Rosh Hashana Yom Kippur and Holiday Guide Rosh Hashana ABOUT
Rosh Hashana, literally “Head of the Year,” opens the doors to the Yamim Noraim - Days of Awe. Rosh Hashana falls on the first day of the seventh Hebrew month (Tishrei). According to our Sages, this is the month in which God created the world. In Jewish tradition, creation implies the goodness of the world: “And God saw everything that God had made, and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). The Days of Awe are a time for each individual to concentrate on the meaning of life and on our capacity to improve as human beings.
Rosh Hashana is also known as Yom Teruah - the Day of Sounding the Shofar (the ram’s horn). The wail of the shofar, traditionally sounded one hundred times, is one of the highlights of the synagogue service. Its cry reminds us of the binding of Isaac when God provided Abraham a ram to be offered in his stead. It also reminds us of the revelation of Torah at Mt. Sinai when thunder and shofar calls were heard. The great twelfth century sage Moses Maimonides wrote that the cry of the shofar should serve as a spiritual alarm clock as if to say, “Awake, O you sleepers, awake from your sleep! Awake, O you slumberers, awake from your slumber! Search your deeds and turn in teshuva - repentance.”
During this time God is imagined as our parent and our ruler, avinu and malkenu. We pray for God to judge us through the eyes of a parent - with loving kindness, understanding, compassion, and forgiveness. We also realize God’s ultimate power and appreciate the fragility of our own lives. We pray that God will “Remember us for life, Ruler who loves life; write us in the book of life, for your sake, Creator of Life.”
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Rosh Hashana HOW WE CELEBRATE
Rosh Hashana begins, as do all Jewish holidays, in the evening at sundown with candle lighting, kiddushthe blessing over the wine, and a festive meal. Special foods for the holiday include sweet round challah, symbolizing the cyclical year, and any sweet food, particularly apples with honey and honey cake, for a sweet year. It is customary to eat a new fruit on the second night of Rosh Hashana. Some people choose a pomegranate for its symbolic 613 seeds (the number of mitzvot - commandments in the Torah) and say, “May our merits multiply as pomegranate seeds.”
We wish one another “Shana Tova,” a good new year.
We give tzedakah - justice and charity, do gemilut chasadim - acts of kindness, and teshuva - repentance, in hopes of tipping the scales of judgment in our favor, and in so doing, start the year shaping a better world for all. We recite the Shehecheyanu prayer, praising God for keeping us in life, sustaining us and enabling us to reach this season. During the afternoon of the first day of Rosh Hashana the custom of Tashlich is performed. People go to a river or other flowing body of water to symbolically “cast their sins into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:19).
Celebration FAMILY AT PJA...
This is a great time to make and send cards to family and friends. Families may choose this time of year to collectively decide where the year’s tzedakah - justice and charity, is to be distributed or to choose a family tzedakah project for the coming year. It’s always great to include the entire family in meal preparation. This is a good time to invite people whose families are far away or who are new to town to share in your holiday celebration.
Students will be exploring the simanim - the special foods eaten on Rosh Hashana. These foods symbolize the type of year we wish to have. We begin the meal by dipping the challah and then an apple in honey. Other foods include pomegranate, the head of a fish, and carrots. Students will cook and plant some of the vegetables that are a part of the Rosh Hashana table, in the school’s garden. These may include dates, small light colored beans, leeks, beets, and gourds. Students will also study texts connected to the holiday, and set goals for themselves for the new Jewish year.
Festive Food English Prayer Explanation
“May it be your will, God, our God and the God of our ancestors that...
Beet Carrot
Date
...our adversaries be removed.”
...You decree on us only good decrees.”
...our enemies be consumed.”
Fish
...we be fruitful and multiple like fish.”
Head of a Fish Leek
Pomegranate
...we be as the head and not as the tail.”
...our enemies be decimated.”
...our merits increase as (the seed of) a pomegranate.”
