Rosh Hashanah

Rosh Hashanah (Hebrew for "head of the year") is the Jewish New Year. In the Bible, it is called Yom Teruah, or "day of blasting." It marks the start of the High Holy Days, also known as the Days of Awe, as laid out in Leviticus 23:23–25, and takes place in the late summer or early autumn in the Northern Hemisphere. This holiday kicks off the Ten Days of Repentance, which end with Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. After Rosh Hashanah comes Sukkot, then Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah, wrapping up the season.

The holiday lasts two days, starting on the first day of Tishrei, the seventh month of the ecclesiastical year. It follows a lunisolar calendar and begins the evening before the first day. While the ecclesiastical year starts with Nisan (the spring month of Passover, marking Israel's exodus from Egypt), Rosh Hashanah begins the civil year in Jewish teaching. It is traditionally seen as the anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve, the first humans, and the start of humanity's role in God's world. The Talmudic sages describe Rosh Hashanah as the day when people, so to speak, crown God as king anew each year. This is done through the shofar blasts, which resemble the horns sounded at a coronation. It also starts the ten days of repentance, making it a key time for turning back to God.

Customs include blowing the shofar, a hollowed ram's horn, as the Torah instructs for Yom Teruah. Eating symbolic foods that express hopes for a sweet new year is an ancient practice recorded in the Talmud. Other rabbinical traditions involve attending synagogue services and reciting special prayers focused on three main themes: crowning God as king, the shofar blasts, and God remembering people in judgment, along with festive meals. Tashlich, meaning "to cast," is a ritual done anytime from the first day of Rosh Hashanah through Hoshana Rabbah. Participants recite prayers by water, seeking divine forgiveness by shaking out their garments and symbolically throwing away their sins into the water. In many communities, this is done by tossing stones or pieces of bread.

The word "Rosh Hashanah" comes from Hebrew: *rosh* means "head," *ha* is the definite article "the," and *shanah* means "year," so it means "head of the year," or New Year. This exact term does not appear in the Torah. Leviticus 23:24 calls the festival *Zikhron Teruah* ("a memorial of blowing horns"), and Numbers 29:1 calls it *Yom Teruah* ("day of blowing the horn"). The term *Rosh Hashanah* appears once in the Bible, in Ezekiel 40:1, but there it has a different meaning—either generally "beginning of the year" or possibly referring to Yom Kippur or the month of Nisan. In prayer books, Rosh Hashanah is also called Yom haZikkaron, "the day of remembrance," not to be confused with the modern Israeli remembrance day of the same name.

The origin of this New Year ties back to the start of the economic year in ancient Near Eastern farming societies. The New Year marked the beginning of the cycle of sowing, growth, and harvest, with the harvest having its own major agricultural festivals. Semitic speakers generally set the new year in autumn, while other ancient civilizations like the Persians, Greeks, or Hindus chose spring, both based on agricultural reasons—sowing seeds and bringing in the harvest. Some scholars see a link between the Babylonian Akitu festival and Rosh Hashanah due to similarities. The Akitu festival of Ur was celebrated at the start of Nisanu (the first month) for at least five days, and again in Tashritu (the seventh month) for eleven days. Akitu was tied to the creation myth of Enuma Elish, where Marduk defeats the sea monster Tiamat and creates the universe from her body. Similarly, the world is said to have been created on Rosh Hashanah. Another view is that the tradition of marking the birth of humanity and the anniversary of creation, along with the coronation of God, was passed down from Adam and Eve, who were created on that day, through generations until it was recorded in the Talmud.

Rosh Hashanah starts the numbering of a new year in the Hebrew calendar. According to the Mishnah, there are four different New Years: Rosh Hashanah (the first of Tishrei), the first of Nisan (when the Exodus began), the first of Elul, and Tu BiShvat (the fifteenth of Shevat). Each serves as the start of a year for different legal or religious purposes. The Talmud discusses these distinctions in tractate Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah is the new year for counting ordinary calendar years, Sabbatical years, Jubilee years, and dates on legal deeds and contracts. It commemorates the creation of humankind. In Jewish practice, months are numbered starting with Nisan in spring, making Tishrei the seventh month; so Rosh Hashanah, the first day of the new calendar year, is also the first day of the seventh month. The second New Year, the first of Nisan (usually March–April in the Gregorian calendar), begins the ecclesiastical year, with months numbered from Nisan. It marks the start of the year for the Three Pilgrimage Festivals, as stated in the Hebrew Bible: "This month shall be unto you the beginning of months."