The atmosphere of the Rosh Hashanah holiday is slightly contradictory- on one hand, it is a holiday, complete with a festive dinner and special foods, while on the other hand it marks the solemn start of the ten Days of Awe, wherein Jews have the opportunity to redeem themselves before their fates are sealed on Yom Kippur. There are various ceremonies intended to mark a shaking off of old commitments and mistakes of the previous year, allowing one to move into the New Year with a clean slate.

Some communities perform a ceremonial nullification of vows before Rosh Hashanah starts, or will immerse themselves in the mikvah (ritual bath) before the start of the holiday. Another symbolic ceremony is the practice of tashlikh, during which special prayers are recited next to flowing water, and one’s sins are symbolically cast in and carried away by the waters, literally washing away one’s sins.

The Rosh Hashanah meal is full of symbolic (and delicious!) foods that represent such themes as a sweet new year, blessings, or new beginnings. Many families will serve apples and honey or honey cake to represent their hope for a sweet and pleasant New Year. Pomegranates are also commonly included, as this fruit is often mentioned throughout the Torah as a symbol of fruitfulness and plenty. A typical Rosh Hashanah meal also includes a round challah, sometimes studded with juicy raisins, to represent the cycle of the year. Cooked tongue, the head of a fish, or other meats from the head of an animal are often served to symbolize the ‘head’ of the New Year. Inspired by these symbolic foods, one can then be ready to move into the days preceding Yom Kippur ready to get the New Year started off right.

Days of Awe: History of the Holiday

Literally translated as ‘head of the year’, Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of the Jewish Year. It is the first of the High Holidays, and begins the ten days of repentance known as the ‘Days of Awe’. This solemn period marks a new start for everyone, including people, animals, and legal contracts; it symbolizes a fresh start for us to review the past year, learn from our mistakes, repent for past sins, and move forward towards the new year.

Rabbinic commentary on Jewish Oral Law describes how three books of accounting are opened every Rosh Hashanah. Similar perhaps to Santa’s List of Naughty and Nice, the three books are inscribed with the fates of the righteous, the wicked, and everyone in between.

The names of the righteous are inscribed in the book of life, and are sealed to live through the coming year. The doomed names of the wicked are blotted out of the book of the life, while those who lagged in between, neither particularly naughty or nice, are given a ten day respite to turn their lives around. Their fates will be sealed come Yom Kippur, the day of repentance and last call for redemption.

The icon of Rosh Hashanah is definitely the shofar, the ritual trumpet carved of a ram’s horn. Its powerful sound is intended as a clarion call to awake an urgent sense of repentance in its listeners and spur them to make the most of the ten Days of Awe.

The Jewish book of oral law, known as the Mishna, notes that humans are visceral beings, and thus will only respond to something powerful enough to shake them out of their reverie to change their ways. The thunderous blasts of the ram horn to do just that, calling on the sinners to take advantage of the coming ten days to become a better, kinder, more faithful person. God is especially receptive to our prayers during this period, and all will be afforded a second chance to get their names into the book of the righteous in time for the fateful Day of Atonement.

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