Photo by Brian Hendler/JTA
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Rosh Hash
At A Glan
Elizabeth Applebaum
Special to the Jewish News
W
hen We Celebrate:
This year, Rosh
Hashanah begins the
evening of Friday, Sept. 22. It lasts
for two days among Conservative
and Orthodox Jews, and one
day among most Reform and
Reconstructionist Jews.
• Why We Celebrate: Rosh
(head) HaShanah (of the year)
marks the Jewish new year and
commemorates the creation of the
world.
The Torah commandment to
observe Rosh Hashanah is in
Parshat Emor (Leviticus 23:24),
and Parshat Pinchas (Numbers
29:1). The words "Rosh Hashanah"
are not stated in the Torah; the
name of the holiday was devel-
oped later.
Rosh Hashanah begins the
three-week holiday season that
continues with Yom Kippur,
Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret and cul-
minates with Simchat Torah.
• At The Synagogue: Like
other Jewish holidays, Rosh
Hashanah features special prayers
and rituals. A unique feature of
the day is the practice of blow-
ing the shofar, done immediately
before the congregation says the
silent Amidah prayer at Musaf.
All congregants recite Psalm 47
seven times. The shofar blower
and the congregation then respon-
sively recite seven verses drawn
from Psalms and Lamentations.
The shofar blower next says two
blessings, after which he blows
three sets of blasts. This is fol-
lowed by a responsive reading of
three verses from Psalm 89.
In the Ashkenazi rite, the shofar
is again blown during the cantor's
repetition of the Musaf Amidah;
in the Sefardi rite, the shofar is
blown during the congregation's
silent Amidah prayer. The shofar
is not blown on Shabbat.
For the Torah reading, five
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September 21 2006
persons are called up. Except on
Shabbat, the .Avitt Malkey nu
prayer is recited after the Amidah
of theMorning and afternoon
services.
Along with Yom Kippur, Rosh
Hashanah is the only day when we
prostrate ourselves in prayer, in
a modified form, as was done in
the days of the Beit HaMikdash,
the Holy Temple. The prostration
occurs during the Aleinu portion
of the Amidah.
• Thematic Significance:
Rosh Hashanah carries three .
main themes. In addition to its
importance as the beginning of
the calendar year, Rosh Hashanah
is regarded the day of judgment
(Yom HaDin), when God weighs
the acts of each person over the
past year and decides his fate.
Rosh Hashanah also is referred
to as the Day of Remembrance
( Yom HaZikaron), when God
remembers the world, and we
remember our relationship with
Him, the Torah and the Land of
Israel. We also reflect on our lives
during the past year, considering
the right and the wrong of our
thoughts and actions.
Rosh Hashanah also is the day
on which we publicly proclaim the
sovereignty of God.
• Customs And Traditions:
Rosh Hashanah is replete with
symbolic foods. A custom more
than 1,500 years old is to dip
slices of apple in honey and recite
a prayer expressing hopes for a
sweet year. Many also dip their
bread in honey (instead of the
usual salt) for the Motzi prayer
that begins the meal.
Jewish families enjoy honey •
cake or lekach (literally "portion"
in Hebrew) on Rosh Hashanah.
The inspiration behind this. is the
Book of Proverbs verse (4:2) that
reads: "For I give you good lekach,
do not forsake My teaching." The
honey cake reflects one's hope that
those who follow God's teachings
will receive a "good portion!'
' IN
A familiar sight: s
blowing in downtown
Jerusalem.
Other-symbolic foods may
include the head of a fish (a
play on the; word "rosh"), car-
rots (based on a Yiddish pun
on the word for "increase") or
pomegranates (which have many
seeds, symbolic of many children
or many good deeds. Some also
believe the pomegranate has 613
seeds, the same number of mitz-
vot, or commandments, in the
Torah).
A Chasidic tradition is to eat
beets. This was inspired by the
Hebrew word selek, which means
beet. Selek is said to sound like
sh'yistalku from the words
sh'yistlku oivaynu ("May we rid
ourselves of our enemies"), which
is said on Rosh Hashanah.
