"שנה שמתחילה לה" - על משמעות תחילת השנה בסתיו

’This month shall be unto you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you.

And in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, ye shall have a holy convocation: ye shall do no manner of servile work; it is a day of blowing the horn unto you.

There are four new years:The first of Nisan is the new year for kings and for festivals. The first of Elul is the new year for the tithe of beasts. Rabbi Elazar and Rabbi Shimon say: the first of Tishri. The first of Tishri is the new year for years, for shmitta and jubilee years, for planting and for [tithe of] vegetables. The first of Shevat is the new year for trees, according to the words of Bet Shammai. Bet Hillel says: on the fifteenth of that month.

With regard to the dates of these festivals, the Sages taught: When Adam the first man saw that the day was progressively diminishing, as the days become shorter from the autumnal equinox until the winter solstice, he did not yet know that this is a normal phenomenon, and therefore he said: Woe is me; perhaps because I sinned the world is becoming dark around me and will ultimately return to the primordial state of chaos and disorder. And this is the death that was sentenced upon me from Heaven, as it is written: “And to dust shall you return” (Genesis 3:19). He arose and spent eight days in fasting and in prayer. Once he saw that the season of Tevet, i.e., the winter solstice, had arrived, and saw that the day was progressively lengthening after the solstice, he said: Clearly, the days become shorter and then longer, and this is the order of the world. He went and observed a festival for eight days. Upon the next year, he observed both these eight days on which he had fasted on the previous year, and these eight days of his celebration, as days of festivities. He, Adam, established these festivals for the sake of Heaven, but they, the gentiles of later generations, established them for the sake of idol worship.

For the Leader. A Psalm of David. O LORD, Thou hast searched me, and known me. . Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, Thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou measurest my going about and my lying down, And art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, But, lo, O LORD, Thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast hemmed me in behind and before, And laid Thy hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; Too high, I cannot attain unto it. Whither shall I go from Thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there; If I make my bed in the nether-world, behold, Thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there would Thy hand lead me, And Thy right hand would hold me. And if I say: ‘Surely the darkness shall envelop me, And the light about me shall be night'; Even the darkness is not too dark for Thee, But the night shineth as the day; The darkness is even as the light.