Rosh Hashanah and the Shofar: Jewish New Year Meaning

No fireworks, no countdown: the Jewish New Year opens with the cry of a ram’s horn in the synagogue, apples dipped in honey on the table and a prayer that comes back again and again: “Inscribe us in the book of life.” What is celebrated on Rosh Hashanah, why is the shofar blown, and what are the two days that open the year made of? This article answers from the Torah, the Mishna, the Talmud, Maimonides (the Rambam) and the Shulchan Aruch, distinguishing the law (halakha) from customs and spiritual readings, and then sets it all against history.

In short: Rosh Hashanah, “the head of the year,” is the Jewish New Year. It falls on the 1st and 2nd of the month of Tishrei, in the autumn. The Torah never calls it by that name: it speaks of a “day of blowing” (yom teruah, Bamidbar [Numbers] 29:1) and of a “remembrance of blowing” (Vayikra [Leviticus] 23:24). The oral tradition read in it the day of judgment of mankind, the day on which G-d is proclaimed King, and the anniversary of the creation of man. Its central mitzvah is to hear the sound of the shofar, the ram’s horn. It opens the “ten days of teshuvah” (of return and repentance) that end on Yom Kippur. The next Rosh Hashanah, that of 5788, begins on the evening of Friday, October 1, 2027; since the first day falls on Shabbat, the shofar will be heard only on Sunday, October 3.

1. The name, the date and the four “heads of the year”

The Mishna opens the tractate Rosh Hashanah with a list: “There are four heads of the year” (Mishna Rosh Hashanah 1:1). The 1st of Nissan is the head of the year for kings and festivals; the 1st of Elul, for the tithe of cattle (according to the majority opinion); the 15th of Shevat for trees (according to the school of Hillel); and the 1st of Tishrei, for the counting of years, of Sabbatical years and Jubilees, of plantings and vegetables. It is thus from the 1st of Tishrei that the number of the year changes.

The Torah dates the festival to the “seventh month,” counted from Nissan, the month of the Exodus from Egypt: “In the seventh month, on the first of the month, you shall have a rest, a remembrance of blowing, a holy convocation” (Vayikra 23:24). Even in Israel, the festival lasts two days. The Mishna reports that in earlier times testimony about the new moon was received throughout the whole day of the 30th of Elul; the festival therefore risked beginning a day earlier or later (Mishna Rosh Hashanah 4:4), and the habit arose of sanctifying both days, which the Gemara treats as a case apart (Babylonian Talmud, Beitzah 4b).

2. What the Torah says: a “day of blowing”

“In the seventh month, on the first of the month, you shall have a rest, a remembrance of blowing, a holy convocation.”

(Vayikra 23:24) — בַּחֹדֶשׁ הַשְּׁבִיעִי בְּאֶחָד לַחֹדֶשׁ יִהְיֶה לָכֶם שַׁבָּתוֹן זִכְרוֹן תְּרוּעָה מִקְרָא־קֹדֶשׁ׃

A second verse specifies: “It shall be for you a day of blowing” (Bamidbar 29:1) — יוֹם תְּרוּעָה יִהְיֶה לָכֶם׃. The biblical text says neither why one blows nor what is being commemorated. The teruah is a broken, staccato sound, and the text does not specify that it is a shofar: it is the Oral Tradition that deduces this from the Jubilee, where the Torah explicitly commands that the shofar be sounded (Vayikra 25:9). The Rambam presents this deduction as a received tradition (Hilkhot Shofar 1:1): the teruah of Rosh Hashanah is made with a shofar, like that of the Jubilee.

The Psalms shed light on the day: “Blow the shofar at the new moon, at the hidden moon, for our festival day” (Tehilim 81:4) — תִּקְעוּ בַחֹדֶשׁ שׁוֹפָר בַּכֵּסֶה לְיוֹם חַגֵּנוּ׃. The Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 8a) concludes from this that the verse refers to Rosh Hashanah, the only festival that falls when the moon is still hidden. Another text sets the emotional tone of the day: on the 1st of the seventh month, Ezra reads the Torah before the weeping people, and Nechemiah tells them: “Do not grieve”:

“He said to them: Go, eat rich foods, drink sweet drinks, and send portions to those who have nothing prepared, for this day is holy to our Master; do not grieve.”

