312. I’ll Tell You Later: The obligation to bring an additional sacrifice on Rosh Hashana

On Rosh Hashana, we are to present an additional offering, called a korban musaf. While we are commanded to do so here, the details of this particular sacrifice are not spelled out for us until parshas Pinchas (Numbers chapter 29).

As with the musaf offering for Passover (Mitzvah #299), the reason for this mitzvah is to underscore the importance of the day. (“Rosh Hashana has its own, special offering? It must be pretty special!”) Nowadays, we daven the special Rosh Hashana musaf prayer service in its place.

This mitzvah applied in Temple times. It is a mitzvah for the entire community but the responsibility to carry it out fell on the kohanim, whose job it was to offer the sacrifices. This mitzvah is discussed in the Talmud in tractate Zevachim on page 89a and is codified in the Mishneh Torah in the ninth chapter of Hilchos Tamidin. It is #47 of the 248 positive mitzvos in the Rambam’s Sefer HaMitzvos.