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A Happy & Healthy New Year to all my fellow Bugga’s of the Jewish faith. May it be a Joyous, Healthy, and Prosperous year for everyone.

For more on Rosh Hashanah

Rosh Hashanah is the celebration marking the New Year of the Hebrew calendar, i.e. the Jewish calendar year beginning on 1 Tishri, the same way January 1st marks the new year of the Gregorian calendar.
Rosh Hashana sets the new year for people, animals and legal contracts. Michna also distinguishes the date for the calculation of ordinary years, years of sabbatical and Jubilee years.

Rosh Hashanah (Hebrew: ראש השנה, literally “head of the year”)

Other names of the feast
Yom Teroua: Day of the tone (of chofar) - thus the Torah (Leviticus 23:24 and Numbers 29:1) refers to what it calls the “1st day of the seventh month” Biblical year beginning 1 Nissan.
The tone of chofar remains even today the traditions most characteristic of Rosh Hashanah.
Yom HaDin: Day of Reckoning fixing, but not definitive, the fate of everyone for years to come. The rabbinical tradition and liturgy of the feast itself supported on this aspect: some midrachim (allegorical stories) describe God sitting on His throne, while books containing the acts of humanity are open to “review” and that everyone passes him to evaluate his actions.
This festival is the first 10 days of penance (often called Yamim Noraïm héb. “Formidable Days”, although several definitions exist), the most solemn day of the Jewish years, ending with Yom Kippur, the Yamim Noraïm are preceded by the month of Elul, during which every Jew is supposed to start a process of introspection and repentance, this process culminating in Redoutable Days.
Yom HaZikaron: the Day of Recurrence (after one of the possible readings of Leviticus 23:24), remembering the Teroua, ie (rabbinical interpretation) of the episode said the Ligature for Isaac, where teroua a chofar sounds for the first time. It also commemorates the disappeared and the Creation du Monde, or the Adam (there is controversy on this subject).

Origins of the feast

In the Torah
The seventh month, the first day of the month, youll have a holy convocation: you shall do no work bonded. It is your Day of Teroua. (Book of Numbers 29:1)
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak unto the children of Israel, and say: The seventh month, the first day of the month, youll have a rest day, recalled by / in remembrance of the Teroua, a holy convocation. You shall do no servile work, and you offer to the Lord of sacrifice consumed by fire. (Leviticus 23:23-25)
The Bible is clear on this point, the sanctification of the néoménie (this month will be for you the first months etc.) Designates the month of Aviv (barley months, so spring) during which, in addition to the Event founder of a people, begins the harvest of barley. By contrast, the month of Tishri (the tašrītu Akkadian origin “Start”, šurrû to “start”) marks the beginning of the fall and late harvests in clear, the beginning of agriculture is to say economic, common to all peoples of the Middle East.
The major festivals were also settled on the seasons: the Aviv on the harvest of barley, the harvest festival in September weeks later, the harvest festival at the end of the year (see Exodus 23:14-17 ; Deuteronomy 16:1-16).

It therefore seems likely that the new year (agricultural) was celebrated since ancient times in a particular way. Perhaps this sense we can understand Ezekiel 40:1. Should be on 10 Tishri, it is this day would be proclaimed the beginning of the Jubilee year to the sound of chofar (Leviticus 25:9).
The translation of the Septuagint on Ez. 45:20, special sacrifices were to be offered on the first day of the seventh month as the first month. Moreover, it was a holy convocation, where we did not work bonded (Leviticus 23:23-25, Numbers 29:1).
If these assumptions are proven, this day was not expressly called “New Years day, but he was considered by Jews as well, since a very old one.