(Nechemiah 8:10) — לְכוּ אִכְלוּ מַשְׁמַנִּים וּשְׁתוּ מַמְתַקִּים וְשִׁלְחוּ מָנוֹת לְאֵין נָכוֹן לוֹ כִּי־קָדוֹשׁ הַיּוֹם לַאֲדֹנֵינוּ וְאַל־תֵּעָצֵבוּ

Rosh Hashanah is therefore not a day of mourning, but a day that is at once solemn and joyful (Nechemiah 8:2-10). In the Tanakh, the expression rosh hashanah appears only once, in a different sense: “at the beginning of the year, on the tenth of the month” (Yechezkel 40:1) designates a date, not the festival. It was the Mishna that made it the name of the festival.

3. The day of judgment

Like sheep, one by one

The Mishna says it plainly: “All who come into the world pass before Him like benei maron” (Mishna Rosh Hashanah 1:2) — בראש השנה כל באי העולם עוברין לפניו כבני מרון. The Talmud offers three explanations of this expression: a flock of sheep made to pass one by one, travelers on a mountain path so narrow that they walk in single file, or the soldiers of an army passing in review (Rosh Hashanah 18a). In all three images, each person is looked at individually.

Three books

“Rabbi Kruspedai said in the name of Rabbi Yochanan: three books are opened on Rosh Hashanah: one of the completely wicked, one of the completely righteous, and one of the intermediate. The completely righteous are inscribed and sealed immediately for life; the completely wicked, for death; the intermediate remain in suspense from Rosh Hashanah until Yom Kippur.”

(Rosh Hashanah 16b) — שלשה ספרים נפתחין בראש השנה, אחד של רשעים גמורין, ואחד של צדיקים גמורין, ואחד של בינוניים. צדיקים גמורין — נכתבין ונחתמין לאלתר לחיים, רשעים גמורין — נכתבין ונחתמין לאלתר למיתה, בינוניים — תלויין ועומדין מראש השנה ועד יום הכפורים

Hence the importance of the ten days that separate the two festivals: the intermediate person is judged according to his deeds. The Talmud adds that “a person is judged only according to his deeds of the present moment” (Rosh Hashanah 16b), and that there are four ways of tearing up the decree:

“Four things tear up a person’s decree: tzedakah, crying out in prayer, changing one’s name and changing one’s deeds.”

(Rosh Hashanah 16b) — ארבעה דברים מקרעין גזר דינו של אדם, אלו הן: צדקה, צעקה, שינוי השם, ושינוי מעשה

The Rambam makes it a teaching for life: “Every person should see himself throughout the year as half innocent and half guilty, and the whole world likewise. If he commits a single sin, he tips the scale, his own and that of the world, toward guilt; a single mitzvah tips it toward merit” (Hilkhot Teshuvah 3:4). And a master adds: “Whoever forgoes his rights, all his sins are forgiven” (Rosh Hashanah 17a). This judgment is nothing like a gloomy tribunal: the liturgy addresses “Our Father, our King” (Taanit 25b, see below), and the festive meal bears witness to it.

4. Why the 1st of Tishrei: the anniversary of man

The Talmud records a debate: was the world created in Tishrei or in Nissan? Rabbi Eliezer answers Tishrei: “In Tishrei the world was created; in Tishrei the patriarchs were born; (…) on Rosh Hashanah, Sarah, Rachel and Chanah were remembered” (Rosh Hashanah 10b-11a). The liturgical practice follows Rabbi Eliezer. The Midrash specifies that creation began on the 25th of Elul, so that the sixth day, the day on which man was formed, falls on the 1st of Tishrei (Vayikra Rabbah 29:1). Rosh Hashanah is thus less the anniversary of the universe than that of man, of his responsibility and of his first sin. In the Musaf liturgy, one says: “Today the world is conceived” (hayom harat olam).

5. The shofar

Hearing, not blowing

The Torah commandment is to hear the shofar:

“It is a positive Torah commandment to hear the sound of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah.”

(Rambam, Hilkhot Shofar 1:1) — מצות עשה של תורה לשמע תרועת השופר בראש השנה

Indeed, the blessing says “to hear the voice of the shofar” (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim 585:2). It is blown standing, and the Rema reports the custom of blowing it from the bimah, where the Torah is read (Orach Chayim 585:1).

