Rosh Hashanah

People have celebrated Rosh Hashanah with a festive gathering since Talmudic times. Weaving together symbolic foods with the familiar structure of a seder helps us start the new year mindfully. 

During this brief seder, we’ll make four toasts together and find opportunities for blessing and reflection. Each toast is centered on a way of understanding Rosh Hashanah - as a day of reawakening, of judgment, of remembrance and of recreation. The choice of beverage is up to you!

In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of rest, a memorial proclaimed with the sounding of shofar, a holy convocation.

—Vayikra (Leviticus) 23:24-25.

This is what Torah says about Rosh haShanah. How did it become the New Year? How is the year to begin in the seventh month, instead of the first month of the year?

Why begin the year in the northern hemisphere’s autumn? It was the time of the harvest in many of the ancient cultures around the Mediterranean region. The harvest began the economic cycle. (There is also a spring harvest, and some of these cultures began the year at that time. Ours chose to give primacy to the autumn harvest.)

After our departure from Egypt, the month of our liberation, Nisan, became the first month of the year. Still, the year number continued to change on the first day of Tishrei, in the (northern hemisphere) autumn.

Rosh haShanah has other names: Yom T’ruah (Day of the Horn Sounding), Yom haZikaron (Day of Remembrance), and Yom haDin (Day of Judgement). Each of these reflects an aspect of the day that has accumulated over the years. Rosh haShanah is also the first of the Yamim Nora’im, the Days of Awe, the period from Rosh haShanah through Yom Kippur, when the world is said to be judged and when we make a special effort to do teshuvah, to return to the path of righteousness.

During the Yom Tov Kiddush, we referred to the day as Yom T’ruah and as Yom haZikaron—but not as Rosh haShanah!

Teshuvah, returning. What does “returning” have to do with Rosh haShanah and the Yamim Nora’im?

Teshuvah is often translated as repentance. It is more accurately rendered “returning.” On Rosh haShanah, we begin a focused effort to correct our failings of the past year, to right our wrongs of the past year, and to return to the right path.

Teshuvah is frequently associated with cheyt, as in the Al Cheyt prayer. We often find cheyt translated as “sin.” Other ways to think of cheyt are as a missing of the mark, or as a misstep. When we make a mistake, when we chot’im (when we commit a cheyt), we take a misstep and we go the wrong way. When we do teshuvah, we return to the path we left when we made that misstep.

That same teshuvah (repentance / repair) framework is also the answer if one realizes that one has engaged in any wrongful interpersonal act. Teshuvah is our constant spiritual and ethical curriculum. Everyone causes harm, and everyone experiences harm. Our task as Jews is to use our tradition’s wisdom in the service of building a world of less harm and more justice.

So does Lech-Lecha mean “go into yourself,” or “go forth from where you are”? Of course the answer is: it’s both.

Because of our calendar, we always read these lines with the Days of Awe reverberating in our souls. The spiritual work of the high holidays takes us on a journey of introspection – that’s “go into yourself.” Now, as the new Torah cycle gets underway, that introspection fuels “go forth from where you are,” a journey of building a better world...

To build an ethic of social justice into our lives and our Judaism, we need to find balance’s sweet spot. We need to journey inward enough to see where we’ve fallen short and what work we need to do. And we need to journey outward enough to take the next action, however small, in lifting each other up – pursuing justice – mitigating climate crisis – helping someone in need.  

Pirkei Avot (2:15) teaches us to “Make teshuvah the day before your death.” But who among us knows when the day of our death will be? None of us can control when we die, but we do have some control over who we are in this life. The idea of teshuvah – that we can repent, can make amends, can do the work of change – means that who we’ve been doesn’t have to be who we’ll become. Balancing who we’ve been and who we’re becoming – there’s Tiferet again.

