YU TORAH Rosh Hashana: Dialectical Emotions Mrs. Shira Smiles By Mrs. Shira Smiles

Rosh Hashanah evokes two contradictory emotions in us. On the one hand, there is joy. After all, this is a yom tov and we are commanded to eat, drink and rejoice. On the other hand, we experience awe and trepidation, for this is the Day of Judgment. How can we reconcile feeling these opposite emotions, these two states of mind, and how can we balance them? The most obvious instance of this anomaly is perhaps the fact that, although it is a yom tov, our feelings of awe and trepidation dictate that we do not recite Hallel as part of the Rosh Hashanah liturgy, the prayer whose every paragraph exudes joy and praise of Hashem,.