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
For Adults:
Days of Awe, S.Y. Agnon
The Jewish Way: Living the Jewish Holidays, Irving Greenberg
Living a Jewish Life, Anita Diamant and Howard Cooper
Jewish Family Celebrations, Arlene Rossen Cardozo
For Children:
A Rosh Hashanah Walk, Carol Levin
Days of Awe-Stories for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Eric Kimmel
Holiday Tales of Shalom Aleichem, Aliza Shevrin
Selek, beet resembles the Hebrew word sileik, remove.
Gezer, carrot resembles the Hebrew word gezerah, decree.
Tamar, date resembles the Hebrew word tom, to consume.
Fish are known to reproduce in large numbers.
From Devarim 28:13, “And God will place you as a head and not as a tail...”
Khreishah, leek resembles the Hebrew word, khareit, decimate.
A pomegranate has many, many seeds.
Rosh Hashana Calendar
Eve of First Day
Friday, September 15, 2023
29 Elul, 5783
Light Holiday Candles before sunset
Eve of Second Day
Saturday, September 16, 2023
1 Tishrei, 5784
Light Holiday Candles after nightfall
Second Day
Sunday, September 17, 2023
2 Tishrei, 5784
Yom Kippur Holiday ABOUT THE
Yom Kippur is known as the holiest day in the Jewish year. The goal of Yom Kippur is to bring about reconciliation between people and between each individual and God. “The tenth day of the seventh month is a day of atonement. It shall be a sacred occasion for you… it is a day on which atonement is made on your behalf before Adonai your God… a Shabbat of complete rest it shall be for you” (Lev. 23:26-32).
During the time of the Bet HamikdashTemple, the Kohein Gadol - High Priest offered special offerings to cleanse himself, his family, and all the People of Israel. He then sent away a second goat into the wilderness, symbolically carrying away the wrongdoing of the people. This ritual includes three separate moments during which the high priest appeared before the people reciting a formula of confession in their hearing. At this momentous occasion only, the Kohein Gadol - High Priest would utter the tetragrammaton, the Y-H-V-H, the name by which God identified God’s self to Moses at the burning bush. Upon hearing this, the people would respond aloud, “Baruch Shem K’vod Malchuto L’Olam Va’ed!” - Blessed is God’s glorious sovereignty forever and always! In traditional synagogues, Yom Kippur is still the only day on which these words are spoken aloud after saying the Shema. Yom Kippur is the only fast day mandated in the Torah. On Yom Kippur, people refrain from drinking any liquid, bathing, engaging in marital relations, or wearing leather shoes. On Yom Kippur we often see the incongruous sight of people attired in their finest fall fashions wearing canvas sneakers!
myjewishlearning.com/article/tashlikh
PJA students doing tashlich, a symbolic ceremony that happens before Yom Kippur, where crumbs are thrown into a body of water as a representation of casting off our sins. Visit:
for more information.
Yom Kippur HOW WE CELEBRATE
Before the actual holiday of Yom Kippur is ushered in, we have spent ten days in the process of teshuva - repentance In Judaism the word chet - sin connotes a sense of missing the mark as in archery. We use these ten days between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur (Aseret Yamei HaTeshuva) to look within ourselves in a process of cheshbon hanefesh - an accounting of our souls reviewing our behaviors of the past year. If one has offended or injured another person, one is obligated to sincerely request forgiveness of that person. The other person is correspondingly obligated to forgive, provided the request has been honestly made. All day attendance at synagogue, even if spent in ardent prayer, will not wipe clean the slate for offenses committed against other people.
Yom Kippur begins with a pre-fast meal prior to sunset. Holiday candles are lit and yahrzeit - memorial candles are also lit if the family is remembering loved ones who have died. This can be a good time to share precious memories of beloved departed relatives with the children. Older children are encouraged to eat less than usual, but not to fast for the entire twenty-five hours of the holiday. Any person suffering from an illness is forbidden to fast with the Jewish value of the sanctity of life taking precedence over all other mitzvot - commandments.