In the Oral Torah
There are four years beginning of the first month of Nissan [is] the new year for the Kings and festivals. The first month of Elul [is] the new year for the tithes of cattle; Rabbi Eleazar and Rabbi Shimon say [the new year for this is] the first Tishri. The first month of Tishri [is] the beginning of the year for years, years and years chemitta Jubilee, and for planting vegetables. The first month of Shevat [is] the new year for trees, according to the school of Shammai; School of Hillel said the fifteenth of this month - Mishna R “H 1:1
The world is judged on four subjects: at Passover for what will produce the ground to Atzeret on fruit trees, at Rosh Hashana, all those who are in the world before him like a herd, as stated “He trained their hearts to all and knows all their acts” and to the Feast (of Cottages) on water (annual precipitation) - Mishna R “H 1:2
All are judged on Rosh Hashana, and the decrees of their judgments are signed on Yom HaKippourim, words of Rabbi Meir.
Rabbi Yehuda said on behalf of Rabbi Akiva: All are judged on Rosh Hashana, and the decrees of the trial of everyone is signed in his time at Passover for what will produce the ground, Atzeret on fruit trees and the Day (the Cottages) on the water. - Tossefta on this chapter
According to rabbinical tradition, is also a Rosh Hashanah creation took place, or the world (according to interpretation of the verse Deut. 11:12), which was completed on 7 Tishri, is that of Man and Creation started on 25 Elul.
The observance of the 1st Tishri is based on the reference to zikaron (Leviticus 23:24) and the reference of Ezra to date as “holy to the Lord” (Nehemiah 8:9), as well as Psalms 81:5, where mishpat is included in the meaning of “trial”. These ideas to inspire Philo, who in his treatise on the festivals, called New Years Day “festival of the moon sacred Feast of Trumpets” we do ring “to remember the gift of Law, and blessings of God to humanity in general (De Septennario, § 22).

The sun at Tishri in the sign of Libra, some think that it indicates the trays on which acts are judged.

Date Day
Rosh Hashanah extends the first two days of the month of Tishri Hebrew, even in Israel where most of the celebrations only last one day.

The second day is nevertheless adds later, quite late (at time of Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, it is celebrated a day, it seems that this has been the case in Jerusalem in the thirteenth century CE) and does not find its source in the literal reading of biblical commandment, which said that the convening holy only the first day.
The two days of Rosh Hashanah are considered “Yoma arikhta” (Aramaic: “a long day). The Zohar, a medieval work of Kabbalah, insists on the universal observance of two days, the teacher that two passages of the Book of Job (1:6 and 2:1), “where the son of God came to present themselves before the Lord , “Referring to the first and second days of Rosh Hashana, observed by the Heavenly Court before the Almighty (Zohar, Pinhas, p. 231A).
Orthodox Jews and traditionalists observe two days. The reason is the past, fixing the beginning of a new month depended on the testimony of two witnesses claiming to have seen the new moon (hence the term néoménie to characterize the early months Hebrew) In Diaspora, it there was a doubt at the time of arrival of witnesses. it was decided in the late Middle Ages it would be even in the land of Israel to remove all doubt.
Jews adhering to reformed or Reconstructionist movements observe a day or two depending on the choice of everyone.
The Karaites, Jews “-cash” not following the oral law, celebrate the new year on 1 Nissan, in Aviv, and do not recognize this status to Rosh Hashanah. They observe Yom Teroua however, ie prescription chofar ringing of the 1st month of “Ethanim” at a different time of 1 Tishri, the calendar does not following the Jewish calendar , Institutions and non-biblical rabbinic.

Rosh Hashanah takes place 162 days after the first day of Passover. The Hebrew calendar is based on a luni-solar cycle, its future in the Gregorian calendar varies. However, it can never fall before September 5, as was the case in 1899 and will be in 2013 (after the year 2089 of the Gregorian calendar, the differences between it and require the Hebrew calendar Rosh Hashanah not fall down sooner than September 6), or after October 5, as was the case in 1967 and will again in 2043.

The Hebrew calendar is so constituted that the first day of Rosh Hashanah can not fall on a Wednesday, Friday or Sunday; a popular mnemonic is “lo be-Adou Rosh” ( “Rosh [Hashanah] is not Adou “), Where ad or the numerical value 1-4-6 (corresponding to the numbering of days in the Jewish week, including Sunday is, broadly, the first day).

Character of Rosh Hashana
Rosh Hashanah is simultaneously a joyous day and most solemn of the Jewish calendar. Various explanations are proposed, and all are accepted as fair. Of the two reasons most known:

the day of the proclamation of the kingdom of God on the world
the day of reckoning

The days of the proclamation of the kingdom of God on the world
Rosh Hashana is considered a day when the creatures around the world recognize God for King. This is one explanation for the joy of the day as far as the tone of chofar, which are then a royal hofar announcing the coming of the King. They should be fine clothes. The source of the terouah it would be about as follows (Babylonian Talmud, Treaty R “H 16a): Rabbi Yehuda said on behalf of Rabbi Akiva: the Holy, blessed be He said: Say to Me Rosh Hashana to: the glorification (malkhiot) and recalling (zikhronot) and “chofrot . Des malkhiot - so you do Me reign over you (kedei shetamlikhouni aleikhem), and zikhronot - so that amounts to remember me many of you, and how [do malkhiot and zikhronot]? Through chofar.