And, there’s no magic short cut. No game hack that gets us a high score we didn’t earn. Anyone can make teshuvah – and anyone who wants to make teshuvah has to do the work. And there’s no time like the present. Indeed, some say there’s no time other than the present. Now is all we have. Therefore Judaism calls us to make teshuvah everyday. To do the inner work of self-reflection, and the outer work of changing and making amends, all the time.  

Let us take teshuvah with us throughout the year, and make teshuvah whenever we can. The sooner we can correct our misstep and return to the right path the less far astray from that right path we will go.

What changes would we need to make in order to be remembered the way we want to be remembered?

The Rosh Hashanah Seder finds its earliest written source in a peculiar menu whose symbolic significance is not revealed...and your dinner menu can include many of these items that can draw on our earliest history and connect us to our hopes and dreams for our present and our future.

"For a good omen on Rosh HaShanah one should make it a habit to eat squash [like pumpkin], legumes [like string

beans], kartei (leeks), spinach and dates.”     Talmud BT Keritot 6a

The list often continues with figs, dates, pomegranates, apples, and the head of a ram or a fish. Jews from other lands add carrots and beets, but obviously any food will do as long as you have a creatively corny sense of humor and a willingness to share your greatest fears and hopes.  Each food is eaten after requesting a specific kind of Divine blessing that sounds like the name of that food in Hebrew. 

Many families add a conversation following each of these meditations. Prompts are shared below.

Apples and Honey

Y’hi ratzon milfanech, shetichadesh aleinu shana tova u’metukah.
May it be Adonai’s will we will be renewed for a sweet new year.

With this blessing, we also recite the blessing over apples:

Baruch Ata, Adonai, Eloheinu Melech haolam, borei pri haetz.
Blessed are You, Ruler of the Universe, who has created the fruit of the tree.

What is new about you, for you, with you in this new year? We ask that the Divine Spark will “renew” us. How might you imagine being renewed in this coming year? How might you help this to happen? This is the most commonly known symbol and food for Rosh HaShanah. Why do you think it has become so popular? What might you substitute in its place if you were to reinvent the ritual?

Challah

For dipping challah (into honey) we might use this Hassidic wish:

May Hashem create yeast in your soul, causing you to ferment, and mature, to rise, elevate, to your highest possibilities, to reach your highest self.

How have you matured or “fermented” this year? What is something that you have accomplished that you can celebrate with us? What are your hopes for “fermentation” for this coming year? What is something you hope to accomplish?

A Head

Traditionally the head of a lamb or a carp is the occasion for a blessing (though vegetarians might perhaps substitute a head of cabbage or a head of lettuce):

Y’hi ratzon sheh- ni-hi-yeh l’Rosh v’lo l’zanav
May it be Hashem’s will that we will be a head and not a tail.

What does this mean? How might you interpret the blessing? Would you rather be a head or a tail? Why? How might this food be connected to the Jewish calendar?

Spinach or beets

In Hebrew, spinach or beets are traditionally called   seleck, which can also mean “to remove decisively.” They elicit this New Year’s wish: 

Y’hi ratzon sheh- yis-talku soneinu.
May it be Hashem’s will that our enemies be removed from our presence.  May it be Hashem’s will that all the enemies who might beat us will retreat, and we will beat a path to freedom (  Selek  resembles the word for retreat,  yistalku  ).

When this was written, who do you think it could have referred to? What are different ways we can understand “enemies”? Who might it refer to today?

Pomegranate

Take some pomegranate seeds.

As numerous as the stars…like the seeds of a pomegranate. Rich, deep red, the color of life-giving blood. Sweet and tart. Crunchy, refreshing. We can eat the pomegranate’s seeds one at a time, savoring each individually, or we can take a handful at once and enjoy the explosion of flavor in our mouths.

Pomegranates, filled with numerous sweet seeds, traditionally recall the 613 commandments or mitzvot found in the Torah.  May our good deeds, our mitzvot, be like pomegranate seeds. May they be plentiful. May we savor each, and may we enjoy many.

