Shana Tova! Or, in English, “Happy New Year!”

If any of your Jewish colleagues are out of the office for Rosh Hashanah, you may be wondering what the holiday is about and why.

To that end, I’ve written a short explanation of Rosh Hashanah for those who wish to learn more. The beginning describes why the holiday is celebrated. Then I discuss the customs and celebrations specific to the holiday. (This email was auto-set before the holiday began to send today, for those who are wondering.)

If you find any part of this interesting or worth reading, please let me know! We’re always looking for feedback.

And Happy New Year, whether or not you’re celebrating! Find the explanation below.

What is Rosh Hashanah?

“Rosh Hashanah” literally means “head of the year.”[1] It’s a two-day celebration of the Jewish New Year. It is also, in Rabbinic thought, the “birthday of the world” – i.e. the anniversary of God’s original creation of the world.[2]

Whereas secular Americans typically enjoy their New Year by celebrating at midnight and then taking the next day off, religious Jews celebrate their New Year with festive meals, intense personal reflection, and communal prayer. Religious Jews do take the day off from “work” – but “work” defined in a rabbinic sense. More on that below.

Why is it celebrated?

The theological basis for observing Rosh Hashanah comes from a commandment in Leviticus and in Numbers.

In Leviticus 23:23, God instructs Moses to tell the Israelite to observe “a Sabbath of remembrance [zichron], blowing [teruah, which usually refers to blowing the shofar / ram’s horn], a holy convocation [mikra kodesh].” God also instructs Moses that the people are not to do any work (“melechet avodah”) and that they are to bring a fire-offering to God.

Numbers 29:1 reiterates that the day should be a “holy convocation [mikra kodesh] and that no work should be done (“melechet avodah”) and that the day should be a day of blowing (“yom teruah”).

But religious Jews do a lot more than refraining from work and blowing a ram’s horn.

Astute readers of the above passages will notice that God only commanded the Israelites to refrain from work for one day. However, Jews today observe two days of Rosh Hashanah. This practice of celebrating a second day is called Yom Tov Sheini. We’ll discuss this below.

Note on terminology: Yom Tov vs Chag

“Yom tov” literally means “good day”, but it actually refers to festival holidays which are celebrated in a particular way. On a Yom Tov, prohibitions against work apply. It’s hard to know how to translate the term into English, because the word “festival” in English is often used to correspond to the Hebrew term “chag”.[3]

However, a chag and a yom tov are not the same. There are technically three chagim (plural of chag) mandated by the Torah: Passover, Shavuot (Festival of Weeks / Pentecost) and Sukkot (The Festival of Booths).

A chag can include days that are yom tov and days that are not. The first day of Passover is a yom tov, as is the last day of Passover. But the middle days are not. In other words, a yom tov isn’t the same as a chag.

A chag can be entirely days of yom tov. For example, the two days of Shavuot (only observed for one day in the land of Israel) are both yom tov.

A day can be yom tov without being a chag. For example, Rosh Hashanah is a yom tov, but not a chag.

The above differences are a little arcane. Don’t worry if you don’t fully understand them. I’m just trying to be precise with terminology.

Why celebrate two days?

Why celebrate two days when the Torah commands us to celebrate only one?

The answer lies in history, which has then morphed into a tradition so strong that people are unwilling to break it. Historically, the calendar would be determined by physical observation of the moon. Messengers in Israel would then run throughout Israel to announce the new month – there was no preset calendar. However, it took messengers longer to get outside the land of Israel. So, two days were observed, in case the messengers took extra-long to get outside the land of Israel and didn’t get there in time.

The practice became so enshrined that even in 2025, with the most modern time-keeping technology possible, Jews in the diaspora still observe two days of yom tov for every holiday. (Except Yom Kippur which involves fasting and would be too onerous to do for twice as long. In my opinion, if we can be certain enough that we’ve found the correct Day of Atonement, we can be certain enough that we’ve figured out all the other days, properly, too! But I don’t make Jewish law…)

Inside the land of Israel, only one yom tov is generally celebrated – EXCEPT on Rosh Hashanah, when two days actually are celebrated. One explanation I’ve heard is that at beginning of the year, the messengers might not have reached all parts of Israel in time. So, an extra day was added to compensate. I’m not sure if I find this convincing – but again, I don’t make Jewish law!

How is Rosh Hashanah celebrated?

Rosh Hashanah is celebrated with festive meals, prayer, and repentance.

Additionally, because it’s a “holy convocation” and a “sabbath”, no work is done. (The Jewish definition of “work” is, itself a whole separate essay that I’m not qualified to write. Suffice it to say that religious Jews refrain from using their phones/electricity, lighting fires, writing, and a whole host of other things.)

Festive meals and traditional foods

There are traditionally two festive dinner meals and two festive lunches. As with all Jewish holidays, Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown, so the first festive meal is a festive dinner.

A few key traditional foods include: round challah, apples and honey, pomegranates, and fish heads. There are other foods which have been included in some traditions – foods which are chosen either because their names are puns in Hebrew or Yiddish, or because of other symbolism. Some of these traditional food choices date back to the early first century CE, when the Talmud was compiled. Some of these food choices are much more recent.

One meaning of the round challah is to symbolize the cyclical nature of the calendar – that seasons are, well, seasonal, and that once again, we’re starting a new year. Until recently, I thought this was the only meaning. As I was baking challah a couple days ago with a religious Jewish friend, I remarked on this. She said she’d never heard such symbolism: instead, she’d been taught that the round challah symbolizes a crown – so that we remember that God is King over us and over the world. It just goes to show that the same symbol can have different meanings.