And as explained in Rav Saadia Gaon, mentioning one of the traditions mentioned in the Talmud that Rosh Hashana is the day when the world was created (the second tradition is that the world was created in Nissan): As today [Mark] the beginning of creation, because in this day that the Holy One, blessed be He created the world and prevailed upon him, it makes inductions at the beginning of their reigns, when the sonnons “chofar.”

In the liturgy of Rosh Hashana itself, it insists on the rule of God on the world: “And may you reign quickly, you Hashem, our God, without sharing your creations, place of residence Ta on Mount Zion And in Jerusalem, a city of Ta sanctification ,…”, or “Our God and God of our fathers e, reigns over the world in Your glory, and presides over the world in Ta Cheret, and reveals the glory in your power all creatures on earth, and it will be known to any work that You have worked, and every creature you understand that its creator, and everyone will say in his soul, Hashem is the God of Israel, King and His reign surpasses any [other] reign. ”

The day of reckoning
Rosh Hashanah is characterized as the day of reckoning for all creations of the world or, as written in the prayer Moussafir: “Today is the anniversary of the creation of the world today, hui will be held for trial all creatures of the Worlds, those like son, like those of slaves.

According to the Babylonian Talmud, three books are open for Rosh Hashanah: one for completely fair, completely one for the wicked, and one for the [cases] intermediaries. The fair shall be registered and logged for life, the wicked to death, the intermediaries are pending, Rosh hHashana the Yom HaKippourim. If they have earned, they are registered for life, if they do not deserve, they are registered to death. - Treaty R “H 16b

However, as written in the Book of Ezra, Rosh Hashana is a day of joy. The tradition, however, sees no paradox: as stated in the Jerusalem Talmud: What nation is this nation as this? Quordinairement So, when we know we will stand trial, one is black on black is contained, and we let grow a beard because he does not know the outcome of his trial. But Israel is not the way they dress in white, white senveloppent, rasent their beards, eat, drink and rejoice, because they know that the Holy One, blessed be He works miracles. - Treaty R “H 1

Therefore, although it is desired, as in all cultures a good year, the message is more profound: “Be enrolled for a year soft and sweet”, in other words, “I hope you will not have a bad year. ”
Said with sincerity, especially against a person with whom you are not on good terms, this prayer is evidence of tzedakah (since it does not wish what would not be so wish) and repentance (since taken a step toward him, it necessarily admits its share of wrongs in the dispute that opposes itself).

