Rosh Hashanah message

Open the ‘Mahzor,’usher in the New Year

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Thursday, Sept. 25 will be the first day of Tishre 5775. Jews around the world will be celebrating the New Year with festive meals and two days of prayer. On Rosh Hashanah, we use a special prayer book called the “Mahzor.” Mahzor means “cycle” and refers to the cycle of time that makes up each year.
It is an amazing volume of work, containing material from more than 3,000 years of Jewish history. The Mahzor borrows from the Bible, including sections of the Five Books of Moses, the Prophets and a number of Psalms. These texts come from an historical period that extends from about 1400 BCE to 500 BCE.
Many sections of prayer including our Amidah prayers come from the Rabbinic Period from about 100 BCE to 500 CE. The earliest versions of these prayers are found in the Talmud. The Mahzor also contains many wonderful Piyyutim, religious poems from our ancestors throughout the centuries: Eliezer Kalir (d. 640 CE.), Bahya Ibn Pakuda (d. 1050 CE.), Solomon Ibn Gabirol (d. 1058 CE.) and Yehuda Halevi (d. 1147 CE.), just to name a few. Each of the streams of Judaism also publishes Mahzorim that contain the words of modern Jewish philosophers.
The Mahzor contains prayers of praise, request and thank, but it is also filled with wisdom, drama, history and religious passion.
Regarding the words of the Mahzor, early 19th century Rabbi Nahman of Bratzlav in the Ukraine said: “The worshipper must direct his heart to each word that he utters. He is like a man who walks through a garden collecting rare and precious flowers, plucking them one by one in order to weave a garland. So we move from word to word and from page to page combining the words into prayers. Each word seizes hold of us and cleaves to us; it entreats us not to abandon it, saying, ”Consider my light, notice my grace. Be careful as you take hold of me, take care as you pronounce my name.”

Don’t wait for Rosh Hashanah! Open your Mahzor today. To enhance your Rosh Hashanah experience, peruse the Mahzor’s “precious flowers.” Weave your garland with its words and be prepared to enjoy the Mahzor’s light and grace as you usher in the New Year.

Rabbi Steven M. Graber
Temple Hillel