1. Rosh Hashanah 5786 approaches us, two days of a holy holiday. It begins on Monday before sunset with the lighting of candles, and ends on Wednesday with the emergence of the stars. There's a famous expression: "Everything follows the head." That is, the head, the beginning of the year, is important and influences the future, so we strive for these to be two days filled with commandments, prayer, and good deeds.
2. What is the essence? If we look at the prayers of Rosh Hashanah we discover that unlike Yom Kippur where we deal with ourselves, with sins, with soul-searching, with personal matters, on Rosh Hashanah we don't mention this. The essence of Rosh Hashanah is crowning God over ourselves and over the entire world. Crowning is the understanding that everything that happened to us and will happen in the coming year, is from Him. Security and economy, through home life, livelihood, children, and in general - life, are in His hands. Even if all year it seems that other factors influence our lives more than anything, and navigate them and our decisions, we aspire to reshape our lives now, more correctly. To align our will and actions with God's will.
3. The central commandment of Rosh Hashanah - to hear the blowing of the shofar. The shofar blowing is heard in synagogues on Tuesday and Wednesday, usually during morning-afternoon hours. The commandment is to attend the shofar blowing on both days of the holiday. The shofar blower blesses, the congregation answers Amen, and then maintains silence throughout all the blasts. Many synagogues also announce a time when there are additional blasts after the prayer. Chabad houses operate "Operation Shofar," not only in synagogues but also in parks and streets. At the beginning of the year we silence all the noise and all the distractions, and listen to the simple and clear sound of the shofar that awakens the soul.
4. It is customary to take upon ourselves a "small resolution" on Rosh Hashanah, a small and practical improvement in life that can be implemented from now. What for example? Anything related to giving charity and doing kindness, or for example to commit to being careful about an additional blessing or prayer or additional Torah study, to avoid gossip and more. Our commentators explain that just as one buys a new garment for the body, so to the resolution is a new garment for the soul, for the new year.
5. On Rosh Hashanah it is customary to eat the "symbols" in the evening: these are symbolic foods such as an apple with honey, pomegranate seeds and more. The "Chafetz Chaim" used to say that the sweetest and best symbol for a successful year - is simply to be sweet and good. To begin the year with joy, without nerves and without pressure.
May it be a Shana Tova Umetuka!