The synagogue liturgy of Erev Yom Kippur contains the stirring melodic chanting of the Kol Nidrei prayer. With the Aron Kodesh - the Holy Ark of the Torah open, each Torah dressed in holiday white and held by congregants, we ask to be released from vows to God that we have made and not kept.
Highlights of services during Yom Kippur day, the longest of the Jewish holidays, include the Al Chet prayer, an acrostic in which our transgressions of the past year are confessed in alphabetical order. People lightly beat their fists against their chests as each sin is spoken. Most of the transgressions mentioned are moral failings, such as wronging others, gossiping, disrespect of parents and teachers, using foul speech or being dishonest in business. The entire Al Chet prayer is recited in the plural, reminding us that each of us bears responsibility for the well-being of our community, as well as to save individuals from the embarrassment of the recitation of particular failings. We pray for God to be compassionate in judging us and pray that our prayer, our tzedakah - justice and charity and our performance of good deeds will cancel a harsh decree.
The Book of Jonah is read during the afternoon service. Its predominant theme is God’s willingness to forgive when teshuva - repentance is sincere. The day inches toward a close with the Ne’ilah service, which refers to the “shutting of the gates.” Jewish tradition regards Yom Kippur as the day on which God ends decisions on the fate of each human being and the liturgy vividly depicts gates beginning to close as the sun sets. A long, single note is sounded on the shofar to end Yom Kippur. Now it’s time to celebrate a new, worthy beginning, having made peace with one another and with God.
Yom Kippur Calendar
Erev Yom Kippur
Sunday, September 24, 2023
9 Tishrei, 5784
Light Holiday Candles before sunset
Yom Kippur
Monday, September 25, 2023
10 Tishrei, 5784
Holiday ends at sundown
SUGGESTIONS FOR FAMILY
Celebration
Explain to children that teshuva - repentance is asking for forgiveness. Families can use this opportunity to serve as models, acknowledging mistakes and wrongdoing and asking for forgiveness from one another and from their children. You might choose a special time to decide on one or two family values to highlight this year, such as patience, appreciation, helpfulness, or better communication.
Children are not too young to begin to learn the deeper meanings of the holiday. Even if apples and honey, new clothes, and the blasts of the shofar are momentarily more enticing, on some level the deeper meanings of these days are making an impression if we provide those meanings. The steps of teshuva - repentance can be taught and practiced at home. According to Maimonides, the first step is to recognize and regret faulty behavior, asking forgiveness of those who have been wronged; second, to reject the behavior by ceasing to do it; and third, to resolve to behave better by making different choices in the future. Rabbi Irving Greenberg calls these “the three R’s of repentance.” As adults, our responsibility is not only to model the practice of teshuva - repentance, but to help our children understand that mistakes can be overcome and the slate wiped clean. This is the time of year to raise our own moral consciences as well. We can set goals with our families for mitzvah actions and tzedakah work for the coming year. Sharing these goals and activities with friends can be a positive and supportive project. A few concrete suggestions include:
Collect baby items, books, toys; give away outgrown clothes; purchase extra food for the food bank; adopt an elderly shut-in or nursing home resident; volunteer at the Humane Society; weed the garden of a neighbor unable to care for their yard; plant a tree; clear ivy from a park; pick a day to be on litter patrol; volunteer at a school or hospital; serve a meal at a shelter; save every penny that comes your way and donate them to a homeless shelter; donate your old furniture to Community Warehouse; give to an institution whose values and work you admire; invite others for holiday or Shabbat dinners; say “I love you” to each member of your family every day; say the Shema each night before you go to sleep.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
For Adults:
The Yom Kippur Anthology, Phillip Goodman
The First Jewish Catalogue;
The Second Jewish Catalogue; The Third Jewish Catalogue; Michael Strassfeld and Sharon Strassfeld, et.al
Raising Your Child to be a Mensch, Neil Kurshan
For Children:
Sneakers to Shul, Floreva Cohen
Yussel’s Prayer, Barbara Cohen
First Fast, Barbara Cohen
Reaches of Heaven, I.B. Singer
If Not Higher, Y.L. Peretz
A Final Word
The ten day period from the beginning of Rosh Hashana to the end of Yom Kippur is called the Aseret Yemei Teshuvah - the Ten Days of Teshuvah. The conventional translation for teshuvah is repentance. The literal and real translation is “return.” Repentance is one aspect of teshuvah. Repentance relates to error, to sins of omission or commission. It is the rectification and erasure of the past. On a deeper level, teshuvah is “coming home,” a reunion.
