Everything you need to know about the Jewish New Year. Perfect for the High Holidays: Kindle edition of the Talmud Rosh Hashanah. Price: 99 cents.From the book description:
The New Moon of the Jewish seventh month is a Festival of special solemnity known as Rosh Hashanah, New Year's Day.
This is the eighth treatise of the Babylonian Talmud order Mo'ed. It is composed of four chapters with rules for proclaiming New Moon, for the New Year liturgy and the blowing of the shofar (trumpet). It contains (1) the most important rules concerning the calendar year together with a description of the inauguration of the months by the nasi and ab bet din; (2) laws on the form and use of the shofar and on the service during the Rosh ha-Shanah feast.
The Mishnah commences with an account of the four beginnings of the religious and the civil year (i. 1); it speaks of the four judgment-days of the pilgrim festivals and Rosh ha-Shanah (i. 2); of the six months in which the messengers of the Sanhedrin announce the month (i. 3); of the two months the beginnings of which witnesses announce to the Sanhedrin even on the Sabbath (i. 4), and even if the moon is visible to every one (i. 5); Gamaliel even sent on the Sabbath for forty pairs of witnesses from a distance (i. 6); when father and son (who as relatives may otherwise not witness together) behold the new moon they must set out for the bet din (i. 7), since they do not absolutely belong to those that are legally unfit for this purpose (i. 8). The weak and sick are borne on litters, and are protected against the attacks of the Sadducees; they must be provided with food, for witnesses are bound to journey even on the Sabbath (i. 9). Others went along to identify the unknown (ii. 1). In olden times bonfire-signals on the mountains announced to all as far as Babylon that the month had been sanctified. The custom of having witnesses and messengers was introduced after the Sadducees had attempted to practise deception (ii. 2, 3, 4).
The large court was the assembly-place for the witnesses (ii. 5); bountiful repasts awaited them, and dispensations from the Law were granted to them (ii. 6); the first pair of witnesses was questioned separately concerning the appearance of the moon, and other witnesses cursorily (ii. 7). Then the ab bet din called out to a large assembly, "Sanctified!" all the people crying out aloud after him (ii. 8). Gamaliel II. had representations of the moon which he showed to the witnesses.
The Mishnah treats also of the shofar (iii. 2); the horn of the cow may not be used (iii. 3); the form of the trumpet for Rosh Hashanah, the fast-day, and Yobel is determined (iii. 5); injuries to the shofar and the remedies are indicated (iii. 6); in times of danger the people that pray assemble in pits and caves (iii. 7); they pass the house of worship only on the outside while the trumpets sound (iii. 8); they are exhorted to be firm by being reminded of Moses' uplifted hands in the war with the Amalekites.
Even if the festival fell on the Sabbath, Yohanan ben Zakkai had the trumpets blown at Yavneh, while at one time this was done only in the Temple and the surrounding places (iv. 1); he also fixed the lulab outside of the Temple for seven days, and forbade the eating of new grain on the second day of Passover (iv. 2); he extended the time for examining witnesses until the evening, and had them come to Yavneh even in the absence of the ab bet din (iv. 3). The Mishnah then treats of the order of the prayers (iv. 4), of the succession of the Malkuyot, Zikronot, and Shoferot, of the Bible sentences concerning the kingdom of God, Providence, and the trumpet-call of the future (iv. 5), and of the leader in prayer and his relation to the teki'ah (iv. 6); descriptions of the festival are given in reference to the shofar (iv. 7); then follows the order of the traditional trumpet-sounds (iv. 8); and remarks on the duties of the leader in prayer and of the congregation close the treatise (iv. 9). (From JE, s.v. Rosh Ha-Shanah)
Kindle Babylonian Talmud Rosh Hashanah
Also consider downloading the free PDF editions at halakhah.com and halakhah.com/indexrst.html
Single column edition: Rosh Hashana (New Year: 4 chapters, 35 folios, 174 pages) Rosh_HaShanah.PDF
2-column edition: Rosh Hashana (New Year) 18 Rosh Hashanna 2a-35a
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