Rabbi Sasson Natan
explains the foods of
the Rosh Hashanah
seder at Keter Torah
in West Bloomfield.

Keter Torah's rabbi
demonstrates
Foods that bring
New Year's wishes.

I

Barbara Lewis
Contributing Writer

R

abbi Sasson Natan is getting
ready for his family's seder.
But wait, you're probably say-
ing, Passover is more than half a year
away. Even the lesser-known Tu b'Shevat
seder isn't until February.
Ah, yes, but the rabbi, spiritual
leader of Keter Torah Synagogue in West
Bloomfield, is preparing for the Jewish
year's third seder, the Rosh Hashanah
seder, a custom widely practiced by
Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews from the
Middle East and North Africa.
The practice comes from the
Gemorrah. On both nights of Rosh
Hashanah, after Kiddush and HaMotzi,
the blessings over wine and bread, but
before the festive meal, blessings are said
on a variety of foods to symbolize hopes
for a good new year.
Seder simply means "order;" it's a way
of celebrating a holiday using specific
foods with an associated, ritual meaning.
Sasson, who likes to be called by
his first name, demonstrated a Rosh
Hashanah seder at an afternoon program
on Sunday, Sept. 7, at Keter Torah.
At the heart of the seder, he said, are
wishes we request God to grant us in the
coming year.
"On Erev Rosh Hashanah, we know
that the next day we will go to court
before God the judge, and our enemies
will come to the court with files and files
against us," said Sasson.
The eight Rosh Hashanah seder foods
were chosen because the Hebrew, Aramaic
or Arabic word for that food is associated
with another Hebrew word that can extend
into a wish for the new year.

46 September 18 • 2014

Barbara Moretsky, Bloomfield Hills; Lynn Keidan-Segel, Farmington Hills; Karen

Myerson, Bloomfield Hills; Marie Nagar, Royal Oak with Rabbi Sasson Natan

• Dates, with a wish that our enemies
will vanish.
• Leeks, with a wish that our enemies be
cut off.
• Beets, with a wish that our enemies
will be removed.
• Black-eyed peas, with a wish that our
merits increase.
• Zucchini or similar squash, with a
wish that any evil verdicts against us
be ripped up and that our merits be
announced before God.
• Pomegranate, with a wish that we be
filled with mitzvot (God's commandments)
like a pomegranate is filled with seeds.
(Some say the number of seeds in a pome-
granate equals the number of mitzvot in
the Torah: 613.)
• A fish head or ram's head, with a wish
that God will make us like the head and
not the tail. (If a ram's head is used, it also
reminds us of the binding of Isaac.)
• Apple and honey, with a wish that God
will renew for us a good and sweet year.
The seder leader holds each fruit in the
right hand while explaining the meaning
of the food and reciting the blessing for
the food and the wish associated with it.
The entire ceremony takes only about 15
or 20 minutes, said the rabbi.

As an application engineer for an Israeli
company, Robomatics, he worked on con-
tract for GM. Eventually he joined the GM
staff.
He never felt completely at home at syn-
agogue services that followed Ashkenazi
(European) custom.
Sephardic services, especially for the
High Holidays, are very different, he said.
"The main prayers are the same, but all
the poems and 'extras' are different, and
the tunes for singing the prayers are dif-
ferent"
He soon discovered Detroit's Sephardic
community. Founded in 1917, the com-
munity originally got together only for
social events and High Holiday services.
Members met at the Zionist Cultural
Center in Southfield, the Oak Park Jewish
Community Center or the chapel at Beth
Achim (now the home of Akiva Hebrew
Day School). By the 1990s, they were hold-
ing regular Shabbat services.
When the community learned that
Sasson could read Torah and chant the
prayers in the Sephardic style, they com-
pletely embraced him, he said. He left GM
in 1991 and became the congregation's
rabbi in 1992.
Keter Torah dedicated its building, at
the corner of Orchard Lake and Walnut
Lake roads, in 2002.
Sasson said he tends to use Turkish and
Greek tunes for chanting the prayers, rath-
er than those associated with the Jewish
communities from Egypt, Syria and Iraq.
"Those are more Arabic-sounding, and
the younger generations don't like them as
much," he said.

❑

Ashkenazi Rosh Hashanah
Symbols

Dates symbolize a wish that our
enemies will vanish.

Iraqi Roots
Sasson, 55, was ordained as a rabbi and
trained as a cantor in Israel, where he was
born. His family came from Iraq, and his
father was a cantor at their synagogue.
The rabbi said he became a cantor him-
self in 1973, when he was 14. He was at
the synagogue in Jerusalem with his family
when the Yom Kippur War broke out.
"Most of the men were called up to the
army, including my father" he said. "When
we came back for the afternoon service, I
became the cantor:'
Before he moved to Detroit from Israel
in 1990, he hadn't worked as a congrega-
tional rabbi.

Many Jewish families of Ashkenazi
heritage do something similar to a
Rosh Hashanah seder, using various
foods as simanim — signs — to
express good wishes for the coming
year.
Most are similar to the foods used
by Sephardi Jews, with the exception
of black-eyed peas. Instead, most
Ashkenazim express a wish for
increased merit with carrots; the
Yiddish word for carrots, mehren, is
similar to the Yiddish word for more,

mehr.

In recent years, some families have
begun to make wishes using food
puns in English. For example, raisins
and celery can indicate a wish for a
raise in salary, and pureed (whirled)
peas can indicate a wish for world
peace.
What food puns can you think of to
express a wish for the coming year?

