The Meanings of Rosh Hashanah Traditions

Some of these practices have fairly obvious meanings, like apples dipped in honey to represent the hope of a sweet new year and round challot to symbolize wholeness and continuity. But some meanings are slightly more obscure.

Take the eating of pome-granates. True, some thinkers believe we eat them for the new year because their many seeds represent fertility. But others say it is because the pomegranate has exactly 613 seeds – which neatly corresponds to the number of mitzvot that Jews as a society must perform each year. And what better time to be reminded of them than at the beginning of the new year?

In fact, many Rosh Hashanah customs are associated with food. Some families eat fish on the Jewish New Year as a sign of fertility and prosperity. Fish are also a sign of knowledge, because their eyes are always open and they see everything. In fact, in some homes, the head of a fish is placed before the head of the family and he or she recites, on behalf of everyone at the table, “May it be your will that we be like the head (or leaders) and like the tail (or followers).”

According to Rabbi Michael Azose of the Sephardic Congregation of Evanston, some Sephardi families would also put the head of a ram on the table for Rosh Hashanah. In fact, there is a story of a shidduch (match) that was made between an Ashkenazi boy and a Sephardi girl, but it came to an end when the groom-to-be arrived at the girl’s home for the New Year and saw the ram’s head on the table.

“Apparently, it was too much for him,” Azose explained. “It’s a sad story, isn’t it?”

Azose added that Sephardim place great emphasis on the talmudic dictum that omens and symbols bode for the future. Consequently, they take certain foods and play on their names to create good omens. This is done in Hebrew or in other languages. For example, a gourd can be served and a recitation of an omen can be presented that discusses how a gourd represents a fullness of blessings, how our enemies gird us, and how G-d guards us.

Of course, many customs associated with the holiday extend beyond food. The giving of charity is also an important mitzvah associated with Rosh Hashanah. But in Eastern Europe, the giving of tzedakah for the New Year was practiced a bit differently. Just before sunset, a messenger would go from house to house with a sack. Those who could afford to give put coins in the sack. On the other hand, those who needed assistance would take coins out. No one knew who gave and who took, and no one was embarrassed by need.

The blowing of the shofar is one of the most familiar tradi-tions of the High Holy Days, but opinions vary widely about why it is blown. A shofar can be made from the horn of any kosher animal except a cow, and today ram’s horns and antelope horns are very popular.

According to Maimonides, we blow the shofar to wake up those who are asleep, both physically and spiritually. The sound should help listeners remember G-d and remember that all their daily activities are nothing compared with making themselves better people.

Rabbi Saadia Gaon (882-942 C.E.) agreed with Maimonides that the shofar should remind us of G-d’s redemption but added that it should also remind us of the ram that Abraham sacrificed in place of his son Isaac. He also wrote that when the Israelites received the Ten Command-ments, they heard the sound of the shofar, and its sound should always remind us that G-d has given us laws to obey and traditions to remember.

This article appears courtesy of the JUF News.