Rosh Hashanah — is that the day when Jews fast? That’s a great question! No, Jews do not fast on Rosh Hashanah, but you might just be thinking of Yom Kippur, which comes 10 days after Rosh Hashanah.

Rosh Hashanah is, as a matter of fact, a day on which Jews have celebratory foods and festive meals. Most notable foods include apples dipped in honey, round challahs with raisins, pomegranates, and honey cake, which all tend to be sweet, and symbolize the wish for a sweet new year.

Jews of Mizrahi and Sephardic descent often have Rosh Hashanah seders with many types of symbolic food, including pumpkins, leeks, beets, dates, and fish heads. Why these foods? These are foods that grow in profusion and symbolize prosperity!

Rosh Hashanah isn’t completely about the food, however. Rosh Hashanah literally means “head of the year.” This day is both a celebratory day, celebrating the creation of the world and the beginning of a new yearly cycle, but is a day with a serious tone as well.

Traditionally, Rosh Hashanah is the day on which human beings are called to account for their behavior over the previous year, the day on which God weighs their good and bad behavior, and inscribes deserving people in the Book of Life for the coming year.

While this is scary imagery, a useful notion can be that of being in partnership with the Divine, and fully entering into this day with prayer and self-reflection, as part of both communal prayer and judging one’s own self. Indeed, Rosh Hashanah is also called Yom Hadin, the “Day of Judgment.” And as Rosh Hashanah begins the Ten Days of Awe, the entire 10 days is a time that is spent in reflection and atonement. Jews take this time to reflect, taking a personal accounting of one’s own conduct, and working toward becoming a better person.

This includes doing “teshuva,” from the Hebrew word that includes the meaning “to return,” and return to being the truest part of our selves. This may include making amends and resolving not to repeat the behaviors that are not our best. This process of personal reflection is an opportunity for growth, and culminates 10 days later in Yom Kippur, which is a day of fasting.

As part of the reflection that takes place during this time, the prayers on Rosh Hashanah includes the blowing of the “shofar,” a ram’s horn, to announce the new year, and approximately 100 blasts of the shofar occur on Rosh Hashanah. The sound of the shofar is a unique, primal sound, and awakens and calls us to attention, reminding us to mend our ways. This day inspires yet another name for Rosh Hashanah, which is Yom Teruah, the “day of blasting.”

An additional custom, developed in medieval times, is “Tashlich,” which means “casting out.” Traditionally, on the afternoon of Rosh Hashanah, we gather by a body of water, recite special verses and then throw crumbs of bread into the water in a symbolic gesture of casting off our sins. As the body of water is intended to be where fish swim, the fish are expected to eat the crumbs and take them (and symbolically, our sins) away. In recent years, and where no body of water is nearby, participation in Tashlich has been observed in creative ways.

As Jews prepare for High Holy Days, many wear their “tallit,” or prayer shawl, on Rosh Hashanah day, Kol Nidre (also known as Erev Yom Kippur), and Yom Kippur day. The tallit is a ritual garment that reminds the wearer of the commandments in the Torah.

The greetings on this holiday are something that is roughly equivalent to “Happy New Year,” but slightly different: “Shana tovah,” which means “good year.” This is something of an abbreviation of the longer traditional greeting: “L’shana tovah u’metukah,” which means “for a good and a sweet new year.”

— Rabbi Lisa Bock is the rabbi of the Jewish Community of Ojai.

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