Halakhah for Rosh Hashanah 16:10

In these years, when its inner character is being revealed, the nation gives a sign that it is preparing itself for an even higher level; one that can lead to a keen awareness of the godliness in life. The awakening of such awareness heralds a new spirit that announces great things: “Then you shall sound the horn loud; in the seventh month on the tenth day of the month—the Day of Atonement— you shall have the horn sounded throughout your land,”²⁹Lev. 25:9. and a godly spirit of general forgiveness, such as the individual experiences on Yom Kippur, will arise through the holiness of the Jubilee and spread throughout the entire society, clothing the whole people in a spirit of repentance and acquittal that will straighten out the injustices of the preceding period: “You shall proclaim release throughout the land for all its inhabitants.”³⁰Lev. 25:10. From Rosh Hashanah until Yom Kippur, slaves would neither become free to go home, nor would they remain slaves to their masters, but they would eat, drink, and rejoice with crowns on their heads. When Yom Kippur would arrive, the beit din would sound the shofar, slaves would be free to go home, and fields would return to their original owners.³¹Talmud Bavli, Rosh Hashanah 8b. See the introduction to this volume for a discussion of Rav Kook’s original reading of this talmudic passage. This freedom does not erupt like some volcano; it emerges gradually from the higher holiness. It is not a radical exception to the regular social order but flows from within it, nurtured by the life of the shorter, preceding periods until, reinforced by the revelation of our choices for good, it has the power to repair past injustices.