|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
By: Menachem Posner
- Heads Up!
Surprise! Rosh Hashanah does not mean “New Year” in Hebrew. It actually means “Head of the Year.” Just like your head (brain) tells your body what to do, how you behave on Rosh Hashanah has far-reaching consequences for the entire year.
- Toot, Toot!
The central observance of Rosh Hashanah is listening to the blowing of the shofar on both mornings of Rosh Hashanah. Made from a hollowed-out ram’s horn, the shofar produces three “voices”: tekiah (a long blast), shevarim (a series of three short blasts) and teruah (a staccato burst of at least nine blasts). The shofar is blown at various intervals during the Rosh Hashanah morning service. Add them all up and you get 100 “voices” in total.
- Silent Shabbat
When Rosh Hashanah coincides with Shabbat, we do not blow the shofar on that day. The sages enacted this as a precaution, in case someone would end up carrying a shofar to an expert to blow. There is a deeper lesson here as well. On Shabbat, the coronation of the King is so deep and so special that it’s accomplished without the bells and whistles of the shofar.
- House Calls
Chabad rabbis all over the world walk many miles on Rosh Hashanah (when car travel is forbidden) to blow shofar for people who are unable to make it to synagogue. If you know someone who cannot make it to synagogue, let your closest Chabad rabbi know as soon as possible.
- Twice as Nice
Rosh Hashanah is celebrated for two days. In fact, while most holidays get an extra day in the Diaspora, Rosh Hashanah is the only one that is celebrated for two days in Israel as well.
Rosh Hashanah is observed on the first and second of Tishrei, even though the Torah ordains only one day, as the verse (Vayikra 23:24) states: And in the seventh month, on the first of the month, you shall observe a cessation of work–a day of remembrance, of the sounding of the shofar. The first day of Rosh Hashanah can fall only on the following days: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, or Shabbat. This regulation is an ordinance of the Sages.
- But Not Thrice
The Jewish calendar follows a particular rhythm. The first morning of Rosh Hashanah can be Monday, Tuesday, Thursday or Shabbat—never Sunday, Wednesday or Friday.
Rosh Hashanah’s primary service is the submission to the sovereignty of heaven. Therefore, on these days, even great and prestigious individuals serve G‑d in a manner which appears to be “simple”: constant recitation of Psalms, minimal sleep on both nights (to the extent possible), and particular care not to speak idle chatter . . . —Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn of Lubavitch.
- Fireworks in Your Dining Room
That’s right. Like Shabbat and other Jewish holidays, the Rosh Hashanah meals should be eaten in the joyous glow of candles, lit by the woman (or women and girls) of the house. Remember: On the first night, it is ideal to light before the onset of the holiday. On the second night, light only after nightfall, taking care to use a preexisting flame and not blow out your match when done. (Even though we may light fires and cook on holidays, kindling a new fire or extinguishing flames are forbidden.)
Holiday candle lighting follows a procedure similar to that of the Shabbat candle lighting.
The basic difference between the two is that while it is forbidden to create a flame on a holiday, it is permitted to light a candle using a pre-existing flame, such as another candle that was kindled before the holiday, a gas range which has been left on, or a pilot flame.2 Note that it is also forbidden to extinguish a flame on the holiday, so make sure you have a place to put down the candle or match that you used to kindle your holiday candles.
- Round Rolls
On Rosh Hashanah we traditionally start our holiday feasts with two loaves of round challah, sweetened with raisins to demonstrate our wish for a sweet new year. To add sweetness to our already sweet wish, we dip the challah in honey before taking the first bite.
It is customary and traditional to eat round challahs during this time—dipped in honey, of course—and that the round shape symbolizes the cycle of life and the crown with which we coronate G‑d every year.
- Apple Dipped in Honey
The meal then proceeds, including a number of sweet delicacies and other foods that express our prayerful wishes for the year. The most common symbolic food is apple slices dipped in honey (or sugar in some communities). Another favorite is tzimmes, a traditional Eastern European dish that includes carrots.
Before eating the apple, we make the ha’etz blessing and then add:
Yeh-ee rahtz-on sheh-tih-kha-desh ah-lay-noo shah-nah to-vah oo-meh-too-kah—“May it be Your will to renew for us a good and sweet year.”
This custom seems to date back to the Geonic period (c. 589-1038 C.E.).3
Some have the custom to specifically use a red apple (perhaps due to its sweetness) based on the writings of Rabbi Simcha of Vitri (d. 1105 C.E.), who in his classic work Machzor Vitri records that this was the custom in France in his day.
- Head for the Head
It is customary to sample a morsel from the head of a fish on Rosh Hashanah, symbolizing our wish to be “a head and not a tail.” Some people prefer the head of a ram, which is appropriate since it evokes the time when Abraham almost followed G‑d’s command to sacrifice his son Isaac, until G‑d stopped him at the last moment and had him sacrifice a ram instead. Phew!
- Seed Count!
Many people eat pomegranates on Rosh Hashanah, demonstrating their wish for as many merits as the pomegranate has seeds. It is commonly said that the pomegranate has 613 seeds, corresponding to the 613 mitzvahs in the Torah. However, this has yet to be empirically demonstrated by seed counters worldwide.
- Meet and Greet
The traditional Rosh Hashanah greeting is “shanah tovah” (שנה טובה), which means “good year.” The word u’metuka (ומתוקה), “and sweet,” is sometimes added.
Before Rosh Hashanah, people wish each other “Ketivah v’chatima tovah”(כתיבה וחתימה טובה) “A good inscription and sealing [in the Book of Life].” On Rosh Hashanah eve, as we return from synagogue service, it is traditional to greet one another with “Leshana tovah tikatev v’tichatem” (לשנה טובה תכתב ותחתם). When greeting a female, this is modified to“Leshana tovah tikatevee v’tichatemee” (לשנה טובה תכתבי ותחתמי). This means, “May you be written and sealed for a good year.”
- A Day to Pray
The Rosh Hashanah morning services are particularly long, mostly due to the extra liturgy inserted into the cantor’s repetition of the Amidah (the standing prayer). Much of it is poetic in style, and arranged according to the Hebrew alphabet—a boon for people wishing to learn the prayers by heart.
- Birth and (Near) Death
On both days of Rosh Hashanah we read about the life of Isaac. On the first day we read about G‑d granting Sarah’s wish and blessing her with a son, Isaac. On the second day we read how Abraham almost sacrificed him on an altar.
- Castaway Sins
On the first afternoon of Rosh Hashanah (provided it is not Shabbat), it is customary to walk to a body of fresh water and recite a special prayer, symbolically casting our sins into the waters. The waterside ceremony (called tashlich) is evocative of the coronation ceremonies of old, where the rushing waters symbolized good wishes for a long reign—appropriate on Rosh Hashanah, when G‑d is coronated King of the Universe.
- Don’t Blink
That’s right. Even though napping on Shabbat is considered a virtuous way to celebrate the day of rest, on Rosh Hashanah we make a point of not napping (and some people even stay awake at night), not wasting a precious moment on something as trivial as shut eye. The Talmud states that if one sleeps at the beginning of the year—i.e., on Rosh Hashanah—his good fortune also sleeps.
- Like Sheep
On Rosh Hashanah every single creature passes before G‑d in judgment. Yet it is not a sad day, but one of quiet confidence and optimism. After all, if G‑d created us and continues to sustain us, He obviously believes we have something to accomplish on His earth. And if He believes in us, so should we.
Wishing you a shanah tovah, a good and sweet year!
שנה טובה ומתוקה