The Haftorah we read on the first day of Rosh Hashanah, taken from 1 Samuel 1:1-2:10, begins with a woman in tears.
Hannah longs desperately for a child. Year after year, she travels with her husband Elkanah to the Mishkan (tabernacle) in Shiloh. And year after year, she watches Peninah, Elkanah’s other wife, surrounded by children while she remains barren.
Finally, overwhelmed by anguish, Hannah enters the Mishkan and pours out her soul to G-d.
“Hannah spoke in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice could not be heard" (1 Samuel 1:13).
The Talmud (Berachot 31a) derives several basic laws of prayer from Hannah’s example: prayer requires concentration, the words must be enunciated with one’s lips, and the Amidah is recited quietly.
Her behavior is so unusual that Eli the High Priest thinks she is drunk. Hannah corrects him: “No, my lord, I am a woman of sorrowful spirit…I have poured out my soul before the Lord" (1:15).
The Kotzker Rebbe (Rabbi Menachem Mendl of Kotzk, 1787-1859) famously observed, “There is nothing so whole as a broken heart."
Hannah embodies that idea. Her anguish does not distance her from G-d. It draws her closer to Him.
But there is more to Hannah’s prayer than the anguish that gave rise to it.
Hannah does not simply ask G-d for a child.
She makes a vow.
“O Lord of Hosts, if You will indeed look upon the affliction of Your maidservant…and give Your maidservant a male child, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life" (1:11).
If G-d grants her a son, she will dedicate him to His service.
And Hannah keeps her word.
After Samuel is born and weaned, she brings him to Shiloh and presents him to Eli.
“For this child I prayed, and the Lord granted me my request which I asked of Him" (1:27).
Samuel would grow to become one of the greatest prophets in Jewish history. He would lead the nation, anoint Saul as Israel’s first king and later anoint King David, setting in motion the dynasty from which Jewish tradition teaches the Messiah will ultimately emerge.
Few prayers in Jewish history have had such far-reaching consequences.
The Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 11a) tells us that Hannah was remembered by G-d on Rosh Hashanah and conceived a child.
And one of the three central themes of the Rosh Hashanah Mussaf is Zichronot - Remembrances. On this day, we ask G-d to remember us for good.
We ask to be inscribed in the Book of Life and pray for health, livelihood, peace, family and success. Rosh Hashanah is a day of judgment and we know how much is at stake.
Hannah had asked for something deeply personal, yet when her prayer was answered, she devoted the blessing to something greater than herself.
In her song of thanksgiving at the beginning of the second chapter, Hannah begins by rejoicing in her own salvation, but her words quickly turn to G-d’s rule over all human affairs and culminate with a sweeping declaration: “The Lord will judge the ends of the earth" (2:10).
That movement from the intensely personal to the universal is part of what makes this Haftorah so fitting for this period.
We come before G-d with our own fears, hopes and needs. But Rosh Hashanah is also the day on which we proclaim Him King over the entire world.
At the beginning of the Haftorah, Hannah is consumed by what she lacks. By its end, she is giving thanks for what G-d has given her.
And in between, something remarkable has happened.
Hannah prayed for a child. The answer to that prayer became Samuel, a prophet who would help shape the destiny of the Jewish people.
That is the challenge her story places before us when we pray during this period.
We ask G-d to grant us another year of life and blessing.
If He does, what will we make of it?