Rosh Hashanah

Rosh Hashanah 2027 (1 Tishrei 5788) begins on the evening of Friday, October 1 and lasts two days, until nightfall on 2 Tishrei. The dates for the next three years, with the Hebrew dates, are in the table on this page.

The Sages were concerned that someone might carry a shofar through a public area to learn how to blow it, and so desecrate Shabbat. When the first day of Rosh Hashanah is Shabbat, the shofar is heard only on the second day.

They are foods eaten at the holiday meal as signs for the coming year, each with a short prayer that begins Yehi Ratzon, "may it be Your will". Common simanim include apple dipped in honey, dates, pomegranate, leek, beets, gourd and the head of a fish or a ram. Many families eat them on both nights.

The Torah obligation is nine blasts, and the Sages required thirty to cover every kind of sound. The custom is to hear one hundred blasts during the morning prayers. Every adult man is obligated, and most women make a point of hearing the shofar too.