We recite “היום הרת עולם, היום יעמיד במשפט כל יצורי עולמים" following each time we blow the shofar during Musaf on Rosh Hashana. The recitation is commonly understood as meaning,
“Today [marks, i.e.] is [the anniversary of] the birth [ i.e. creation] of the world. Today all the worlds’ [i.e. earthly and heavenly] formed [creations] will be subjected to judgement.”
I would like to propose a different translation of the phrase “היום הרת היום” that seems to me to be the true meaning, and does not suffer from several problems (which I will list afterwards). Namely:
Today, [viz. Rosh HaShana,] the world is in a state of conception/pregnancy.
I.e. Today, the worlds and its inhabitants are like an embryo in a womb, in a state in which their conditions after birth are yet to be brought to fruition. The next sentence continues that today, too, the determinations of what will be of them will be made: Today all the worlds’ [i.e. earthly and heavenly] formed [beings] will be subjected to judgement to decide their future in the coming year.
This translation does not face the following problems with the usual translation, “Today is the [anniversary] of the birth [i.e. creation] of the world”:
- Rosh Hashanah is not the anniversary of the world’s birth, but the anniversary of the creation of Adam Harishon, which was on the 6th day of Maaseh Breishis. As indeed we say in Zichronos,“"היום הזה תחילת מעשיך, זכר ליום ראשון – This day is the beginning of Your activities [regarding the following year], a commemoration of the first (not sixth) Day. I.e., it is reminiscent of Day One of Creation, when Hashem brought the world’s elements into existence, to then form and arrange them in the coming days.
- “היום” means “Today is.” It does not mean, "Today marks, i.e. is the anniversary of.”
- "הרת"means “preganancy/conception.” It does not mean “birth.”*
- Today all the worlds’ [i.e. earthly and heavenly] formed [creations] will be subjected to judgement logically connects with Today the world is in a state of conception/pregnancy. It does not quite as clearly connect with Today marks the birth [ i.e. creation] of the world.
*The phrase “הרת עולם” comes from
(ירמיהו כ, טז-יח): וְהָיָה הָאִישׁ הַהוּא כֶּעָרִים אֲשֶׁר הָפַךְ ה’… אֲשֶׁר לֹא מוֹתְתַנִי מֵרָחֶם וַתְּהִי לִי אִמִּי קִבְרִי וְרַחְמָה הֲרַת עוֹלָם. לָמָּה זֶּה מֵרֶחֶם יָצָאתִי לִרְאוֹת עָמָל וְיָגוֹן וַיִּכְלוּ בְּבֹשֶׁת יָמָי
— in which Yirmiyahu, due to the persecutions he suffered, cursed the day of his birth and expressed the wish that he had died in his mother’s womb, and instead of being born would have endured an “eternal state of conception.” In context, הרת meant “state of conception,” and עולם meant “eternal.” Obviously, this is not the way the piyut is meant. (This also demonstrates that one cannot prove the meaning of words in post-biblical compositions by their context in Tanach, at least not in poetry.) But whereas עולם sometimes means “forever” and sometimes “world,” the forms of the word הריון always mean “conception/pregancy” and never mean “birth.”