The honey symbolizes our hope that the new year will be sweet.

A common explanation for the pomegranates is that pomegranates have 613 seeds, corresponding to the 613 mitzvot (commandments) in the Torah. I personally suspect that pomegranates are chosen because they’re a seasonal fruit in Israel in around Rosh Hashanah. Same with apples, I suspect.

I have personally never seen anyone eat a fish head on Rosh Hashanah, but some of my friends have. Supposedly it symbolizes that we’re celebrating the head of the year and not the tail. I have no desire to try one!

As with most Jewish festive meals, wine / grape juice is drunk at the ceremonial ‘kiddush’ (sanctification).

Typically, the mother of the family will light candles, the family blesses the apples and honey and eats them, the father will say the blessing over the wine, everyone will wash their hands, everyone will bless the challah, and then the meal actually begins.

Themes of the holiday

A key theme of Rosh Hashanah is repentance.

In addition to being the New Year, Rosh Hashanah is also called the Day of Judgment (Yom Ha Din). It is traditionally seen as the day on which God will judge us all and decide: do we belong in the Book of Life for the upcoming year?

Regardless of whether you believe in a literal Book of Life, the stark imagery of God writing some names in the Book of Life – but not others – provides an excellent opportunity for self-reflection.

Rosh Hashanah is thus both a joyous occasion and a solemn one. On the one hand, we’re celebrating the upcoming year. On the other hand, we’re trembling (yes, sometimes literally) with fear of God and the knowledge that God will judge us.

But, argues the liturgy, there is hope. God will judge us, God will set a decree, but “Prayer, repentance, and charity can annul the severity of the decree,” declares one prayer which is repeated several times throughout the service.

Much of the liturgy thus centers around recognizing our sin and repenting of it. (The idea that our actions influence God’s is found in many places in the Hebrew Bible, including Isaiah 58:7-12 among other places. The Isaiah passage is read communally on Yom Kippur.)

A key prayer, the Amidah (or standing prayer) includes several pages of “selichot” or “apologies”. Jews strike their chests and say, “we have sinned, we have transgressed, … we have turned from Your mitzvot and your ways.” We beg forgiveness for a litany of sins we’ve committed – repeatedly through the hours-long prayer service.

Another key prayer is called Hinnei, “Here I am.” The prayer service leader traditionally enters the room from the back and walks through the congregation, chanting more loudly as he approaches the front of the room. The gist of the prayer is: “Here I am, deficient of good deeds and highly flawed … but I’m praying on behalf of your people. Have mercy on us this coming year.” (Note: that’s a paraphrase.)

Another prayer describes our relationship to God, using a large variety of metaphors. “You are our Father, and we are your children. You are our shepherd, and we are your flock. You are the potter, and we are the clay.” Etc. These prayers tend to focus on our subservience to God and how much we need Him.

Shofar / Ram’s Horn

Like most Jewish holiday prayer services, the service includes prayers, a reading from the Torah, and a reading from the Prophets.

Unlike most other services, the services contain a special feature: blowing the shofar / ram’s horn.

The shofar is blown in a series of blasts, alternating between long and short. The sequences end with a particularly long blast, and when I was a kid, I loved waiting to hear how long the shofar-blower could blow the shofar.

The shofar / ram’s horn is blown because Rosh Hashanah is supposed to a be a “yom teruah”, a day of blowing.

In Biblical times, the shofar was blown for a variety of reasons, including when commanders led their armies into battle. The Torah doesn’t say, specifically, why Rosh Hashanah itself should be a yom teruah, a day of blowing the shofar.

Some commentators have speculated on why a shofar is blown. Perhaps it’s to inspire fear in us. Although we’re not going into physical battle, God will judge us – and that itself should inspire fear. Some say it’s a “spiritual wake-up call” to repent.

Regardless, repentance is a large theme of the day, in general, and of the liturgy, in particular.

Liturgy

The Rosh Hashanah prayer liturgy centers around the following three themes:

At a high level, Rosh Hashanah’s liturgy focuses on three main aspects:

1) Kingship (malchuyot) – Reminds us that God is King over the world

2) Remembrance / memories (zichronot) – Reminds us of what God has done for us, and begs God to remember us for good, and not for evil. We ask God not to remember our sins, and remind Him of times in Scripture when He has promised not to remember our sins. (Eg, “I, only I am the Lord, and I will erase your transgressions for My sake, and your sins I will not remember.” Isaiah 43:25.)

3) Blowing the ram’s horn (shofarot) – Much of the liturgy mentions blowing the ram’s horn. There’s also a part of the service specifically dedicated to blowing the ram’s horn.

Much more could be said about the liturgy, but the above presents a high-level picture of the important themes.

Traditional greetings

Prior to Rosh Hashanah, some Jewish families send each other greeting cards, just as secular families send New Years cards.

A traditional greeting is “Shanah Tova” (literally, “good year”, but it’s meant in the subjective sense of “may you have a good year.”)

May you all have a good year, whether or not you’re celebrating.

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[1] Rosh = head; ha = the; shanah = year.

[2] Whether or not you believe this literally, it’s meaningful to have a day that celebrates the world’s creation and the belief in God’s sovereignty over it. This is different from secular observances like Earth Day, which focuses on celebrating the Earth itself without the spiritual or religious framework.

[3] Note: in colloquial modern Hebrew and even in normal English, Jews greet each other “Chag Sameach” (‘happy chag’) even on holidays that aren’t technically chagim, such as Purim and Passover.