Teshuvah removes a burdensome past and opens the door to a new future. It means renewal and rebirth. Classically, teshuvah is comprised of three ingredients: regret of misdeed, decision to change, and verbal expression of one’s misdeeds. Teshuvah can be done with great simcha - enthusiastically and with joy and feeling.
Wishing you all a happy, healthy, sweet, and peaceful new year. Shana
Tova U’metukah!
Holiday Recipes + Nutrition
Purple Cabbage Siman Salad
Serves 6 - 8
Cabbage, dates and pomegranate are three of the symbolic foods used on Rosh Hashana. Be sure to taste each separately when saying the traditional “Yehi Ratzon” benediction for each one. When they come together and marinate with the aromatic Indian garam masala spice blend, they are a terrific salad starter or accompaniment to any meal.
Ingredients:
• ½ small head purple cabbage, shredded
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• Arils from ½ pomegranate (about ½ cup)
• 6 - 7 Medjool dates, pitted and thinly sliced
• 2 - 3 scallions, thinly sliced
• Juice of 1 large lemon (about 3 tablespoons)
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1½ teaspoons garam masala powder (Pereg)
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
• ½ cup safflower oil
Preparation:
1. Combine cabbage, celery, pomegranate, dates, and scallions in a large bowl. Set aside.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together lemon juice, vinegar, honey, salt, pepper, and garam masala to blend. While continually whisking, slowly drizzle in the oil until well-blended and emulsified.
3. Pour dressing over cabbage mixture. Toss to coat with dressing. Marinate for at least 4 hours or overnight.
Sephardic Jeweled Rosh Hashana Rice
Serves 4 - 6
Ingredients:
1 ½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
½ teaspoon turmeric
¼ teaspoon cumin
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil divided, plus 1 teaspoon
2 medium sized onions, diced small
10 dried apricots, quartered
6 dried figs (Smyrna), quartered
¼ cup dried cherries
¼ cup pistachios or pumpkin seeds
1 cup long grain rice (Jasmine or Basmati)
1 cup water
1 ½ teaspoon fresh lemon or orange zest
1 cup pomegranate seeds
Preparation:
1. Combine salt, sweet paprika, turmeric, cumin and black pepper in a small bowl. Set aside.
2. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a deep, non-stick skillet with a lid. Add rice and spices and stir well.
3. Cook over medium heat for about 3 - 4 minutes, stirring constantly and making sure the rice gets well coated with the oil and the spices.
4. Add 1 cup of water. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to low. Cook for 20 minutes, remove from heat and let it sit for 15 minutes covered. In the meantime, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a nonstick skillet.
5. Add onions and cook over medium heat for about 20 minutes stirring frequently, adding water 1 tablespoon at a time if necessary, to prevent from burning.
6. Transfer onions to a plate and in the same skillet, heat 1 teaspoon of olive oil. Add dried fruit and pistachios or pumpkin seeds and cook over medium low 2 - 3 minutes, stirring frequently.
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7. Once the rice is ready, fluff it with a fork, add onions, dried fruit, pistachios and lemon or orange zest and toss well. Sprinkle with pomegranate seeds.
