c. 2000 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Rosh Hashanah, which begins at sundown on Friday (Sept. 29) marks the start of the Jewish New Year. This year Jews will celebrate the beginning of the year 5761.

Rosh Hashanah observances vary by synagogue and denomination, with Reform Jews celebrating only one day, and other Jews celebrating two days. Rosh Hashanah coincides with the first and second days of the Hebrew month of Tishrei.

Jews believe God takes account of a person’s life on Rosh Hashanah, and believers typically use the day to assess the past year and set goals for the new year. Rosh Hashanah is followed closely by Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which is the holiest day of the year when God seals the names of believers in the Book of Life.

“On Rosh Hashanah, God inscribes,” according to an ancient Hebrew prayer. “And on the fast of Yom Kippur, God seals.”

The signature event of Rosh Hashanah is the blowing of the ram’s horn, or shofar, which is a “kind of spiritual alarm clock for the soul,” writes Ari Goldman, a professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, in “Being Jewish.”

Jews traditionally eat apples and honey on Rosh Hashanah to symbolize hopes for a sweet new year. Jews do not eat nuts on Rosh Hashanah, Goldman writes, because the “numerical value of the Hebrew word for nuts (egoz) _ 17 _ is the same as the value of the word for sin (chet).”

The Hebrew greeting for Rosh Hashanah is “Shanah Tovah,” which means happy new year.

DEA END ECKSTROM