A ram’s horn, curved

The Mishna excludes the cow’s horn: “All shofarot are valid, except that of the cow, because it is a horn (keren)” (Mishna Rosh Hashanah 3:2). Halakha prefers that of the ram, curved (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim 586:1). A teaching of Rabbi Levi justifies this:

“Rabbi Levi said: the mitzvah of Rosh Hashanah (…) is performed with curved shofarot, and that of the rest of the year with straight shofarot.”

(Rosh Hashanah 26b) — אמר רבי לוי: מצוה של ראש השנה ושל יום הכפורים בכפופין, ושל כל השנה בפשוטין

The Gemara draws a lesson from it: on Rosh Hashanah, the more one bows in prayer, the better (26b). The Mishna reports that in the Temple one blew with the straight shofar of an ibex, the mouthpiece of which was covered with gold, between two trumpets (Mishna Rosh Hashanah 3:3).

Yitzchak’s ram

Why the ram? A teaching of Rabbi Abahu connects it to the story of Avraham, who offered in place of his son a ram caught in a thicket (Bereshit [Genesis] 22:13) — וַיִּשָּׂא אַבְרָהָם אֶת־עֵינָיו וַיַּרְא וְהִנֵּה־אַיִל אַחַר נֶאֱחַז בַּסְּבַךְ בְּקַרְנָיו:

“Rabbi Abahu said: Why do we blow with the horn of a ram? The Holy One, blessed be He, said: Blow before Me with the horn of a ram, so that I may remember in your favor the binding of Yitzchak son of Avraham, and I will count it for you as if you had bound yourselves before Me.”

(Rosh Hashanah 16a) — אמר רבי אבהו: למה תוקעין בשופר של איל? אמר הקדוש ברוך הוא: תקעו לפני בשופר של איל, כדי שאזכור לכם עקידת יצחק בן אברהם, ומעלה אני עליכם כאילו עקדתם עצמכם לפני

Tekiah, shevarim, teruah

The Mishna fixes the order: “three sets of three sounds” (Mishna Rosh Hashanah 4:9): the tekiah, a long sound; the teruah, a series of short sounds; and the final tekiah. But the Torah does not say how the teruah sounds: a long wail or short sobs? To resolve the doubt, Rabbi Abahu instituted in Caesarea that both be blown, plus their combination:

“Rabbi Abahu instituted in Caesarea: tekiah, three shevarim, teruah, tekiah.”

(Rosh Hashanah 34a) — אתקין רבי אבהו בקסרי: תקיעה, שלשה שברים, תרועה, תקיעה

This is why the three series are blown today: tekiah-shevarim-teruah-tekiah, tekiah-shevarim-tekiah and tekiah-teruah-tekiah (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim 590:1; 590:3). The custom is to blow first during the morning service, before Musaf (“sitting blasts”), and then during the repetition of the Musaf Amidah, standing. Why twice? The Talmud answers: “to confound the Satan”: the double blowing shows Israel’s love for the mitzvah, and throws the accuser off balance (Rosh Hashanah 16b).

No shofar on Shabbat

In the days of the Temple, the shofar was blown even on a Shabbat. After the destruction, Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai decided that it would be blown “wherever there is a court” (Mishna Rosh Hashanah 4:1). But today it is not blown on Shabbat. Rava gives the reason: by the Torah, one could blow, but the Sages feared that, since everyone is obligated and few are expert, someone might take the shofar in hand to go and learn from a specialist and carry it in the public domain (Rosh Hashanah 29b).

“Awake, you sleepers!”

The Rambam, after recalling that the blowing is a decree of the Torah, adds:

“Even though the blowing of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah is a decree of Scripture, there is an allusion in it: Awake, you sleepers, from your sleep; you who slumber, arise from your slumber; examine your deeds, return in teshuvah and remember your Creator.”

(Rambam, Hilkhot Teshuvah 3:4) — אף על פי שתקיעת שופר בראש השנה גזרת הכתוב רמז יש בו כלומר עורו ישנים משנתכם ונרדמים הקיצו מתרדמתכם וחפשו במעשיכם וחזרו בתשובה וזכרו בוראכם

This moral reading does not make the shofar “symbolic”: the mitzvah is to hear it, even without thinking about it. But the Rambam offers it so that the sound may speak to the one who listens. Rav Saadia Gaon, according to the Abudarham (14th century), listed ten reasons: proclaiming G-d as King, calling to teshuvah, recalling Sinai, the words of the prophets, the destruction of the Temple, the binding of Yitzchak, humility, the day of judgment, the gathering of the exiles, the coming of the Messiah.

