Rosh Hashanah: What is it? How is it celebrated? What do you eat and why? (2024)

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Rosh Hashanah: What is it? How is it celebrated? What do you eat and why? ›

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is about doing that literally, with primarily sweet food served to usher in a sweet year of blessings and abundance. The foods on the table are richly symbolic and meaningful. Whether you're hosting or attending a supper, check out our guide to Jewish foods for Rosh Hashanah.

Rosh Hashanah is a celebration of the creation of the world and marks making a fresh start. It is a holy day on which Jewish people are not expected to work. Instead it is a time for them to reflect on the past year and to ask for forgiveness for anything wrong they feel they have done.

Favorite recipes and sweet foods are popular choices for families on the first and second nights of Rosh Hashanah. Sour foods are usually avoided. Some people avoid nuts during Rosh Hashanah since the numerical value of the Hebrew letters in the word “nu*t” add up to the same number as the word “sin.”

Jewish-Style Braised Brisket With Onions and Carrots

You've probably eaten brisket at many Rosh Hashanah dinners, and most of those briskets have probably been poorly cooked. The lean cut of meat tends to dry out when cooked until tender.

Rosh Hashana is also the Day of the Divine Judgement, when G-d looks into the past year and counts our deeds in this world. Therefore, many people will drink in relative moderation and will often not open their most expensive bottles. Instead, they will keep those for Sukkot.

Rosh Hashanah

This is the holiday for the Jewish New Year. It literally means “head of the year.” In the Bible, it's called the Feast of Trumpets, or “Yom Teruah.” It literally means “Day of Blasting” because God commanded His people on this day to blast or blow shofars (rams' horns).

White is a symbol of purity, cleanliness and new beginnings. Because of this symbolism, many Jews wear white clothing during Rosh Hashanah.

If you still want to participate in traditional services, but are missing the comfort of a physical community around you, make nature your community. Grab your phone or laptop and bring it your favorite place in nature, whether it's a mountain or park or rooftop (looking at you, city dwellers).

How is Rosh Hashanah celebrated at home? ›

The holiday begins in a typically Jewish way, with the women of the household lighting candles before speaking two blessings. The two recitals are dedicated to God and dates back thousands of years to the story of Abraham and his wife Sarah.

Since the time of the destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem in 70 CE and the time of Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai, normative Jewish law appears to be that Rosh Hashanah is to be celebrated for two days, because of the difficulty of determining the date of the new moon.

Traditionally, no work is permitted during Rosh Hashanah as it is a day the Bible calls "Holy Convocation." The ten-day period ends with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement a day set aside to atone for the sins of the past year.

Rosh Hashanah is also a judgment day, when Jews believe that their God considers people's deeds from the previous year, decides what the next year will be like for them, and inscribes the results in the Book of Life for the coming year.

Hence, the custom of eating both apples and honey as food on Rosh Hashanah, not only for their nutritive value but especially because of their value as symbols. Honey, into which we dip apples is an expression of hope that sweetness will mark the lives of Jews in the coming year.

According to tradition, having fish on the table is an omen for blessings in the year to come. When the fish is served, observant Jews recite a prayer expressing the wish “that we be fruitful and multiply like fish.”

The Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (129:9) writes that there is a minhag not to eat bitter or vinegary foods on Rosh Hashanah, but rather to eat sweet foods for a sweet year. The Rema (Orach Chaim 583:2) writes that some are careful not to eat egozim (walnuts) on Rosh Hashanah.

“Jewish tradition teaches that the pomegranate is a symbol of righteousness, knowledge, and wisdom because it is said to have 613 seeds, each representing one of the 613 mitzvot (commandments) of the Torah,” Damien Stone writes in Pomegranate: A Global History.