Rosh Hashanah

Rosh HaShanah
A shofar, pomegranates, wine, apple and honey – symbols of the Rosh HaShanah holiday
Official name	רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה‎
Also called	Jewish New Year
Type	Judaism
Observances	Praying in synagogue, personal reflection, and hearing or blowing the shofar.
Begins	Start of first day of Tishrei
Ends	End of second day of Tishrei
Date	1 Tishrei, 2 Tishrei
2023 date	Sunset, 15 September – nightfall, 17 September
2024 date	Sunset, 2 October – nightfall, 4 October
2025 date	Sunset, 22 September – nightfall, 24 September
2026 date	Sunset, 11 September – nightfall, 13 September

Rosh HaShanah (Hebrew: רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה‎, Rōʾš hašŠānā, literally "head of the year") is the New Year in Judaism. The biblical name for this holiday is Yom Teruah (יוֹם תְּרוּעָה‎, Yōm Tərūʿā, lit. "day of shouting/blasting"). It is the first of the High Holy Days (יָמִים נוֹרָאִים‎, Yāmīm Nōrāʾīm, "Days of Awe"), as specified by Leviticus 23:23–25,^[1] that occur in the late summer/early autumn of the Northern Hemisphere. Rosh Hashanah begins ten days of penitence culminating in Yom Kippur, as well as beginning the cycle of autumnal religious festivals running through Sukkot which end on Shemini Atzeret in Israel and Simchat Torah everywhere else.

Rosh Hashanah is a two-day observance and celebration that begins on the first day of Tishrei, which is the seventh month of the ecclesiastical year. In contrast to the ecclesiastical lunar new year on the first day of the first month Nisan, the spring Passover month which marks Israel's exodus from Egypt, Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of the civil year, according to the teachings of Judaism, and is the traditional anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve, the first man and woman according to the Hebrew Bible, as well as the initiation of humanity's role in God's world.

Rosh Hashanah customs include sounding the shofar (a hollowed-out ram's horn), as prescribed in the Torah, following the prescription of the Hebrew Bible to "raise a noise" on Yom Teruah. Its rabbinical customs include attending synagogue services and reciting special liturgy about teshuva, as well as enjoying festive meals. Eating symbolic foods, such as apples dipped in honey, hoping to evoke a sweet new year, is an ancient tradition recorded in the Talmud.^[2]

hashanah |access-date=29 September 20|archive-date=29 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190929174813/https://www.etymonline.com/word/rosh%2520hashanah |url-status=live }}</ref>^[3]

The term Rosh Hashanah in its current meaning does not appear in the Torah. Leviticus 23:24^[4] refers to the festival of the first day of the seventh month as zikhron teru'ah ("a memorial of blowing [of horns]") Numbers 29:1^[5] calls the festival yom teru'ah ("day of blowing [the horn]").

The term rosh hashanah appears once in the Bible (Ezekiel 40:1),^[6] where it has a different meaning: either generally the time of the "beginning of the year", or possibly a reference to Yom Kippur,^[7] or to the month of Nisan.^[a][11]

In the prayer books (siddurs and machzors), Rosh Hashanah is also called Yom haZikkaron "the day of remembrance",^[3] not to be confused with the modern Israeli remembrance day of the same name.

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