6. The prayer, the readings and the songs

The three blessings of Musaf

The Talmud puts into the mouth of the Creator the reason for the three central blessings of Musaf, the Malchuyot (kingships), Zichronot (remembrances) and Shofarot (shofar blasts):

“Say before Me on Rosh Hashanah kingships, remembrances and shofar blasts: kingships, so that you will crown Me king over you; remembrances, so that your remembrance may rise before Me for good; and with what? With the shofar.”

(Rosh Hashanah 16a) — ואמרו לפני בראש השנה מלכיות זכרונות ושופרות. מלכיות — כדי שתמליכוני עליכם, זכרונות — כדי שיעלה זכרוניכם לפני לטובה, ובמה — בשופר

The Mishna describes the structure: three central blessings, after which one blows (Mishna Rosh Hashanah 4:5), each of at least ten verses (Mishna Rosh Hashanah 4:6; Rosh Hashanah 32a). After each blowing, the Rema reports the custom of saying Hayom harat olam (“Today the world is conceived,” Orach Chayim 592:1). After the prayer, he also mentions places where thirty more blasts are blown (Orach Chayim 596:1).

Avinu Malkeinu, Unetaneh Tokef

“Rabbi Akiva went down before the ark and said: Our Father, our King, we have no king but You; our Father, our King, for Your sake have mercy on us. And rain fell.”

(Taanit 25b) — ״אבינו מלכנו אין לנו מלך אלא אתה. אבינו מלכנו, למענך רחם עלינו״

This litany, enriched over the centuries, is recited during the ten days of teshuvah (Rema on Orach Chayim 602:1). The piyyut (liturgical poem) Unetaneh Tokef (“We shall proclaim the power of this day’s holiness”) tells, in the Ashkenazic tradition, of the death of Rabbi Amnon of Mainz; but this legend remains historically doubtful: fragments from the Cairo Genizah show that the text is much older. Scholars attribute it to Byzantine Palestine, perhaps to the poet Yannai (6th century), but the attribution remains debated.

The readings

On the first day, one reads the birth of Yitzchak (Bereshit 21) and the haftarah of Chanah (I Shmuel 1-2); on the second, the binding (Bereshit 22), with the haftarah “Is Ephraim My dear son?” (Yirmeyahu 31) (Talmud, Megillah 31a). On this theme the Talmud reads a scene set in the future, in which Avraham, then Yaakov, let the children of Israel be erased, and Yitzchak defends them:

“He said to Yitzchak: Your sons have sinned before Me. He said before Him: Master of the universe, are they my sons and not Yours?”

(Shabbat 89b) — אמר לו ליצחק: בניך חטאו לי. אמר לפניו: רבונו של עולם, בני ולא בניך

Apples and a jar of honey on a festive table, lit by the light of a window

7. The meal and the gestures

The simanim

The Talmud gives a source for the festive meal:

“Abaye said: since you say that a sign is something significant, let a person be accustomed to eat, at the beginning of the year, gourd, fenugreek, leeks, chard and dates.”

(Keritot 6a) — אמר אביי: השתא דאמרת סימנא מילתא היא, יהא רגיל איניש למיכל ריש שתא קרא ורוביא, כרתי, סילקא ותמרי

The Shulchan Aruch takes up the custom: over each food, one says “May it be Your will” with a play on words: the leek (karti) so that our enemies be “cut off” (yikartu), the dates (tamari) so that they be “consumed” (yitamu), the chard (silka) so that they “depart,” the gourd (kra) so that our decree be “torn up” (yikra) (Orach Chayim 583:1). The Rema adds: “There are those who have the custom of eating a sweet apple in honey, saying: may a sweet year be renewed for us” (583:1, following the Tur and the Abudarham). One also eats the head of a ram or of a fish, “to be at the head and not at the tail” (Devarim [Deuteronomy] 28:13), and in memory of Yitzchak’s ram:

“One eats the head of a ram, to say: may we be at the head and not at the tail, and in memory of Yitzchak’s ram.”

(Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim 583:2) — אוכלים ראש כבש לומר נהיה לראש ולא לזנב

This is not magic: one expresses one’s wishes at the table, with one’s children. The Rema also reports the custom of avoiding nuts, whose numerical value is that of the word “sin” (chet), and of not sleeping during the day of the festival (583:2). On the second night, a new fruit is placed on the table in order to say Shehecheyanu (Orach Chayim 600:2).