Traditions and customs

A ringing the Rav chofar (greeting card of Alphonse Levy) Rupture of vows (hatarat nedarim): the Torah, which does not particularly wish to (according to the Talmud, if the naziréen must make a vow, is that he has sinned against his own soul), however requires the person who utters to respect: If you make a wish to `LORD thy God, you will soon point to` accomplish: `because the LORD thy Godre asking account, and you charge d `a sin. If you abstain `t make a wish, you shall not commit a sin. But you and keep you achieve what emerges from your lips, therefore wishes that you will do voluntarily to the `Lord your God and your mouth will be delivered. (Deuteronomy 23:21-23).
One way to circumvent the wishes ill or untenable, is to undergo a Sage, who is in the hope a loophole, a specific fact that, had it been known to the person at the time of his vow, l would have prevented the utter.
The best known example is that of Kalba Savua who, 24 years after he vowed not to revisit his daughter as she was married to his uneducated peasant employee, it is admitting that it issued never spoke those words, it would have suspected that the uneducated peasant could become educated (the irony of this story is that the farmer and scholar are one)
Prayers: at Rosh Hashana, we multiply prayers. These are grouped in a prayer book especially Rosh Hashanah, the Mahzor leRoch Hashanah. The prayers of Chaharit Moussafir and, in particular, contain many prayers and piyyoutim (liturgical poems), the HAZZAN (champion) sings in putting all his energy and his talent. The piyyoutim are specific to each community and their tunes. Emphasis is placed on the majesty of God, and the fear of Reckoning.
A piyyout particularly known, especially in Ashkenazi congregations, is the Ounetanè Toqef composed by Rabbi Amnon of Mainz, while mutilated by Archduke outraged by his refusal to conversion, it was about to die.
The Amida the Office of Moussafir also contains strong messages on the kingdom of God, through generations, Reminder of Israel before him, and the revelation of his presence at the meeting at the tone of chofar .
Torah: the Ashkenazi Jews have the minhag (custom) to read the Torah with an air particular, trembling, this is no minhag among Sephardic Jews.
The first day of the feast, we read the stories of Hagar and Ishmael (parashiot Lekha Lekha and Vayera), an angel of God saved from death by thirst.
The second day of celebration, we read the passage of the ligature for Isaac. The memory of this episode is also mentioned several times in the pier, as an example of experience which we ask God to Remember, in the hope of stimulating His mercy.
The tone of chofar: it takes place before Moussafir office, and during it.
There are several known sons,
the teqiah (Heb. תקיעה, alarm) bell long and uninterrupted
the shbarim (Heb. שברים, broken), also called guenihot in the Talmud: a small series of three short blasts.
the teroua (Heb. תרועה, clamor), also known yalelot in the Talmud: a series of seven tones fast.
It must, according to Wise, 100 tones heard in order to fulfill the requirement, although the Mishna (TB R “H 33b) does prescribe that chaloch chel chaloch chaloch, ie 3 for ringtones the malkiyot (cf.supra), 3 for zikhronot and 3 for chofrot, 9 altogether; the minimum number of rings has been increased to 30. When a person is unable (physically) to go to the synagogue, and that it tolls for the chofar, it suffices to those 30 tones, the number of 100 tones dates from the time of Gueonim, according to a Midrash which says that the mother of ISSR, general canaanéen enemy of Israel killed in the war by Yael cried a hundred times the death of his son (Judges, 5, 28). These 100 tones are carried out according to a specific rite [6].
You can not ring the chofar to Shabbat, for fear that it moves the chofar in a place without érouv, which would be a desecration of Shabbat.
The purpose of chofar is to raise awareness, changing hearts as we approach the trial ((Maimonides, Yad, Hilkhot Teshuva 3:4), and thereby disrupt the satan.
Before the ring chofar, the Sephardic communities have used to sing piyyout ” And shaarei ratzon lehipatèah”, composed by Yehuda Schmouel ibn Abasch ligation and recording of Isaac.
Dinner party (see below) is rich foods symbolizing occurrences defined, according to the Shoulhan Arukh. For example, you eat apples dipped in honey so that the soul welcoming the smooth prefigured the coming year, the head of fish in order to “be at the head and not the tail”, or beet so that the enemies eviction (pun on the beet, סלק seleq in Hebrew, and déguerpir, להיסתלק lehistaleq in the same idiom), and so on.
During the blessing over the bread, it is soaked in honey or sugar instead of salt.
Tashlikh the first day of Rosh Hashanah (or the second day, if the first falls to Shabbat, as minhag Ashkenazi), we realize the afternoon before a point of water (the sea, rivers, etc. .) And it says please tachlikh, which is a request to refer the transgressions committed by himself “at the bottom of the sea”.
In places where there was no point of water, it was customary to get into a high place where you could see. It is customary to shake the corners of clothing as a symbol of the will to get rid of mistakes.
In recent years, it has developed a custom among the Hassidic, mainly Breslav movement, to gather in Uman near the tomb of Nahman of Bratslav.

Holiday meals
It is customary to prepare holiday meals in order to generate the celebration during Rosh Hashanah. But there is, according to the Sages of Israel, “no joy without meat and wine, and it is written in the Book of Nehemiah:” Go eat and drink oils of sweets. ” Among the dishes highly characteristic of Rosh Hashana,

Honey: It is customary to dip an apple (and / or a piece of soft halla) in honey and to prayer
יהי רצון שתתחדש עלינו שנה טובה ומתוקה
Whether by Your will to renew us a good and sweet year.

The Rav Netron Gaon said: “It was taught to eat apples and drink (sic) of honey, so that the coming year comes fresh on us.”
apples, fruit of autumn round and “mouth”, symbolizing the annual cycle.
of Hallot various forms, especially round (for the reason mentioned above), sometimes in the form of scales, hoping that the prayers of those two days amounted directly to heaven.
fish, symbols of their propensity to grow and multiply. It is also customary to eat the fish head to be “in the head and not the tail” (לראש ולא לזנב).
grenades, which have Jewish tradition by 613 seeds, as the number of mitzvot. This symbolism was powerful enough to the Jews living in countries where the grenades did not grow, will be purchased, often at great expense.
jams: in the Eastern communuatés, it is customary to taste a variety of fruit jams, for the sweetness of the jam, and supposedly beneficial qualities inherent in each fruit.