12 Well-Loved Rosh Hashanah Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What should I bring to a Rosh Hashanah dinner? ›

If you're attending a Rosh Hashanah celebration as a guest, it is customary to bring a gift. Traditional choices include honey, apples, pomegranates, or kosher wine. A sweet dessert or a bouquet of flowers could also be appreciated. It's always best to ask the host if there's anything specific they would prefer.

Rosh Hashanah celebrates the Jewish new year, and like the secular new year, the most common greeting for the holiday is “Happy New Year.” Jews will often greet one another on the holiday with the rough Hebrew equivalent, shana tovah (pronounced shah-NAH toe-VAH), which literally means “good year.”

For Jews of Eastern European and Russian descent (Ashkenazi), an old-world-inspired celebratory feast would feature round challahs, chicken soup, a slow-roasted brisket or roast chicken, sweetened roasted root vegetables that always include carrots, and a wide variety of side dishes.

Favorite recipes and sweet foods are popular choices for families on the first and second nights of Rosh Hashanah. Sour foods are usually avoided. Some people avoid nuts during Rosh Hashanah since the numerical value of the Hebrew letters in the word “nu*t” add up to the same number as the word “sin.”

Women will sometimes wear an open-toe or open-heel shoe or “sandal of some sort if the weather is still warm,” but men don't have that option. Nocente, meanwhile, said leather is proscribed for Rosh Hashanah.

It's believed that centuries ago, the apple was chosen as the fruit that was to be dipped into the honey on Rosh Hashanah due to the symbolic nature of the fruit.

Challah, the traditional, sweet, plaited bread, is eaten by many families each Friday night, to celebrate the Sabbath. Most of the year, it's a long loaf, but for Rosh Hashanah, it's shaped into a round that represents the never-ending circle of life. The loaf is sometimes studded with raisins for extra sweetness.

There are many acceptable ways to greet someone who is celebrating Rosh Hashanah. It is a festive holiday, so if you want to keep it simple, "Happy New Year," works just fine. Jews will often greet one another by saying "Shanah tovah" (pronounced shah-NAH toe-VAH), which means "Good year."

Shalom aleichem

The appropriate response is "Aleichem Shalom" (עֲלֵיכֶם שָׁלוֹם) or "Upon you be peace." (cognate with the Arabic-language "assalamu alaikum" meaning "The peace [of ] be upon you.)"

Why do Jews say Mazel Tov? ›

Usage. Mazel tov is literally translated as "good luck" in its meaning as a description, not a wish. The implicit meaning is "good luck has occurred" or "your fortune has been good" and the expression is an acknowledgement of that fact.

Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur call us to bridge the distances—wherever they may be—and to restore and reconcile those relationships and things that make up our lives. The three Rs of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur—Renewal, Return, and Reconciliation.

The first known mention of apples and honey being eaten on Rosh Hashanah comes from the 14th-century legal work Arba'ah Turim, which states that German Jews ate apples and honey in order to bring sweetness into the New Year.