Tashlich

On the afternoon of the first day, many go to the water’s edge to recite verses, including: “You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea” (Michah 7:19) — יָשׁוּב יְרַחֲמֵנוּ יִכְבֹּשׁ עֲוֺנֹתֵינוּ וְתַשְׁלִיךְ בִּמְצֻלוֹת יָם כׇּל־חַטֹּאותָם׃ (see Rema on Orach Chayim 583:2). This is a custom, not a law: the sea does not receive sins, but one expresses there a trust in forgiveness.

8. Ashkenazim, Sephardim, Hasidim: customs that vary

Selichot (prayers of forgiveness): Sephardim say them from the 1st of Elul (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim 581:1), Ashkenazim from the Sunday before Rosh Hashanah, or from the Sunday of the preceding week if the festival falls on a Monday or Tuesday (Rema, ibid.). Rav Benizri links these four days to the examination of the offering, which was checked four days before it was brought (Elul: the role of man).
The Musaf blasts: the Shulchan Aruch describes three series for each blessing; the Rema notes that some blow only one series per blessing, a custom “of these provinces” (Orach Chayim 592:1).
The simanim: Sephardim more readily recite the whole set of “Yehi ratzon” over each food; Ashkenazim often concentrate on the apple and the honey.
Hasidim: the disciples of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov have gathered since 1811 in Uman, Ukraine, where he is buried, for Rosh Hashanah: the Rosh Hashanah kibbutz, which brings together tens of thousands of pilgrims.

9. Spiritual readings: mussar, Kabbalah, Hasidism

Halakha says what must be done: hear the shofar, pray, eat. Spiritual readings say what this can awaken. They are not the law. Besides the Rambam (“Awake, you sleepers!”) and the reasons attributed to Rav Saadia, a reading inspired by the mystical tradition sees in the shofar the primal breath, before speech: this is the one that Rav Benizri develops (see below). We do not present here the detailed Kabbalistic and Hasidic readings, which call for a teacher: it is better to study them from the text than to summarize them. The most visible Hasidic fact is the gathering of the Breslov Chassidim in Uman (see above).

10. History and archaeology

The festival is described in the book of Nechemiah (Nechemiah 8), around the 5th century BCE, as a day of public reading of the Torah and of joy. The Talmudic sources show the transformation: from the sanctification of the new moon by witnesses in Jerusalem to the calculated calendar, which lets the second day remain as a maintained custom (Beitzah 4b). After 70 CE, Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai transferred the privilege of the shofar to Yavneh (Mishna Rosh Hashanah 4:1). Archaeology has recovered in Jerusalem a stone of the 1st century CE bearing the inscription “To the place of the trumpeting” (levet hatekiah), discovered in 1968 by Benjamin Mazar at the foot of the southern wall of the Temple: it marked the spot where priests sounded the trumpet to announce Shabbat, as Flavius Josephus describes (The Jewish War IV, ix, 12). It is proof of the sound signals of the Temple, not of the Rosh Hashanah shofar itself.

What Rav Raphaël Benizri teaches

Rav Raphaël Benizri has devoted several lectures to Rosh Hashanah and Elul (see Rosh Hashanah: the meaning of the shofar and of judgment).

The cry of the shofar. In Elul and the cry of the shofar, the Rav explains that Elul replays the forty days of the second Tablets: Moshe went up on the 1st of Elul and came down on Yom Kippur. The sin of the golden calf does not belong to the past: it is “taking one aspect of the divine manifestation and clinging to it,” settling into a fixed thought. Growing old, he says, is not a matter of age: it is the system in which everything becomes daily and repetitive; shanah (year) and yashen (asleep) share the same root. The shofar is in time what the mezuzah is in space: two devices of awakening. Its cry is that of someone who suddenly can no longer explain to himself the situation he is in, “as if one were coming out of a dream and wondering where the reality of things is.” He also describes life as a one-year lease that we renew ourselves: at every Rosh Hashanah, we keep what finds its place in the new setting and throw out the rest; Rosh Hashanah is the rosh hashinuy, the head of change. The lecture closes on the mishna that knows no festival days comparable to the 15th of Av and Yom Kippur.

