Hi! My name is Shayna and I am so excited to tell you all about our Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah! We do so much on Rosh Hashanah and I’m going to tell you about some new traditions, and hopefully teach you some new ones.
Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish new year and falls on the first and second of the Jewish month, Tishri. I’m sure we all know about apples and honey to signify a sweet new year, but did you know that we also eat the two foods together because they contain healing properties? Another big thing we do on Rosh Hashanah is blow to the shofar. Did you know there are 11 reasons why we blow the shofar on Rosh Hashanah alone? These could be wake up calls, calls to war, calls to repentance, or anything similar.
Something else we do on Rosh Hashanah is Tashlich. Tashlich comes from the Hebrew word meaning “to cast.” Tashlich is a ritual practice to get rid of our mistakes and wrong-doings of the past year. When we do Tashlich, we usually take pebbles, bread, or anything that will flow through a stream or other similar body of water. The reason we do it in a flowing body of water is because it symbolizes our sins leaving us, giving us a clean slate for the start of a new year!
I hope everyone learned something new about Rosh Hashanah, and I hope everyone enjoys their holiday!
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