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As we have seen, the teru’a expresses brokenness and tears while the teki’a expresses stability and joy. This typifies Rosh Ha-shana's complex character. While it is a time of teru’a and judgment, it is also a holiday. As such, there is a mitzva to have two festive meals, one at night and one during the day, where we joyfully consume meat and wine . However, because this is a day of judgment, we should not get carried away with the meals. Therefore, while Rosh Ha-shana meals should be better and more joyful than those of Shabbat, they should not be as good as those of the pilgrimage festivals. Similarly, it is a mitzva to wear festive clothes on Rosh Ha-shana. However, we should not wear our nicest clothes, as we do on the other holidays. Some have a custom to wear white on Rosh Ha-shana to indicate the wish to be purified from sins. Someone whose hair is overgrown and looks disheveled must get a haircut in honor of Rosh Ha-shana. Someone who is normally clean-shaven must shave before Rosh Ha-shana.
Our Sages tell us that getting a haircut, wearing festive clothes, and eating festive meals express our confidence that God will judge us favorably. At first glance, this seems strange. How can we be sure of this? Many people die every year and many others become sick. Clearly, not everyone is judged favorably.
Rather, everyone who properly observes the mitzvot of the holiday, accepts the yoke of heaven, and is inspired to repent, can be confident of a favorable judgment, because God wants to benefit His creations. On the simple level, this means God will bless us with a good year, as usually happens. But we also know that sometimes, whether because of a sin’s severity or the world’s imperfection, God sees that it is best for a person to suffer (or even die). Suffering allows the person to purify his deeds, thus earning a good life in the World to Come. Of course, we would prefer to experience God’s goodness in this world without suffering, but if we do not merit this, we still know the judgment is for our own good, and worth celebrating.
This may be why God established Rosh Ha-shana as a holiday. Holidays are about abstaining from weekday work and worries, allowing us to experience the holiness of the day through Torah and prayer, and to experience the joy of mitzvot through the festive meals. If Rosh Ha-shana were not a holiday but only a day of judgment, our natural inclination would be to spend the whole day fasting and making personal requests, fearful of judgment. (This would not help our case. On the contrary, it would harm it, since most sins result from people focusing on their personal issues and forgetting their holy mission.) Instead, the sanctity and joy of the holiday inspire us to pray for the revelation of God’s sovereignty in the world. This also inspires us to repent out of love, which leads to a favorable judgment and a blessed new year.
