CARE FOR THE POOR One should invite to one’s table the poor and the lonely so that they too may enjoy the festive occasion. One should send gifts to the poor, as it is written: “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared” (Neh. 8:10). While one eats and drinks oneself, it is his duty to feed the stranger, the orphan, the widow and other poor and unfortunate people, for he who locks the doors of his courtyard and eats and drinks with his wife and family, without giving anything to eat and drink to the poor and bitter in soul – his meal is not a rejoicing in a divine commandment but a rejoicing in his own stomach. (Maimonides, Laws of Festival Rest 6:18) SOLEMNITY AND JOY There is an emotional duality peculiar to Rosh HaShana. It is a time of fear and awe, a day of judgment. That is the reason we do not say Hallel. The ministering angels said before the Holy One, blessed be He: Why do not the Israelites sing a song before You on the New Year and on the Day of Atonement? He answered them: Would that be possible? The King sits on the throne of Judgment, with the books of those destined to live and destined to die before Him. Can Israel sing a song at such a time? (Rosh HaShana 32b) Yet it is also a day of joy. When Ezra and Nehemiah convened a national assembly on the first of Tishrei and Ezra read the Torah to the people, the crowd, realizing how far it had drifted from God’s law, began to weep. Nehemiah told them not to weep, “For the joy of the LORD is your strength” (Neh. 8:10). It is out of kindness toward His creatures that the LORD remembers them and reviews their deeds year after year on Rosh HaShana, that their sins may not grow too numerous, that there may be room for forgiveness, and being few, He may forgive them. For if He were not to remember them for a long time, their sins would multiply to such an extent as to doom the world, God forbid. So this revered day assures the world of survival. For this reason it is fit that we celebrate Rosh HaShana as a festive day, but since it is a day of judgment for all living things it is also fit that we observe Rosh HaShana with greater fear and awe than other festive days. (Sefer HaḤinukh, 311) Usually, a person who has a judgment pending against him dresses in black and neglects his appearance in worry of the outcome. Israel however is different. They dress in white, they eat, drink and rejoice in the knowledge that God will perform miracles on their behalf [and forgive them]. (Talmud Yerushalmi, Rosh HaShana 1:3)