5 min read

When Angels Had to Ask Israel When the Holidays Fall

The ministering angels ask God when the holy days are, and God sends them down to the earthly court, because only Israel's testimony can set the date.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The Angels Ask the Wrong Person
  2. Moses Heard the Secret in the Sky
  3. Why Israel Holds the Calendar
  4. The Nearness That Hands Israel the Calendar

The Angels Ask the Wrong Person

The ministering angels gathered before God with a question that sounded simple. "When is Rosh Hashanah? When is Yom Kippur?"

They were angels. They stood in the highest court. They knew the courses of the stars, the etiquette of the throne, the precise intervals of praise that kept the heavens moving. If anyone in creation should know the date of judgment, it should be them.

God's answer must have stunned the hall. "Why are you asking Me? Let us go down to the earthly court."

That is the reversal Devarim Rabbah preserves, and it is not a small one. The King of the universe tells His own court to wait for news from the judges below. Heaven cannot determine when the month begins. Only human eyes can sight the new moon. Only a human court can hear the testimony of the witnesses. Only the beit din on earth can declare, on the basis of what mortal men saw, that the new month has arrived. Until that declaration comes, the calendar of heaven hangs open.

Moses Heard the Secret in the Sky

Something else happened in those upper courts. Moses had climbed to heaven, and while he was there, he overheard the ministering angels praising God with a phrase that had not yet reached the earth. Barukh shem kevod malkhuto leolam vaed, blessed is the name of His glorious kingdom forever and ever. He heard it in heaven, where angels spoke it openly, and he brought it back.

But Moses faced a problem. The phrase came from a realm where it fit. Up above, where the light was always full and the glory was always visible, those words were native. Down on earth, in a world of hunger and exile and doubt, the phrase rang differently. It was too large for ordinary daylight. So Moses taught Israel to say it in a whisper, after the first verse of the Shema, as though the community were folding a piece of heaven into the liturgy without quite owning it yet.

One day, the rabbis believed, Israel would say it aloud. When the full redemption came and the glory that Moses had only glimpsed was finally visible from below, the whisper would become a shout. But until then, the phrase belonged to both worlds, spoken quietly every morning and evening as a kind of promise that heaven and earth had not entirely lost contact with each other.

Why Israel Holds the Calendar

Devarim Rabbah reads the verse from Deuteronomy, what great nation has God so near to it, and hears it as a map of this relationship. The nearness is not only comfort. It is responsibility. Israel is close to God precisely because Israel performs the work that even angels cannot do without human cooperation. The moon rises. Human witnesses run to the court and report what they saw. The judges deliberate. The month is declared.

Heaven moves on that declaration. The holy days fall where Israel places them. If the earthly court says it is the new month, it is the new month, and the angels arrange the heavenly calendar to match. Rabbi Yohanan's formulation in Devarim Rabbah is almost startling in its directness. The ministering angels stand before God and ask when the holidays are, and God points them toward the earthly court, because the answer lives there.

This is not Israel being exalted above the angels in some romantic sense. It is Israel being given a job that cannot be outsourced. The calendar of holiness depends on observation, testimony, and human judgment. The sages of the beit din who sit in the earthly court do not know that the angelic court is waiting on their ruling. But they should understand that the covenant they were handed at Sinai includes the authority to set the clock of the sacred year.

The Nearness That Hands Israel the Calendar

Deuteronomy asks what great nation has God so near to it as the Lord is to Israel. Devarim Rabbah hears that nearness not as a comfort but as a structural fact about the cosmos. The closeness is not ornamental. It is functional. God comes close to Israel because the calendar of holiness depends on what Israel does. Every spring, every fall, every month, the sacred days of the year require a human act of observation and declaration before heaven can arrange its own affairs accordingly.

That is an unusual kind of nearness. It is not the nearness of a parent carrying a child. It is the nearness of two parties in a covenant who each have something the other requires. Israel needs God's Torah and God's protection. God's holy calendar, at least in its earthly expression, needs Israel's eyewitness and Israel's court. The question what great nation has God so near to it carries its own answer folded inside it. A nation that sets the calendar for heaven. A nation whose beit din the angels have to wait on before they know what day it is.

AngelsKingsRosh HashanahYom KippurMosesShemaCalendar
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From the tradition

Sources

3 sources

The texts this telling draws on, in full. Open a card to read inline, or expand it for a wider, quieter read.

Devarim Rabbah 2:14Devarim Rabbah

A quote from Deuteronomy, saying God is "near it." But who is "it"? The verse itself speaks of a nation that has God near to it. Devarim Rabbah, in its characteristic fashion, finds something deeper there.

Rabbi Yoḥanan offers a stunning image. He says that when the ministering angels gather before the Holy One, Baruch Hu (blessed be He), and ask, "When is Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year)? When is Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement)?". God turns the question around!

"Why are you asking Me?" God replies, according to Rabbi Yoḥanan. "Let us, I and you, go to the earthly court."

Wait, what earthly court? What's going on here?

The Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) finds support for this idea in that very verse: “That has God near [kerovim] it.” The text emphasizes that it doesn't say God is near to the nation, but rather the nation has God near it. It's not written, "Who has a nation near [Him]," but rather, "That has God near it." The Midrash interprets this to mean that God and His entire entourage are close to Israel.

The implication, according to this reading, is that, to a certain extent, Israel is primary. But how can that be? How can mortals determine the holy days?

Rabbi Yoḥanan continues, offering an explanation. The Holy One, blessed be He, says, "Until you became My nation – 'the appointed times of the Lord' (Leviticus 23:2)." This refers to the period before the giving of the Torah, when God alone determined the calendar. "From then on," God continues, "'that you shall proclaim them' (Leviticus 23:2)."

