Rosh Hashanah

The Jewish New Year — the Day of Judgment, the head of the Ten Days of Repentance, and the day on which the shofar is sounded.

By The EditorsEssential

Sacred Time · 3 minute read

Photograph

Summary. Rosh Hashanah (literally "head of the year") falls on the 1st and 2nd of Tishrei. The Torah commands the day as Yom Teruah, the day of sounding (Bamidbar 29:1); the Mishnah (Rosh Hashanah 1:2) declares all the world's inhabitants pass before God in judgment on this day. The shofar is sounded 100 times during services; the liturgy is unusually solemn and rich; the apples-and-honey table custom looks forward to a sweet new year. Rosh Hashanah opens the Ten Days of Repentance (Aseret Yemei Teshuvah) that close with Yom Kippur.

When and How Many Days

1st and 2nd of Tishrei. Two days in both Israel and the diaspora — an exception to the usual rule, because Rosh Hashanah falls at the beginning of the month when the sanctification of the new moon was historically uncertain even within the Land. The two days are treated as a single "long day" (yoma arichta) for many halachic purposes.

The Shofar

The shofar (a ram's horn) is the central mitzvah of Rosh Hashanah. The blowing pattern includes three sounds: tekiah (a long single blast), shevarim (three medium blasts), and teruah (nine short staccato blasts). The Mishnah (Rosh Hashanah 4:9) prescribes the sequence; the contemporary practice sounds 100 blasts over the course of the morning services. The shofar is not sounded if the first day of Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbat; in that case the obligation is fulfilled on the second day.

The Liturgy

The Rosh Hashanah Musaf Amidah includes three special sections — Malchuyot (Kingship), Zichronot (Remembrances), and Shofarot (Shofar verses) — each comprising ten biblical verses on the theme. The Unetaneh Tokef ("Let us speak of the awesomeness"), an anonymous piyyut whose language and structure point to the Byzantine period, is the most famous Rosh Hashanah prayer: "On Rosh Hashanah it is written and on the Fast of Yom Kippur it is sealed: who shall live and who shall die, who in their time and who not in their time..." A tradition first recorded in the 13th-century Or Zarua holds that Rabbi Amnon of Mainz recited the piyyut as he died a martyr; the poem appears, however, to have existed well before his lifetime, and its author is unknown.

Customs at the Table

Apples dipped in honey — symbolic of a sweet year. The blessing is borei pri ha'etz; some add a "may it be Your will" formula after.

Round challah (rather than the usual braided loaf) — symbolic of the year coming round; often raisin-studded for sweetness.

Pomegranate — for the abundance of mitzvot. Many recite "may our merits multiply like the seeds of the pomegranate."

Fish (in some traditions, fish heads) — "may we be a head and not a tail."

Sephardic seder Rosh Hashanah — a multi-course tradition with simanim (symbolic foods: dates, leeks, gourds, black-eyed peas, beets) each accompanied by a brief liturgical formula.

Tashlich — on the afternoon of the first day of Rosh Hashanah (or the second if the first is Shabbat), a customary walk to a body of flowing water for the symbolic casting away of sins (drawn from Micah 7:19).

Where Denominations Diverge

All denominations observe Rosh Hashanah as a major holiday and the shofar is universal. Orthodox and Conservative diasporic communities observe two days; Reform typically observes one day. The liturgical content varies by denomination; Reform machzorim include substantial English readings; Conservative Lev Shalem and Mahzor Hadash include matriarchs in the Avot blessing.