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Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz: “Rosh HaShana is not simply the point from which the year starts.”

It seems that just as living creatures have a head, so does the year.

Rosh HaShana is not simply the point from which the year starts.

It is a day that is connected to the year in the same way that the head relates to the body.

Several organs play vital roles in the body, as among them “the three kings” – the brain, the heart, and the liver.

The brain is the center of thought, the heart is the center of circulation, and the liver is the center of digestion.

To be sure, the body cannot survive without even one of these three, but even among them, there is a hierarchy – and the mind is clearly at the top of the ladder.

–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz