See other Holidays » Rosh Hashana
Rosh Hashana 2011 (5772 in the Jewish calendar) began at sunset on Wednesday September 28, and ended at nightfall on Friday, September 30.
And in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a holy convocation: You shall do no manner of work; it is a day of blowing the horn unto you. (Numbers 29:1)
In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall be a solemn rest unto you, a memorial proclaimed with the blast of horns, a holy convocation. (Leviticus 23:24)
When is Rosh Hashana? The paradox of the Jewish calendar
Rosh Hashana is celebrated on the first and second days of the month of Tishri (for the Reform movement, on the first day only). Given that Rosh Hashana is the Jewish New Year (the name literally means "head of the year"), it is perhaps odd to note that Tishri is not the first month of the Jewish calendar, but rather the seventh.
The explanation for this is that while Tishri is considered the month in which the world was created, Nisan — in the springtime — is the month in which the Jewish people became a nation (this is when the Exodus from Egypt took place; see Passover). Therefore, Nisan is month No. 1 specifically for the Jews; but the New Year, which applies to the entire world, starts in Tishri.
Rosh Hashana is always celebrated in the fall (in the northern hemisphere; Down Under, it's always in the spring) but the date ranges from September 6 to October 5. The reason for this is that the Jewish calendar is lunisolar, unlike the Gregorian calendar, which is exclusively solar.
What kind of New Year is Rosh Hashana?
Unlike New Year's Day in many cultures, the Jewish New Year is characterized more by prayer than merriment. Celebrants wear fine clothing and gather for festive meals; synagogue services are longer than those of an average Sabbath. A key feature of the liturgy is the yearly re-coronation of God as king of the world.
Rosh Hashana has two names in Jewish tradition: the Bible refers to it as Yom Terua (Day of Raising a Cry, or Day of Sounding the Ram's Horn) or Yom Zichron Terua (Day of Remembering the Terua), and later rabbinic texts call it Yom Hadin, Day of Judgment.
The ram's horn. The Bible mandates the blowing of a shofar, or ram's horn, on Rosh Hashana. There are numerous reasons suggested for this practice:
The sounding of the ram's horn takes place at several points throughout synagogue services on Rosh Hashana, unless it falls on Shabbat, in which case the shofar is not blown at all.
Day of Judgment. According to the Talmud, each individual is judged on Rosh Hashana, as is the world as a whole. It is therefore a time characterized by personal and communal teshuva — repentance or return: looking back and evaluating one's thoughts, words and deeds during the previous year and resolving to improve them during the coming one, while praying for God's forgiveness and mercy.
The Rosh Hashana liturgy depicts God sitting upon his throne, inscribing each of his creatures in the Book of Life (or the opposite); each person's livelihood is determined for the coming year, as well. There is a threefold prescription to help in obtaining a favorable decree: teshuva (repentance), tefilla (prayer), and tzedaka (charity).
Rosh Hashana inaugurates a ten-day period called the Days of Awe culminating in Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement. These are days of heightened introspection, efforts at self-improvement, and pleas for forgiveness from those we have wronged. These days are especially relevant to those for whom the Day of Judgment did not produce a clearcut verdict (in effect, everyone, since no one is granted a peek at those divine scrolls).
Rosh Hashana customs
There are a number of ancient traditions that reflect the belief that Rosh Hashana is a foreshadower of the year to come as well as an opportunity for a fresh beginning:
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[Hebrew rō'š haš-šānâ : rō'š, head, beginning + ha-, the + šānâ, year.]
For more information on Rosh Hashanah, visit Britannica.com.
Bibliography
See L. Jacobs, A Guide to Rosh ha-Shanah (1969).

| Rosh Hashanah | |
|---|---|
A shofar, symbol of the Rosh Hashanah holiday |
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| Official name | Hebrew: ראש השנה |
| Also called | Jewish New Year |
| Observed by | Judaism and Jews; Samaritans. |
| Begins | Start of first day of Tishrei |
| Ends | End of second day of Tishrei |
| Observances | Praying in synagogue, personal reflection, and hearing the shofar. |
Rosh Hashanah (Hebrew: ראש השנה), (literally "head of the year"), is the Jewish New Year. It is the first of the High Holy Days or Yamim Nora'im ("Days of Awe") which occur in the autumn. Rosh Hashanah is celebrated on the first two days of Tishrei. It is described in the Torah as יום תרועה (Yom Teru'ah, a day of sounding [the Shofar]).[1] Rosh Hashanah customs include sounding the shofar and eating symbolic foods such as apples dipped in honey.
