The Weekly Shot: Rosh Hashanah

22 September 2014
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Painting of Hasidic Jews performing tashlikh (ritual washing away of sins) on Rosh Hashanah, placed on the banks of the Vistula River in Warsaw. (Painted by Aleksander Gierymski, 1884)

Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year, although the real name for this Feast of the Lord is called Yom Teruah (Hebrew:literally "day [of] shouting/raising a noise") or the Feast of Trumpets according to the correct biblical calendar of the 1st and 2nd temple period, not Rosh Hashanah. It is the first of the High Holy Days or Yamim Nora'im ("Days of Awe") which usually occur in the early autumn of the Northern Hemisphere. Rosh Hashanah is a two-day celebration, which begins on the first day of Tishrei. The day is believed to be the anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, and their first actions toward the realization of humanity's role in God's world. Rosh Hashanah customs include sounding the shofar (a hollowed-out ram's horn) and eating symbolic foods such as apples dipped in honey to evoke a "sweet new year."

(Source: Wikipedia)

Explore URI Cooperation Circles in the Middle East and North Africa region, some of whom are celebrating this Jewish Holy Day.