Symbolic Foods

On Rosh Hashana, we eat foods that symbolize good things we hope for in the coming year. We contemplate what these foods symbolize, and connect with the Source of all good things.

The symbolic foods are based on a word game which connects the name of a certain food, to a particular hope we have for the new year. Here is a list from the Talmud of symbolic foods customarily eaten on Rosh Hashana. (The food and its related meaning are highlighted.)

Before eating BEETS, say: "May it be Your will, G-d, that our adversaries be REMOVED."

The Hebrew name for beets is Silka, sounds like the siluk, meaning "removal".

Before eating LEEK, say: "May it be Your will, G-d, that our enemies be CUT OFF."

The Hebrew name for leek is Karthi. That is sounds like the word kareth, "to cut off/destroy". Could be also used baked carrots, known as Tzimes.

Before eating DATES, say: "May it be Your will, G-d, that our enemies be FINISHED."

The Hebrew name for dates is Tamri, sounds like the word sheyitamu, "that they be consumed."

Before eating GOURD, say: "May it be Your will, G-d, that the decree of our sentence should be TORN apart, and may our merits be PROCLAIMED before You."

The Hebrew name for gourd is K'ra. The word K'ra sounds both like the word for "read/proclaim" and the word for "tear".

Before eating FENUGREEK, say: "May it be Your will, G-d, that our merits INCREASE."

The Hebrew name for fenugreek is Rubia. The word Rubia" sounds like the word yirbu, the word for "increase". Black eye peas also could be used.

Before eating POMEGRANATE, say: "May it be Your will, G-d, that our merits increase as the seeds of a POMEGRANATE."

The Hebrew name for pomegranate is Rimon. A pomegranate is said to have 613 seeds. This number corresponds to the number of mitzvoth, that Jews as a society must perform. A pomegranate on the holiday table announces to the heavenly court that as many seeds as there are, that's how many good deeds have been performed over the year.

Before eating the HEAD or fish (sephardim sometimes are eating head of a sheep), say: "May it be Your will, G-d, that we be as the HEAD (leaders) and not as the tail (followers).

The Hebrew name for fish is Dag. Fish, because they are numerous, are used as symbols of fertility and prosperity and because their eyes are always open, and they see everything, they stand for knowledge.

Note: This order made based on book of Rabbi HaChacham Kaf HaChaim. Introduction to this order says that "It is made to serve both Pshat (low-level understanding) and Sod (secret and Kaballistic understanding)".
Because it is only a custom to eat symbolic foods, could be different order and types of food.
You should also remember that all enemies and adversaries that we are talking about here are not Jewish.

You can also use other foods and make up your own "May it be Your will..."
For example, you could eat a raisin and celery, and ask G-d in the coming year for a "raise in salary" (raisin celery)!
As another example, there was a girl which was eating Date'N'Nut desert (an almond inside of a date) to ask G-d in the coming year for a "not to have dates with nuts"!

Apples & Honey

It is a custom to place sliced apples and a dish of honey on the dinner table for Rosh Hashanah meal.

According to many commentators, the "field which Hashem has blessed" refers to an apple field, and the smell of that apple field is also the smell of the Garden of Eden.

Upon eating the apple and honey, we say a Yehi Ratzon that beseeches from Hashem that "You (should) renew us for a good and sweet year."

TZEDAKAH - CHARITY

In the villages of Eastern Europe it was a custom before the New Year for a messenger to go from house to house with a sack. Those who could afford it put coins into the sack; those who were poor took coins from the sack. No one knew who gave and who took. No one was embarassed because he was poor. Every family had money to buy the things they neeed to celebrate the holiday.

Giving tzedakah, sharing what we have with those in need, is an important mitzvah in Jewish life.

The ideal of charity around the New Year time has its place in the modern world in the attempts of some Jewish communal service agencies and local community-based projects to make sure that all Jews can afford to attend services and get a good Yom Tov meal. But our concern for the unfortunate is not limited to the borders of our own country. It is by now something of a tradition to find an appeal from the State of Israel on one's seat in synagogue around the High Holidays.

TASHLICH - The Casting away of Sin

Sometime between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, it is customary to throw bread crumbs into a body of water as a symbolic act of repentance. Most Jews do tashlich the afternoon of the first day of Rosh Hashana. Family and friends gather together at the waterfront to "cast away" the sins of the past year and resolve to be a better in the year to come.

The liturgy for the occasion is short and consists mainly of selections from the Prophets (N'viim) and Writings (K'tuvim). We begin by reciting a passage from Micah, than we read passages from the Psalms and Isaiah affirming our closeness to the Divine before concluding by reciting it seven times.

The readings certainly embody the ideal of repentance (teshuva) that is such a preodominant theme in the rituals and customs of Rosh Hashanah. Tashlich is a way to admit our own faults and symbolically shed the baggage of last year's mistakes. In the face of our own personal conflicts, we affirm our closeness to humanity and to G-d.