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The term "Rosh Hashanah" does not appear in the Torah. Leviticus 23:24 refers to the festival of the first day of the seventh month as "Zikhron Teru'ah" ("a memorial with the blowing of horns"), it is also referred to in the same part of Leviticus as 'שַׁבַּת שַׁבָּתוֹן' or penultimate Sabbath or meditative rest day, and a "holy day to God". These same words are commonly used in the Psalms to refer to the anointed days. Numbers 29:1 calls the festival Yom Teru'ah, ("Day [of] blowing [the horn]") and symbolizes a number of subjects, such as the Binding of Isaac and the animal sacrifices that were to be performed.[2][3] (The term Rosh Hashanah appears once in the Bible in Ezekiel 40:1 where it means generally the time of the "beginning of the year" or is possibly a reference to Yom Kipur,[2] but the phrase may also refer to the month of Nissan in the spring, especially in light of Exodus 12:2 where the month of Nissan is stated as being "the first month of the year" and Ezekiel 45:18 where "the first month" unambiguously refers to Nissan, the month of Passover, as made plain by Ezekiel 45:21.[4])
The Hebrew Rosh Ha-Shanah is etymologically related to the Arabic Ras as-Sanah, the name chosen by Muslim lawmakers for the Islamic New Year, reflecting the common Semitic ancestry of both languages and traditions. Pre-Islamic mid-eastern cultures, besides the Jews, did not use this unique name, e.g., Egypt, Persia or Babylon. Rosh Hashanah marks the start of a new year in the Hebrew calendar (one of four "new year" observances that define various legal "years" for different purposes as explained in the Mishnah and Talmud). It is the new year for people, animals, and legal contracts. The Mishnah also sets this day aside as the new year for calculating calendar years and sabbatical (shmita) and jubilee (yovel) years. Jews believe Rosh Hashanah represents either figuratively or literally the creation of the World, or Universe. However, according to Rabbi Eleazar ben Shammua Rosh Hashanah commemorates the creation of man.[5]
The Mishnah contains the first known reference to Rosh Hashanah as the "day of judgment".[6] In the Talmud tractate on Rosh Hashanah it states that three books of account are opened on Rosh Hashanah, wherein the fate of the wicked, the righteous, and those of an intermediate class are recorded. The names of the righteous are immediately inscribed in the book of life, and they are sealed "to live." The intermediate class are allowed a respite of ten days, until Yom Kippur, to reflect, repent and become righteous;[7] the wicked are "blotted out of the book of the living forever."[8]
In Jewish liturgy Rosh Hashanah is described as "the day of judgment" (Yom ha-Din) and "the day of remembrance" (Yom ha-Zikkaron). Some midrashic descriptions depict God as sitting upon a throne, while books containing the deeds of all humanity are opened for review, and each person passing in front of Him for evaluation of his or her deeds. The Talmud provides three central ideas behind the day:
"The Holy One said, 'on Rosh Hashanah recite before Me [verses of] Sovereignty, Remembrance, and Shofar blasts (malchuyot, zichronot, shofrot): Sovereignty so that you should make Me your King; Remembrance so that your remembrance should rise up before Me. And through what? Through the Shofar.' (Rosh Hashanah 16a, 34b)"[9] This is reflected in the prayers composed by the classical rabbinic sages for Rosh Hashanah found in all machzorim where the theme of the prayers is the strongest theme is the "coronation" of God as King of the universe in preparation for the acceptance of judgments that will follow on that day, symbolized as "written" into a Divine book of judgments, that then hang in the balance for ten days waiting for all to repent, then they will be "sealed" on Yom Kippur. The assumption is that everyone was sealed for life and therefore the next festival is Sukkot (Tabernacles) that is referred to as "the time of our joy" (z'man simchateinu).
Laws on the form and use of the shofar and laws related to the religious services during the festival of Rosh Hashanah are described in Rabbinic literature such as the Mishnah that formed the basis of the tractate "Rosh HaShanah" in both the Babylonian Talmud and the Jerusalem Talmud. This also contains the most important rules concerning the calendar year.[10]
The shofar is blown in long, short and staccato blasts that follow a set sequence:
Rosh Hashanah occurs 163 days after the first day of Passover (Pesach). In terms of the Gregorian calendar, the earliest date on which Rosh Hashanah can fall is September 5, as happened in 1899 and will happen again in 2013. The latest date that Rosh Hashanah can occur relative to the Gregorian dates is October 5, as happened in 1967 and will happen again in 2043. After 2089, the differences between the Hebrew calendar and the Gregorian calendar will result in Rosh Hashanah falling no earlier than September 6.[11]
Rosh Hashanah will occur on the following days of the Gregorian calendar:
Although the Jewish calendar is based on the lunar cycle, so that the first day of each month originally began with the first sighting of a new moon, since the fourth century it has been arranged so that Rosh Hashanah never falls on a Wednesday, Friday, or Sunday.[12]
The Torah defines Rosh Hashanah as a one day celebration, and since days in the Hebrew calendar begin at sundown, the beginning of Rosh Hashanah is at sundown at the end of 29 Elul. The rules of the Hebrew calendar are designed such that the first day of Rosh Hashanah will never occur on the first, fourth, or sixth day of the Jewish week[13] (i.e., Sunday, Wednesday, or Friday). 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, due to the difficulty of determining the date of the new moon.[2] Nonetheless, there is some evidence that Rosh Hashanah was celebrated on a single day in Israel as late as the thirteenth century CE.[14] Orthodox and Conservative Judaism now generally observe Rosh Hashanah for the first two days of Tishrei, even in Israel where all other Jewish holidays dated from the new moon last only one day. The two days of Rosh Hashanah are said to constitute "Yoma Arichtah" (Aramaic: "one long day"). In Reform Judaism, some communities only observe the first day of Rosh Hashanah, while others observe two days. Karaite Jews, who do not recognize Rabbinic Jewish oral law and rely on their own understanding of the Torah, observe only one day on the first of Tishrei, since the second day is not mentioned in the Written Torah.
