Why is Rosh Hashana before Yom Kippur?

Ariana Brody asks: If Yom Kippur is all about getting rid of your sins, then why doesn't Yom Kippur come before Rosh Hashanah? Wouldn't you want to start your new year with a fresh start and no sins on your shoulders?

Good question. I think that the reason that Rosh Hashana comes before Yom Kippur, even though one might think that it would make more sense to achieve atonement first and enter Rosh Hashana with a clean slate, is that the teshuva of Yom Kippur is dependent upon the relationship that is established on Rosh Hashana. Before asking for Hashem’s forgiveness on Yom Kippur, we first need to establish a relationship to Hashem that is based on awe and reverence. Asking forgiveness before building that relationship would be premature; the gift of divine forgiveness is dependent on our recognition of Hashem’s malkhut and presence in our lives. In other words, if we tried to do teshuva before establishing an appropriate reverence for Hashem, it wouldn’t work—it would be like trying to make our sins go away without solving the problem that led us to sin in the first place.

Rav Shlomo Wolbe (a 20^th-century rav who lived in Eretz Yisrael and wrote works of mussar including his best-known sefer Alei Shur), develops an idea about personal growth that I think is relevant to this topic. Rav Wolbe wrote a sefer about childrearing called Zeriah U-Vinyan BeHinuch. The thesis of his sefer is that national and personal growth is based on the dual dynamic of zeriah (planting) and binyan (building). On the one hand, a person builds himself into a better individual through concerted action—through focusing on the performance of mitzvot and maasim tovim. On the other hand, a person grows in more subtle, organic, gradual ways as well. For example, a parent teaches a child about Judaism in practical ways, by teaching her Humash and halakhot and other areas of Torah. Equally importantly, however, a parent educates a child in Judaism by surrounding her with Jewish concepts and beliefs and experiences. In Rav Wolbe’s terminology, the active, practical type of education and personal growth is called binyan, and the subtle, organic type is called zeriah.

Rav Wolbe associates Rosh Hashana with zeriah, and Yom Kippur with binyan. On Rosh Hashana, we internalize the nature of our relationship with God by accepting His sovereignty, and on Yom Kippur we work actively toward admitting our sins and changing the way we behave. While Rav Wolbe does not explicitly address the question of why Rosh Hashana comes before Yom Kippur, I think that his idea about zeriah and binyan sheds light on the answer. I think it makes intuitive sense that teshuva would begin with zeriah and proceed to binyan, so that our resolutions for the future are built on the solid foundation of a meaningful, personal relationship with Hashem.