Though summer offers the
best produce of the entire year,
`some Jewish families abstain from
tasting any in those hot months.
Instead, they reserve enjoying the
first fruits of the season for the
second night of Rosh Hashanah,
when one may utter the
Shehecheyanu, a blessing said •
especially for doing something for
the first time (or, for a first time in
a certain season). The fruits most
popular on the second night of
Rosh Hashanah are pomegranates
and grapes.
On Rosh Hashanah, we look
with hope to the future. A round
bread is said to symbolize a life-
cycle that continues unbroken and
harmonious. While round challah
is the most popular on this holi-
day, some prefer to make a challah
in the form of a ladder, inspired by
the High Holiday prayer Nesaneh
Tokef, which includes the famous
lines,"Who will live and who will
die/Who will be rich, and who will
be poor ..." The ladder shows one's
hopes to rise on the ladder of life.
Among Jews from Ukraine, a
popular holiday challah shape
is that of the bird, echoing one's
hope that God will watch over
the Jews. It is based on the Isaiah
verse (31:5): "As hovering birds, so
will the Lord protect Jerusalem!'
Tzimmis is a traditional Rosh
Hashanah dish made with any
variety-of vegetables and fruits,
but always including honey and
carrots. In Yiddish, the word for
carrot is meiren, which also
translates to "multiply" By eating
carrots on Rosh Hashanah, we
hope that our blessings multiply
in the coming year.
Sliced carrots coated with
honey are believed to resemble
gold, which reflects our wish for a
year of prosperity.
Some Jews avoid nuts on Rosh
Hashanah because the Hebrew
word for nuts is egoz, which has
the same numerical value as the
word chet, or sin.
• Tashlich: Some Jews observe
tashlich, which literally means
"you shall cast." It begins late
afternoon on the first day of Rosh
Hashanah, or on the second day of
Rosh Hashanah if the first day is
Shabbat. The inspiration for this
tradition reflects a desire to begin
the new year with a clean slate,
with God forgiving past sins that
are literally tossed away.
During tashlich, Jews assign
"sins" to bits of bread, then sym-
bolically rid themselves of these
by throwing the bread into the
water. Usually, this -is accompanied
by the recitation of certain verses,
including Micah 7:18-20, Psalms
8:5-9:33; and 130, and Isaiah
11:9.
Tashlich is not Halachah
(Jewish law). The inspiration
for the ceremony is Micah 7:19,
which states: "You will cast all
their sins into the depths of the
sea," but little is known about how
the tradition began. Some say it is
an imitation of a pagan rite, while
others point out that fish, like God,
never close their eyes. (Thus we
should remember that God's eyes
are always observing our actions.)
Others note that fish were among
the first of God's creations, and so
stood as witnesses to the begin-
ning of the world.
A custom associated with tash-
lich is shaking out your pockets at
the source of water, likely in refer-
ence to a talmudic verse compar-
ing clean clothing to moral purity.
Another is adding a few verses
from the Zohar while reading
psalms.
• Fast Facts: The day immedi-
ately following Rosh Hashanah is
Tzom Gedaliah, one of four fasts
that begins at sunrise and ends
at sundown (as opposed to Yom
Kippur and Tisha b'Av, which are
24-hour fasts).
Tzom Gedaliah commemo-
rates the murder of Gedaliah ben
Achikam, governor of Israel in the
time of King Nebuchadnezzar of
Babylonia. Nebuchadnezzar not
only attacked and destroyed much
of Israel (including the Temple
sanctuary), he exiled virtually the
entire Jewish population there —
except a few, including the man he
appointed governor, Gedaliah ben
Achikam.
A rival king ordered the assas-
sination of Gedaliah and hired
as his hitman Yishmael ben
Netaniah, a Jew.
In their decision to institute a
fast day in his memory, the rabbis
said, "The death of the righteous
is likened to the burning of the
house of God." Today, some see
Tzom Gedaliah — a day on which
one Jew killed another Jew — as
a response to factionalism, rivalry
and hostility within the Jewish
community.