Party like it’s 5768

That is what year it is, starting Wednesday night. I was in Maryland observing Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, with Elinor, Mordechai and Baby Mayer. We go by a lunar calendar, not a solar one, which explains the difference with the regular new year.

“May you be as the head and not the tail.”

The fish head is only one of the many symbolic foods that we eat (well, I personally skip out on the fish head) on the new year. We also eat apples dipped in honey to symbolize a “sweet new year,” round challah bread (at other times of the year it is long and braided) to symbolize the cycle of the year, and, my personal favorite, a “new fruit,” usually an exotic scary looking one with spikes and warts or something, that you have not had during the previous year. When we eat the new fruit we say the shehechiyanu blessing, in which we express our thankfulness for being alive into this season. “This ritual reminds us to appreciate the fruits of the earth and being alive to enjoy them.”

I ate something that looked like this. It was delicious.

There are a bunch of other symbolic foods but a lot of them have to do with different unpleasant things that we hope will happen to our “enemies” (whoever they are), so I sort of tune out those parts because they freak me out.

Some other rituals: We blow the shofar, which “wakes us up” for the new year.

(The Hebrew words on the bottom are the names of the specific blasts. The long one is called Tekiah, the three short ones are called Shevarim and the the really short ones are called Truah. Tekiah Gedolah, or Big Tekiah, finishes it all off.)

We also do something called Tashlich where we go to a moving body of water and toss bread crumbs in to symbolize the casting off of our sins. This tradition has evolved. I think I remember hearing that in the olden days they whispered their sins to a goat and then pushed it off a cliff (hence, the term scapegoating.)

You’re not supposed to nap on Rosh Hashanah; otherwise you may “sleep through your year.” Nobody told me this until after my nap.

I would have taken pictures, especially an update on Baby Mayer, who is now two months old and awesome, but picture taking, along with basically everything else besides eating, walking and praying are forbidden on the holiday (literally everything else– you can’t even tear toilet paper or brush your hair).

Is this a really boring post? I feel obligated to document the customs because, usually, at my house on Rosh Hashanah, we just eat a lot, watch a movie, go to sleep and then skip out on work or school the next day, so this was a new experience.

I’m excited about the New Year. One thing that’s nice about it is that I have another chance for a fresh beginning. January New Years Resolutions blow– with everyone doing it, there’s such an expectation of failure. But this clean slate, mid-year is really a gift. It’s refreshing. On the way home from Maryland, my mind was churning with new ideas. Stay tuned for some Rosh Hashanah Resolutions.