España is a wonderful country that welcomes people of all origins, of different beliefs, of different ethnicities and allows everyone to freely exercise their customs and their religiosity.
The diversity we welcome is also the reason for our cultural wealth and we have the opportunity to learn, expand our world view and value our nation so heterogeneous and at the same time so unified by humanity.
Customs and traditions, mainly related to religiosity, are transmitted between generations and are perpetuated. So it is with the people here who follow Judaism. Get to know now what Rosh Hashanah represents for Jews and realize the beauty with which we are gifted for accepting differences!
What is Rosh Hashanah
Rosh Hashanah is the festival that marks the Jewish New Year. The literal translation of the Hebrew word is “head of the year”.
According to the Talmud (a collection of the Hebrew sacred books), God created human beings (Adam and Eve) on the first day of Tishrei, which was then the commemoration of humanity's birthday and the beginning of the counting of the years. So in 2020, for example, will be the beginning of the year 5781. Rosh Hashanah celebrates that life is a gift.
It is the most important celebration of the Jewish year. It starts at sunset on the eve of Tishrei 1st, for example, in 2020 it will be on September 18th, and ends after dusk on Tishrei 2nd (September 20th, 2020). It is a movable date, relative to the seventh month of the Jewish calendar (lunisolar), different from the Gregorian calendar used by us. It coincides with the autumn of the Northern Hemisphere.
The number seven has a special meaning in Judaism. Every seventh day is considered holy. The seventh month is the month of celebrations and also that of Jewish identity.
In the Jewish calendar the months are based on the lunar cycles and the year is adapted to the solar cycle, so it alternates between twelve and thirteen month years.
The commemoration of Rosh Hashanah is the period for an examination of conscience, of spiritual renewal for Jews. It is when especially people ask forgiveness for any offense that may have been committed to them during the year. It is also the time to ask God for forgiveness.
During the time of the celebration of Rosh Hashanah, it is tradition to wish people to be inscribed by God in the “Book of Life”, so that they have a good year.
The book remains open while the names are inscribed during Rosh Hashanah. On Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), celebrated ten days after the Jewish New Year, the book is closed and sealed.
According to religious tradition, on Rosh HaShanah, God judges mankind and records the sentence in the “Book of Life”, but offers a ten-day period for repentance for sins, called the Iamim Noraim (Fearful Days).
The judgment (Yom haDin) of God determines how much each person will earn, what the health of each person will be like, whether the person will have children, how the education, prosperity and everything about the person's life in the new year will be, considering the behavior during the year.
In the case of having committed sin, repentance can change the divine judgment, because by repenting man becomes another person and no longer the one who sinned. It is important to emphasize that God's decision does not change. The person who changes is the person on whom a severe judgment would fall. But forgiveness is only before God. Sins committed against other people must be judged by men.
Costumes do Rosh HaShaná
It is customary for Jews to go to synagogue to pray on Rosh Hashanah.
During the two mornings there is no work and there is the sounding of the shofar, a kind of “horn”, made with a ram's horn.
Jews wear white clothing as a sign of not sinning.
At meals there are dates to attract fortune, bread in a circular shape (Challah) to dip in honey, apple with honey, honey cake and sweets, all to sweeten the year. Other delicacies are pomegranate, lamb, fish and mutton or fish head.
During the celebration of Rosh HaShaná, candles are lit at night and people greet each other saying “Shaná Tová”, which means “Good Year”.
So, the Jewish New Year (Rosh HaShanah) is the time to reflect on one's behavior during the past year. It is also the time to repent and ask for forgiveness, while wishing a good new year to family and friends. It is also a moment of joy because humanity completes another year of life.
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From this religious tradition we can learn that for Judaism, a monotheistic religion, there is a just and benevolent Creator. They take advantage of this emblematic and millennial date to continue the traditions. Get inspired by this example that values ​​the act of forgiving and celebrate life!
