The phrases "תכלה שנה וקללותיה" ("Let the year and its curses end") and "תחל שנה וברכותיה" ("Let the year and its blessings begin") are familiar to many, often spoken together thanks to their appearance in the well-known piyyut Ahot Ketana, recited on the night of Rosh Hashanah in many communities. Though these phrases are commonly found side by side in the piyyut, they actually originate from different sources.
The phrase "תכלה שנה וקללותיה" originates in the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Megillah:
"It was taught: Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar said: Ezra decreed that the Jewish people should read the curses in Leviticus before Shavuot and those in Deuteronomy before Rosh Hashanah. What is the reason? Abaye said, and some say it was Resh Lakish: So that the year and its curses may end." (Megillah 31b)
The baraita establishes that the curses in the portion of Ki Tavo should be read before Rosh Hashanah, and our sages explain: "So that the year and its curses may end"—meaning that the passing year should come to an end along with its curses.[1] Medieval commentators struggled to understand this directive, as Nitzavim (which follows Ki Tavo) is actually read before Rosh Hashanah. Some explained that Nitzavim also contains curses that Moses spoke, and they wanted to conclude them before Rosh Hashanah. Others suggested that the goal was to have a break of one portion between the curses and Rosh Hashanah. Either way, the idea remains the same and the concept is meaningful—it's good to leave the curses of the past year behind.
In the spirit of this Talmudic saying, it seems that Avraham HaHazan of Gerona, a 13th-century Sephardic poet, included the phrase "תכלה שנה וקללותיה" in the refrain of his famous piyyut Ahot Ketana, which is recited during the Rosh Hashanah evening prayer. In the prayer books we have today, as well as in ancient manuscripts, the final stanza uniquely ends with the words "תחל שנה וברכותיה". The word תחל ("begin") closely resembles תכלה ("end") in sound, but carries the opposite meaning, and this shift in the refrain expresses a sign of hope at the threshold of the new year.
However, an investigation into the original text leaves some questions. In some manuscripts, the phrase "תכלה" also concludes the piyyut, with no mention of "תחל" (or v’tachel). On the other hand, fragments from the Cairo Genizah contain "תחל שנה וברכותיה" throughout the piyyut. It’s likely that the original version of the piyyut was written with "תכלה שנה וקללותיה", whether throughout the entire poem or with a change in the final line, and "תחל שנה וברכותיה" emerged as a mirror image of it (thus far, this expression has not been found in earlier sources).
The piyyut gained widespread acceptance in Jewish communities, and thanks to this, Hebrew speakers have inherited two particularly beloved phrases.
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