my decision, and asked for one more chance before they took me out of the Talmud Torah. From that day on, I applied myself with all my strength, and success indeed shone upon me.

“If you ask me,” the Netziv continued, “what this story has to do with our mitzvah celebration, I will explain. Let us imagine what would have happened had I not made that decision to stay and study Torah. Of course, I would have set aside regular times for Torah study and lived as a good Jew. I would have been a God fearing carpenter, doing my work faithfully, honestly, and with clean hands. When the day of my death came and my soul stood before the Heavenly Court, they would ask me: ‘Did you set aside fixed times for Torah study?’ And I would certainly answer yes and describe my daily schedule.

“Then Hashem would place before me the books Haamek She’eilah, Meromei Sadeh, and Haamek Davar, works written by the Netziv, and say to me: ‘You could have written these books! Why did you not do so?’ What would I answer Him? Woe to such shame! That thought,” the Netziv concluded, “is what made me decide to continue striving to succeed in the study of the holy Torah.”

The gates of Heaven are always open to every person, but they are especially open on Rosh Hashanah. On this day, everyone can ask and plead for themselves: that their soul should not, Heaven forbid, remain buried in its mother’s womb, but should emerge into the world and fulfill its purpose.

When someone dies young, their tombstone reads, “Here lies so and so, who departed this world before his time.” So many people merit long lives, yet in terms of all they could have accomplished but ultimately did not, they too departed this world before their time.

We stand before 48 hours of pregnancy and creation, during which everything that will happen to us in the coming year takes shape. Let us proclaim Hashem as King and pray before Him that the “child” will emerge healthy and whole, in body and soul, and that the year will be good both spiritually and materially.

May it be Hashem’s will that this year, no “woman” loses the “fruit of her womb.”