Everything you wanted to know about Rosh Hashanah but were afraid to ask...

1. What does Rosh Hashanah mean?
The Jewish New Year is literally the head of the year. This is the beginning of autumn – the season of “seeing days”, when people are judged for their deeds committed in the past year. Then comes Yom Kippur, when the fate of the Jew for the next year is “decided”.

2. When is Rosh Hashanah?
The Jewish New Year comes on the first two days of the month of Tishrei. Usually it is September. Like all Jewish holidays, Rosh Hashanah begins at sunset on the 29th of Elul and ends at sunset on the 1st of Tishrei. In 2022 – from September 25 to September 27.

3. How is Rosh Hashanah celebrated?
Both days of Rosh Hashanah, Jews go to the synagogue, listen to prayers. In the second half of the first day, according to tradition, people go to a flowing reservoir and throw bread crumbs into the water, they symbolize sins. People greet each other by saying “Shana tova” – “Have a good year to you”, or “Leshana tova, tikatev vetekhatem” – “God grant that you are written for a happy year in the Book of Life, and that this entry is sealed!” . One of the key moments of the service in the synagogue on Rosh Hashanah is the blowing of the shofar (ram’s horn). If the Rosh Hashanah service falls on Shabbat, the shofar is not blown.

4. Why blow the shofar?
The reference to the horn may be an allusion to the ram that Abraham sacrificed in place of Isaac, his son, after he proved his willingness to sacrifice to G-d. More generally, this may be a reference to the sacrifices made in antiquity.

5. What do we eat on Rosh Hashanah?
Many holiday rituals revolve around food. On the table are apples with honey or a honey cake, which marks the hope for a “sweet” year, as well as leeks, fish heads and pomegranates, a symbol of wishes for the new year. Challah, which is served on Rosh Hashanah and the entire period of Sukkot, is another symbol of the cyclical nature of time.

Shana tova!