A Rosh Hashanah primer

Navigating holidays is tricky business, but attempting to participate in another person’s traditions can be downright treacherous. The Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah, started last night at sundown and continues through Friday at sundown. Here we offer a Jewish high holidays primer, chock full of history and advice from the valley’s two rabbis. And if you scored an invitation to a Rosh Hashanah dinner, don’t fret —here’s what you need to know to make it through without looking completely ignorant.

Rosh Ha-What?

Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year, but the Hebrew translates it slightly different. “Rosh” means head, “ha” is the prefix “the” and “shanah” means year. Combined, it literally means “head of the year.” This start of the Jewish year is traditionally thought to be the time when Adam and Eve were created. But the holiday shares a few things with the secular New Year, and one of those is resolutions. It is time to “pick it up a notch” when it comes to religious observances, said Rabbi Dovid Mintz of Chabad, the Jewish Resource Center.

“It is time to choose something (a good deed or mitzvah) new, whether it is putting up a new mezuzah or doing Shabbat more than once a month,” Mintz said.

Rosh Hashanah is the start of the repentance and reflection period. People ask one another for forgiveness over the past year.

“It is seeing where we have missed the mark over the last year, even though we might have tried to aim correctly,” said Rabbi Debra Rappaport of B’nai Vail Congregation.

Rosh Hashanah opens a time to reflect on the past year and to see what we want to change for the future, she said; there are even some similarities to the Jewish style of repentance and the 12-step program. Jews have to own their mistakes, and then they have to make amends for it. Next year, when he or she is confronted with the same situation, he or she will make the right choice, completing the circle of atonement. This is the process of tshuva, or repenting, she said.