The blessing is:

Y’hi ratzon sheh-ni-hi-yeh malei mitzvot ka-rimon

May it be Your will, Yah, our loving Mother who breathes life into all that lives, that we be filled with mitzvot, and that we be kind to others, and that we do as many good deeds as there are seeds in a pomegranate.

Eat the pomegranate seeds.

What is a mitzvah that you hope to fulfill this year? Here, seeds symbolize mitzvot. What else might they symbolize? What does the performance of a mitzvah do for you, the one who performs the mitzvah? How does it feel? What inspires us to do mitzvot?

Carrots or Squash

The Hebrew word for carrot is גזר (gezer), similar to the Hebrew לִגְזוֹר (ligzor), meaning to cut, or to ordain (as in command), or to decree. In this season, let divine judgments, divine decrees, be good ones for us in this New Year.

                                             B’ruchah At Yah Shekhinah, Ruach ha‐olam boreit p’ri ha‐adamah.

                       You are blessed, Yah, Divine Presence, Life’s Breath of the Universe, Creator of the fruit of the earth

Yehi ratzon milfanecha she-yikara roa gezar dinneinu, v’yikaru lfaneacha zakiyoteinu

May it be Hashem’s will that the evil decrees against us be torn up and our good merits be read.

B’ruchah At Yah Shekhinah, Ruach ha‐olam boreit p’ri ha‐adamah.

You are blessed, Yah, Divine Presence, Life’s Breath of the Universe, Creator of the fruit of the earth

Eat the carrot.

To yourself: If you could choose one thing that would be wiped from your memory this year, what would it be? To yourself: What is something that you wished you’d done differently this year? If you could do it all over again, would you do it the same, or different? What is a “good merit” about you that perhaps no one knows about?

Dates

The Hebrew word for date is rn, (tamar). Within this word is o, (tam): innocent, unblemished.

Innocent how?  Innocent of wrongdoing, innocent of failings, innocent of missing the mark. Unblemished in what way? Unblemished by our own transgressions: of the hand, of the mind, of the tongue, of the heart.

May all humanity be innocent and unblemished. And may we be able to repair the blemishes we ourselves have wrought on each other and on our world.

May it be your will, that hatred will end. (  Tamar  resembles the word for end,  yitamu. )

Before eating black-eyed peas or string beans (  rubia  ):
May it be Your will, God, that our merits increase. (  Rubia  resembles the word for increase,  yirbu. )

Before eating leeks, chives, or scallions (  karti  ):
May it be Your will, God, that our enemies be cut off. (  Karti  resembles the word for cut off,   yikartu. ) 

Since Rosh Hashanah means the  head of the year, we eat foods that symbolize our wish to be heads, not tails in the year to come. Traditionally, families ate the head of a fish or sheep. You may want to instead enjoy a head of lettuce, or a more whimsical option involves gummy fish. 
May it be Your will, God, that our heads remain clear and focused on creating a better world this year.

Dating back to Talmudic times, there have been associations between Rosh haShanah and food. From Nehemiah chapter 8:

And Ezra the Kohen brought Torah (the Law) to the congregation, men and women and all who could hear with understanding, on the first day of the seventh month.

Nehemiah the Tishatha, Ezra the Kohen and scribe, and the Levites who were explaining to the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to Adonai your God: you must not mourn or weep,” for all the people were weeping as they listened to the words of Torah.

They further said to them, “Go, eat choice foods and drink sweet drinks and send portions to whoever has nothing prepared, for the day is holy to Adonai. Do not be sad, for your rejoicing in Adonai is the source of your strength.

There are many symbolic foods around Rosh haShanah, depending on your custom: apples and honey, beets, gourds, beans, pomegranates, carrots, round challah, wine. In our Kabbalat haShanah Seder—our welcoming of the New Year—we incorporate some of these and some traditional text from the machzor.

Let all who are hungry—for food, for spiritual uplifting, for companionship—come and eat and join us.