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| When It Falls |
Sundown Sept. 17-Sundown Sept. 19, 2001
1-2 Tishrei
| Sundown Sept. 26-Sundown Sept. 27, 2001
10 Tishrei
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| Meaning |
New Year--anniversary of creation of the world
Day of Judgment--when God begins deciding humans' fates for the coming year |
Day of Atonement--humans' fates for the year are sealed by God |
| Essential Mitzvah |
Hearing the shofar (ram's horn) blown. (The shofar will not be blown the first day of the holiday this year because it falls on the Sabbath.) |
Fasting. No eating or drinking during the holiday |
| Customs & Laws |
Eating apple dipped in honey to symbolize a sweet new year
Seeking forgiveness from others and granting them forgiveness for slights committed during the past year
Tashlich, symbolically casting sins--in the form of bread crumbs--into a body of water |
Festive meal before the fast begins
Prayer services almost the entire day
Kol Nidre is recited at nightfall of the beginning of the fast
Wearing white clothes
Not wearing leather
Recitation of penitential and confessional prayers |
| Related Food |
Apples and honey
Round challah bread
Fish head, so "we should be as a head, and not a tail" |
No food allowed for Jewish adults |
| Biblical Source |
"In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall be a solemn rest unto you, a memorial proclaimed with the blast of horns, a holy convocation."
(Leviticus 23:24) |
"And on the tenth day of the seventh month, there shall be a holy convocation for you, and you should afflict yourselves."
(Numbers 29:7) |
| Traditional Greeting |
Shanah Tovah--"Good year" |
G'mar khatima tovah--"May you be sealed for a good year" |
| Suggested Reading |
1,001 Questions & Answers on Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur by Jeffrey M. Cohen |
Companion Guide to the Yom Kippur Prayer Service
by Moshe I. Sorscher |
