Consider these two facts we know about Avraham Avinu:
- Avraham Avinu kept all the mitzvos, both those from the Torah and those of Rabbinic origin.
- Avraham Avinu performed a self-administered (!!) Bris Milah at 99 years of age.
Question: Why the delay? The mitzvah of Bris Milah is about as fundamental to Torah Judaism as you get. The answer is surprisingly straightforward: Avraham most certainly could have circumcised himself. But that is not the mitzvah of Bris Milah. Being circumcised (roughly a third of the world population) does not make you Jewish any more than eating a salad makes you a vegan. The circumcision is, so to speak, the way we Jews sign on the dotted line that we have accepted the Covenant that HaShem, the Creator and Author of reality, has offered to His treasured nation. When Avraham Avinu circumcised himself at the behest of the Creator, he was entering into that convenant. He obviously couldn't do that until the covenenant was offered.
Can we talk a bit about ראש השנה? It is the only holiday we have—besides Rosh Chodesh itself, of course—that is scheduled for the first day of the month. Here's a fun couple of facts: (1) The Torah prescribes that the new month is to be set by beis din upon the examination of witnesses. (2) The new month can only be declared during the day. That means that when the new month is declared, we are already most of the way through that day. The best we can do is when witnesses arrive in the late evening, so we can announce/declare Rosh Chodesh in the morning. But if the witnesses don't get there till late in the day—the day after which they saw the new moon peeking out—then it could happen the Rosh Chodesh is almost over before it ever gets declared.
For Rosh Chodesh, that's annoying, but not such a big deal. For ראש השנה, though? What about kiddush? What about blowing the shofar? What Shmone Esrei do you say? Is there a mussaf? It's one thing to not keep the second day out of uncertainty. Ok, ok... yeah, yeah, we are all used to keeping two days of yom tov out of uncertainty; why is this different? For one, this is not just a problem for us expats; it is an issue that goes straight to the core... even in the Temple service itself. (More on that later.) In truth, then, it seems that the Torah itself makes keeping ראש השנה correctly a challenge.
However, there is a much, much, much, MUCH bigger problem with this scenario. On Pesach, I can eat matzah another day and have another seder. On Sukkos, I can sit in the sukkah and extra day. HaShem might even like that. After all, He told us to follow the decrees of Chazal; we are doing these things as a fulfillment of that commitment. But ראש השנה? That is the day the whole world is judged. Each creature is brought before his Creator and judged. How do I just walk into the courtroom on another day and expect the Judge to be there so I can appear before Him? Try going down to the Municipal Courthouse, tell them that you decided to argue about your parking tickets, so please send the judge over to Room 9 so we can get started. (Let me know how that goes for you, ok?)
So here's the thing. Because the Torah decrees that the Sanhedrin needs witnesses to declare a new month and because that declaration can only be made during the day, we always started ראש השנה from the night before the first day on which it could be declared. If witnesses showed up in time, then that was ראש השנה that year. If they didn't show up, then—since the new moon had to be one of two days—we would keep the next day, effectively keeping two days of ראש השנה. Even though the Torah only mentions one day of ראש השנה, because of a technicality in how the Torah wants us to implement that mitzvah, ראש השנה was always sometimes celebrated as only one day, but sometimes as two days.
What are these two days of judgement? On the first day, each Jew is judged on how well he fulfilled his unique mission. Standing in front of the Creator and being judged on whether one has fulfilled his personal mission well enough to be hired for another year is pretty scary. Sometimes there just weren't enough merits. HaShem, in His infinite kindness, would give us a second chance on those years. The second day of ראש השנה was a judgement on one's personal merits; rather, it was on whether he had performed his duties well enough as supporting cast to get his contract renewed. Did he show up at minyanim with enough regularity to enable the real servants of HaShem to daven with a minyan? Did he help out enough as a cashier for Chesed Chicago Food Co-op to help the real servants of HaShem get their groceries for all year and Yom Tov. It is much, much, MUCH easier to get renewed as supporting cast.
Then, one year, the witnesses came late in the afternoon, and some mistakes in the avodah occurred, so Chazal decreed that henceforth, ראש השנה would always be celebrated for two days. In other words, Chazal—from their lofty view of Reality—realized that we had descended to a level where we always needed that second day.
Personally, this understanding gives me a lot more incentive to show up to minyan, to help as a cashier for Chesed Chicago Food Co-op, and to make my wife's coffee in the morning.
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