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17 Rosh Hashanah Facts Every Jew Should Know. 1. 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. Read more here.
The two possibilities were Nisan, the month of Passover, and Tishrei, the month of what is now known as the festival of Rosh Hashanah. In the Torah, the beginning of the year was clearly set at the first of Nisan, in the context of a description of the first Passover.
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- Origins and meaning of Rosh Hashanah
- How Rosh Hashanah is celebrated
Celebrated with trumpet blasts, prayers, and symbolic foods, this holiday marks the start of the Jewish high holy days.
Food, sound, prayer, reflection, celebration. Jewish people around the world will soon wish one another “Shanah tovah” (Hebrew for “good year”) during Rosh Hashanah, the observance of the Jewish New Year.
Jewish people welcome the new year in September or October, not January, in observance of the lunisolar Hebrew calendar. Rosh Hashanah begins on the first day of Tishri, the first month of the calendar’s civil year and seventh month of its religious year. Given that the Hebrew calendar is more than a week shorter than the Gregorian calendar and, according to tradition, originated with the biblical creation of the universe, this holiday will mark the beginning of the year 5783 for Jews worldwide.
Hebrew for “head of the year,” Rosh Hashanah is a chance not just to celebrate and look ahead, but to consider the past and review one’s relationship with God. It also marks the first day of a period known as the Ten Days of Awe, or Days of Repentance, during which a person’s actions are thought to be able to influence both God’s judgment and God’s plan for that person. These high holy days culminate in Yom Kippur, a time of atonement that is considered the holiest day of the year.
Though the holiday has been celebrated for thousands of years, its origins are murky. Jewish scripture lays out the month and days of a similar festival but does not call it Rosh Hashanah. In the biblical passage Leviticus 23:24-25, God tells Moses that the people of Israel should observe the first day of the seventh month as a day of rest and mark it with the blast of horns.
At some point, the horn-blowing holiday became associated with the new year. The earliest reference to Rosh Hashanah in a rabbinic text comes from the Mishnah, a Jewish legal text that dates from A.D. 200.
In the leadup to Rosh Hashanah, the shofar—a trumpet made from a ram or kosher animal’s horn—is regularly sounded in synagogues. The holiday itself is celebrated with even more shofar blasts, usually a hundred during the services on both days. Many Jews interpret the sound as a call to repent of sins and seek forgiveness from God.
Work is prohibited on Rosh Hashanah, and many Jewish people spend the holiday attending special services at their synagogues and then celebrating with festive meals.
Rosh Hashanah has its own symbolic foods: round challah, apples, and honey. Symbolizing God, the cycles of the year, and the sustenance that lies ahead, a rounded challah loaf, often studded with raisins, is usually dipped in honey and eaten in a celebratory meal. So are apples, which represent hope for a sweet year ahead. The tradition of eating apples for Rosh Hashanah is thought to have originated with Ashkenazi Jews in Europe who used the fall fruit in their new year’s meals. (See nine breads from around the world.)
So how will the beginning of the year 5783 be celebrated? In many places worldwide, synagogue attendance is still impossible due to the pandemic—or will require masking or proof of vaccination. But whether they’re on Zoom or gathered in person with family and friends, Jewish people around the world will surely be eating well and blowing their shofars in a show of new year’s devotion.
Jan 25, 2019 · Customs and Symbols. On Rosh HaShanah, it is customary to greet people with "L'Shanah Tovah," a Hebrew phrase that is usually translated as "for a good year" or "may you have a good year." Some people also say "L'shana tovah tikatev v'etahetem," which means "may you be inscribed and sealed for a good year."
Sep 7, 2023 · Rosh Hashanah, meaning “head of the year,” is the Jewish New Year celebration (usually in September or October, the first of Tishri) according to the Jewish calendar.
Rosh Hashanah is the autumnal festival celebrating the start of the Jewish New Year. Rosh Hashanah occurs on the first and second days of Tishri . In Hebrew , the phrase Rosh Hashanah literally means “head of the year” and thus the holiday is commonly known as the Jewish New Year.
Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) is simultaneously a time of great celebration and subtle trepidation. We celebrate the completion of one year and the beginning of the next — the reassuring, endless cycle of time. Rosh Hashanah and the Sixth Day of Creation. There is a view put forth by the rabbis in the Talmudthat the day of Rosh Hashanah ...
