יום הדין

(1) In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a sacred occasion: you shall not work at your occupations. You shall observe it as a day when the horn is sounded.

(2) This month shall mark for you the beginning of the months; it shall be the first of the months of the year for you.

The Gemara explains these matters in detail: It is taught in a baraita that Rabbi Eliezer says: From where is it derived that the world was created in the month of Tishrei? As it is stated: “And God said: Let the earth bring forth grass, herb yielding seed, and fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind” (Genesis 1:11). Which is the month in which the earth brings forth grass and the trees are full of ripe fruit? You must say that this is Tishrei. And a further proof that the world was created in Tishrei is that when the world was first created, it needed rain so that the plants would grow, and the period beginning with Tishrei is a time of rain, and rain fell and the plants grew, as it is stated: “But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground” (Genesis 2:6).

(2) At four set times the world is judged:On Pesah in respect to the produce. On Shavuot in respect to the fruit of the tree. On Rosh Hashanah all the people of the world pass before Him like a division of soldier [a numerus], as it says, “He who fashions the hearts of them all, who discerns all their doings” (Psalms 33:15). And on Sukkot they are judged in respect of rain.

§ The Gemara goes back to discuss the Day of Judgment. Rabbi Kruspedai said that Rabbi Yoḥanan said: Three books are opened on Rosh HaShana before the Holy One, Blessed be He: One of wholly wicked people, and one of wholly righteous people, and one of middling people whose good and bad deeds are equally balanced. Wholly righteous people are immediately written and sealed for life; wholly wicked people are immediately written and sealed for death; and middling people are left with their judgment suspended from Rosh HaShana until Yom Kippur, their fate remaining undecided. If they merit, through the good deeds and mitzvot that they perform during this period, they are written for life; if they do not so merit, they are written for death.

(1) Each and every one of the sons of man has virtues and vices. He whose virtues exceed his vices is a just man, and he whose vices exceed his virtues is an evildoer; if both are evenly balanced, he is mediocre. Even so is a state. If the virtues of all of its inhabitants exceeded their vices, it is, indeed, a just state; but if their vices exceeded, it is, indeed, a wicked state. Even such is a standard for the whole world.¹Rosh ha-Shanah, 17a C.

(2) A man whose vices exceed his virtues presently dies in his wickedness, even as it is said: "For the multitude of thine iniquity" (Hos. 9. 7). So is a state whose vices exceed presently destroyed, even as it is said: "Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorroh is great (Gen. 18. 20). So, too, is the whole world, if their vices exceeded their virtues they are presently destroyed, even as it is said: "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great" (6. 5). But the weighing of this is not according to the number of virtues and vices, but according to their magnitude. There is a virtue that overbalances many vices, even as it is said: "Because in him there is found some good thing" (I Kings, 14. 13); and there is a kind of vice which overbalances many virtues, even as it is said: "But one sinner destroyeth much good" (Ecc. 9. 18). Moreover these are not weighed by anyone, save only in the knowledge of the All-knowing God, for only He knoweth the estimate of virtues versus vices. (³Yebamot, 50a; Kiddushin 40a. C.)

(3) One who renounces his observance of the commandments, and recants his virtues, saying in his heart: "In what have I advanced by observing these, fain would I not have observed them"!, he, indeed, lost the virtues of all of them, and by no virtue in the world should he be remembered, even as it is said". The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression" (Ezek. 312); on no other can this be said than on him who recants his first virtues. And, even as man's virtues and vices are weighed at the time of his death so are the vices and virtues of each and every one who cometh on this earth weighed on the holy time of Rosh ha-Shanah. He who is found righteous is sealed for life; he who is found wicked is sealed for death, and the midiocre is suspended till the Day of Atonement, if he did repent he is sealed for life, if not he is sealed for death.⁴Ibid. 40b; Rosh ha-Shanah, 16b. C.