The Yamim Nora'im are preceded by the month of Elul, during which Jews are supposed to begin a self-examination and repentance, a process that culminates in the ten days of the Yamim Nora'im known as beginning with Rosh Hashanah and ending with the holiday of Yom Kippur.
The shofar is traditionally blown each morning for the entire month of Elul, the month preceding Rosh Hashanah. The sound of the shofar is intended to awaken the listeners from their "slumbers" and alert them to the coming judgment.[15] The shofar is not blown on Shabbat.[16]
In the period leading up to the Yamim Nora'im (Hebrew, "days of awe") penitential prayers, called selichot, are recited.
The evening before Rosh Hashanah day is known as Erev Rosh Hashanah ("Rosh Hashanah eve"). As with Rosh Hashanah day, it falls on the 1st day of the Hebrew month of Tishrei, since days of the Hebrew calendar begin at sundown. Some communities perform Hatar'at nedarim (a nullification of vows) after the morning prayer services during the morning on the 29th of the Hebrew month of Elul, which ends at sundown, when Erev Rosh Hashanah commences. The mood becomes festive but serious in anticipation of the new year and the synagogue services. Many Orthodox men immerse in a mikveh in honor of the coming day.
On Rosh Hashanah day, religious poems, called piyyuttim, are added to the regular services. A special prayer book, the mahzor, is used on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (plural mahzorim). A number of additions are made to the regular service, most notably an extended repetition of the Amidah prayer for both Shacharit and Mussaf. The Shofar is blown during Mussaf at several intervals. (In many synagogues, even little children come and hear the Shofar being blown.) Biblical verses are recited at each point. According to the Mishnah, 10 verses (each) are said regarding kinship, remembrance, and the shofar itself, each accompanied by the blowing of the shofar. A variety of piyyutim, medieval penitential prayers, are recited regarding themes of repentance. The Alenu prayer is recited during the repetition of the Mussaf Amidah.
Rosh Hashanah meals usually include apples and honey, to symbolize a sweet new year. Other foods with a symbolic meaning may be served, depending on local minhag ("custom"), such as the head of a fish (to symbolize the "head" of the year).
The Sephardi and Mizrahi communities hold a "Rosh Hashanah seder" during which blessings are recited over a variety of symbolic dishes.[17][18][19] The blessings start with the phrase "Yehi ratzon," meaning "May it be thy will." In many cases, the name of the food in Hebrew or Aramaic represents a play on words or pun. The Yehi Ratson platter may include apples (dipped in honey, baked or cooked as a compote called mansanada); dates; pomegranates; black eyed peas; pumpkin-filled pastries called rodanchas; leek fritters called keftedes de prasa; beets; and a whole fish with the head intact. It is also common to eat stuffed vegetables called legumbres yaprakes.[20]
Some of the symbolic foods eaten are dates, black-eyed peas, leek, spinach and gourd, all of which are mentioned in the Talmud. Pomegranates are used in many traditions, to symbolize being fruitful like the pomegranate with its many seeds.[21] The use of apples and honey, symbolizing a sweet year, is a late medieval Ashkenazi addition, though it is now almost universally accepted. Typically, round challah bread is served, to symbolize the cycle of the year.[21]Gefilte fish and Lekach are commonly served by Ashkenazic Jews on this holiday. On the second night, new fruits are served to warrant inclusion of the shehecheyanu blessing.
The ritual of tashlikh is performed on the afternoon of the first day of Rosh Hashanah. Prayers are recited near natural flowing water, and one's sins are symbolically cast into the water. Many also have the custom to throw bread or pebbles into the water, to symbolize the "casting off" of sins. In some communities, if the first day of Rosh Hashanah occurs on Shabbat, tashlikh is postponed until the second day. The traditional service for tashlikh is recited individually and includes the prayer "Who is like unto you, O God...And You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea", and Biblical passages including Isaiah 11:9 ("They will not injure nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea") and Psalms 118:5-9, 121 and 130, as well as personal prayers. Though once considered a solemn individual tradition, it has become an increasingly social ceremony practiced in groups.
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