The shofar, the Satan, the breath. In Elul: the curse is a blessing, the Rav reads the word charadah (trembling): it is not fear, but what halts the course of an event and forces one to rethink it. The Satan that the shofar is meant to confound has two faces: boundless pride, which charges like a bull, and the resignation of one who submits, like the donkey. The shofar is the neshimah, the primal breath, speech in gestation. He regrets that this sound has been emptied of its resonance.

“Inscribe us in the book of life.” In Inscribe us in the book of life, the Rav starts from the observation that the additions to the Amidah all come back to a single request: to be inscribed for life. He notes that chayim, life, is a word in the dual: we always lead a double life, inner and outer, here below and beyond. Why then ask for a “good life” afterward? Because life is in itself a blessing, and it is we who are not capable of it; a people that, after Sinai, could bow down before a golden calf needed to be promised a reward. In every covenant, he says, there remains “a root that does not follow the movement,” which gnaws at the living forces; the prayer of Rosh Hashanah asks for the help that allows it to be integrated. He concludes on the symmetrical hope: if a small failing left unchecked can destroy a life, a single righteous act can rebuild a person, a family, a society.

Elul and the Akeidah. In Elul: finding one’s sources again, he recalls that the world began on the 25th of Elul and that teshuvah preceded it: our Sages teach that 974 generations were created and then erased, because imperfection is inscribed in creation itself. In Elul: the role of man, he explains that shanah does not mean “new” but “to repeat”: Rosh Hashanah is not a brand-new year, but the repetition of a cycle to which another content is given, just as Devarim, the Mishneh Torah, repeats the Torah. In Vayera: the promises to Avraham, part 2, he recalls that akeidah means “binding” and not “sacrifice,” and he sees in it a test of Avraham’s attachment to chesed, kindness.

Common misconceptions about Rosh Hashanah

“It is the festival of the creation of the world.” Half true: the 1st of Tishrei is, according to Rabbi Eliezer, the sixth day of creation, that of man (Vayikra Rabbah 29:1; Rosh Hashanah 10b-11a). The tradition is not unanimous: Rabbi Yehoshua maintains that the world was created in Nissan (Rosh Hashanah 10b-11a).

“The shofar is blown to frighten.” The shofar awakens, but the Torah sees in it a “remembrance” and a joy, not a threat (Vayikra 23:24; Tehilim 89:16). The Rambam speaks of an awakening, not of terror (Hilkhot Teshuvah 3:4).

“Everything is decided on the day itself.” No: three books are opened, and the largest number, the intermediate, remain in suspense until Yom Kippur (Rosh Hashanah 16b).

“Any horn will do.” No: the cow’s horn is excluded, and that of the ram, curved, is preferred (Mishna Rosh Hashanah 3:2; Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim 586:1).

“Tashlich is an obligatory rite.” It is a custom, which the Rema reports (Orach Chayim 583:2).

Frequently asked questions about Rosh Hashanah

Why does Rosh Hashanah last two days, even in Israel?

The Mishna explains that, in earlier times, the court received the witnesses of the new moon until the evening of the 30th of Elul; it was therefore not always known which day the festival began. The two days were kept, and the Gemara treats them as a case apart (Mishna Rosh Hashanah 4:4; Beitzah 4b).

What does “Shanah tovah” mean?

It is a wish for a “good year.” The traditional wish on the first evening is leshanah tovah tikatev vetichatem, “may you be inscribed and sealed for a good year”; it echoes the books of Rosh Hashanah (Rosh Hashanah 16b).

What if Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbat?

The shofar is not blown, by decree of the Sages (Rosh Hashanah 29b); it is heard the following day. In 5788, Rosh Hashanah begins on the evening of Friday, October 1, 2027, and the shofar will be heard on Sunday, October 3.

Do you have to be able to blow it yourself?

No: the mitzvah is to hear (Rambam, Hilkhot Shofar 1:1). Everyone is obligated to hear; those who cannot go to the synagogue can ask a rabbi how to proceed.

Why dip the apple in honey?

It is a custom reported by the Rema (Orach Chayim 583:1): one makes there the wish for a sweet year.

What does the “fish head” mean?

It is the “head” food of the meal, to be “at the head and not at the tail” (Devarim 28:13); the custom of the ram’s head is in the Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chayim 583:2).

What Is Rosh Hashanah and Why Is the Shofar Blown?