Celebrating the High Holy Days

The History and Tradition of Rosh Hashanah

By Cara J. Stevens

Rosh Hashanah is considered one of the holiest days of the Jewish year, celebrating the birth of mankind. For many Jewish people, it begins a 10-day period of prayer, self-examination and solemnity mixed with celebration. The holiday is also known as "Yom Ha-Zikaron (the day of remembrance)" or "Yom Teruah (the day of the sounding of the shofar)". Rosh Hashana is observed on the first and second day of the Jewish calendar month of Tishrei, which can fall anytime during the months of September and October.

For many, this particular holiday means more than a calendar change or a time of prayer. In my life, the High Holy Days have always served as a chapter marker, setting each year apart from the next. Throughout the year, I go about my daily life in my own home with my husband and daughter. Each fall, like many other Jewish people around the world, I return to my parents' house where we feast on traditional delicacies, and too full to move, make our way to the synagogue.

The Rosh Hashanah services include prayers asking for and granting forgiveness, thanking God for enabling us to reach this holiday and asking God to inscribe us in the Book of Life for the coming year. The Torah portion tells the story of Abraham, where God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, to show his fealty. At the last moment, God sent a ram to be sacrificed in Isaac's place. Many Rabbis focus on this story in their sermons to interpret this story and its meaning. Others talk about the significance of the holiday: the accounting of one's deeds in the past year and examining one's path in life.

"Because we are celebrating the day mankind was created, we are celebrating our place in the world and the beginning of time," says Rabbi Ronald Brown of Temple Beth Am in Merrick, N.Y. "It is an occasion where we contemplate how we use our time."

Traditionally, Rosh Hashanah is a time to ask forgiveness of our friends, loved ones and even enemies for our misdeeds over the past year. It is also a time to forgive those who may have wronged us, whether by design or by default. And just as when we celebrate the secular new year on December 31, it is a time to make resolutions for the coming year: to take more time for oneself or to make more time for others; to be more gentle with our children or perhaps to be a bit less permissive; to pay more attention to detail or perhaps to attend more to the big picture.

As in the traditional observance of the Sabbath, no work is permitted on Rosh Hashanah. It is to be considered a day of reflection and celebration. Cooking, which is not allowed on the Sabbath, is allowed on Rosh Hashanah, which may explain the preponderance of food at each meal.

"The common greeting at this time is L'shanah tovah

Want to see more?

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• Transferring Traditions: Passing Down Family Traditions to Your Children
• Talk about it!