In other words, once the covenant was established, the responsibility for proclaiming the holy days – for determining the calendar – shifted, at least in part, to Israel.

This is a radical idea, isn't it? It suggests that human agency, our choices and actions here on Earth, actually influence the divine realm. It means that the Jewish calendar, and by extension the Jewish experience of time, is a partnership between God and humanity.

What does this mean for us today? It's a reminder that we are not passive recipients of tradition. We are active participants in shaping it, in interpreting it, and in living it out in the world. We have a role to play, not just in observing the holidays, but in understanding their meaning and making them relevant to our lives. It's a weighty responsibility, but also an incredible privilege.

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Devarim Rabbah 2:38Devarim Rabbah

The story begins with Moses, our great leader, ascending to the heavens. Imagine the scene: clouds parting, a divine ladder stretching upwards, and Moses, step by step, approaching the very throne of God. What did he witness there?

Well, the rabbis tell us that he overheard the ministering angels themselves proclaiming a magnificent phrase to the Holy Blessed One. A declaration of praise so profound, it resonated through the cosmos: "Barukh shem k’vod malkhuto (Sovereignty) l’olam va’ed" – "Blessed is the name of the glory of God's sovereignty for all time."

Think about the sheer weight of those words. Acknowledging God's eternal reign, His boundless glory. It's a phrase that hums with the energy of creation itself.

So, Moses, upon his return, brings this celestial gem down to earth, gifting it to the people of Israel. A treasure from the King's palace, so to speak.

But here's the twist: why don't we shout it from the rooftops? Why isn't it part of our daily prayers, echoing in every synagogue? That's where Rabbi Asi offers a fascinating explanation.

He compares it to a man who steals jewelry from the King's palace and gives it to his wife. He tells her, "Don't wear it in public! Keep it for the privacy of our home." It’s a secret, precious thing, too brilliant for the mundane world. A stolen moment of divinity.

Isn't that a striking image? It speaks to the immense power of the phrase, its almost unbearable holiness. It's a secret whispered between God and His most intimate servants.

But there's an exception. A day when the veil thins, when we do utter those sacred words aloud: Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement). The Day of Atonement.

On this holiest of days, we strive to be like those ministering angels. We cleanse ourselves, we purify our souls, we stand before God with hearts laid bare. On Yom Kippur, we are, in a sense, elevated. According to this midrash, the people become as pure as the angels. Only then, when we are at our most spiritually refined, can we join the celestial chorus and proclaim, "Barukh shem k’vod malkhuto l’olam va’ed."

So, the next time you hear those words on Yom Kippur, remember this story. Remember Moses, the angels, and the secret whispered in heaven. Remember the immense holiness, and the profound responsibility that comes with uttering such powerful praise. It's a reminder that even in our most ordinary moments, we carry within us the potential for extraordinary holiness, and that perhaps, just perhaps, we can catch a glimpse of the divine glory that fills all of creation.

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Midrash Tehillim 81:6Midrash Tehillim

It might surprise you.

All the angels gathered, a celestial court in session. They turn to the Master of the Universe himself and ask, "What day is Rosh ha-Shanah?" That's the Jewish New Year, a time of reflection and renewal. And what does God say?

He says, "Why are you asking Me? Let us ask the earthly court!" for a second. God, the ultimate authority, is suggesting they defer to a court of humans? It's an almost unbelievable idea.

In Midrash Tehillim, God continues, "When the earthly court decrees that Today is Rosh ha-Shanah, then raise up the podium. Summon the advocates. Summon the clerks. For My children have decreed that today is New Year's Day, and what is a decree for Israel is an ordinance of the God of Jacob."

Wow. Just, wow.

What's going on here? It’s not like the story of The Rabbis Overrule God where there's a kind of divine-rabbinic standoff. This is different. Here, God is actively showing respect for the rabbis, for the great court of the Sanhedrin (the supreme rabbinic court). He's demonstrating that, in certain matters, the opinions of the rabbis take precedence, even over His own.

But why? What's the reasoning behind this seemingly radical idea?

The rabbinic understanding, as we find in the Jerusalem Talmud, Y. Rosh ha-Shanah, is that while the Sabbath laws are fixed by God, other holidays – those based on the monthly calendar and, crucially, the sighting of the new moon – are up to the human courts to determine. It comes down to how the calendar is set.

This idea is even hinted at in (Psalms 81:4-5): "Blow the horn on the new moon, on the full moon for our feast day. For it is a law for Israel, a ruling of the God of Jacob."

Now, that last verse can be interpreted in a couple of ways. It could be a simple repetition, emphasizing the importance of the law. Or, it could mean that God defers to Israel to such an extent that He accepts all of Israel's laws as rulings binding on Himself. As the Midrash Tehillim and Midrash Rabbah suggest, it’s this latter interpretation that's at the heart of this story.

There's even another version of this myth, also found in Midrash Tehillim, where God makes an announcement. In this version, God adds something really interesting: If the witnesses of the new moon are delayed, everything required for the heavenly court will have to be stored away, and the New Year will be delayed until the next day.: God is ready to defer even to human frailty, and to delay the starting of the New Year if necessary!

What does this tell us? It reveals a profound understanding of the relationship between the divine and the human. It suggests that while God sets the stage, so to speak, we, as humans, have a role in shaping the calendar and, in a sense, shaping time itself. It speaks to a partnership, a collaboration, where human judgment and fallibility are factored into the very fabric of the cosmos. It's a humbling and empowering thought, isn't it?

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