High Holidays 2025

Rosh Hashanah

Some believe that Rosh Hashanah is in the seventh Jewish month of Tishri, as Shabbat is on the seventh day of the week. Shabbat is a time of rest that happens from Friday to Saturday at sunset. This would suggest that Rosh Hashanah would be the resting period of the year.

 Every family has its own traditions that it partakes in during Rosh Hashanah. Many Jews go to a synagogue, the Jewish place of worship, to hear the torah, the Jewish Bible, being read and the shofar being blown. The shofar is the oldest known wind instrument, made out of a ram’s horn. The shofar is meant to be a wake-up call to “wake” one up for the New Year. Throughout the day at synagogue, one may hear the greeting of “Shanah Tovah,” which means “have a sweet year.” The prayer book for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is called the Mahzor. There are three types of prayers mentioned during the morning service of Rosh Hashanah: Malkhuyot addresses the supremacy of God; Zikhronot shows God as the person remembering past actions; and Shofarot is one that we nervously stand in anticipation, waiting for the future. Each section peaks with the blast of a shofar, which is  “...alluded to in the most memorable Torah reading for the holiday, the Akedah or Binding of Isaac" (Genesis 22). The story and the shofar serve as reminders of the covenant between God and the people of Israel, carrying with them the message of sacrifice, hope, and continuity” (My Jewish Learning).

Like the prayers of Zikhronot, many Jews remember their past mistakes by performing a ritual called Tashlich at some point during the holiday. Taschlich is when people throw crumbs, rocks, sticks, pieces of bread, and more into flowing water to represent throwing their sins away in order to have a clean slate for the coming year.

In addition to performing rituals, many families also have traditional foods they eat. It is traditional to eat apples and honey to symbolize a sweet New Year. Challah, braided bread, is often eaten. During Rosh Hashanah in particular, the challah is often braided in a circle to symbolize the everlasting life cycle, with raisins baked into it, also to have a sweet New Year. A pomegranate might also be on the dinner table during Rosh Hashanah because there is a Jewish tradition that pomegranates have 613 seeds, which is the same number of commandments a Jew should follow. Of course, it isn’t possible to follow every single commandment, as some commandments only apply to women, men, priests, and other groups of people. In addition, a fish head can sometimes be found on the dinner table to symbolize that Rosh Hashanah is the Head of the Year. 

Yom Kippur

As you may remember, Yom Kippur is the day Jews believe God seals the Books of Life and Death for the next year.  During biblical times, there was already a ritual for the atonement of sins. Yom Kippur acquired its main importance as a day of mourning and avoiding temptations. It had become the holiest and most important day in the Jewish calendar by the Rabbinic Period, which has kept the importance of Yom Kippur until today. Yom Kippur is the day on which Jews are told to separate themselves as much as possible from the world we live in in order to devote their hearts and thoughts to their relationship with God. 

Like Rosh Hashanah, most Jews go to a synagogue: there are longer and more numerous services on Yom Kippur than on any other day in the Jewish calendar. Yom Kippur is welcomed with an ancient prayer called Kol Nidrei, meaning “all vows.” During Kol Nidrei, the congregation of a synagogue asks that all promises made under pressure during the coming year can be considered invalid to God. The Yom Kippur ritual adds a special Musaf service to the three daily Maariv (evening service), Shachrit (morning services), and Mincha (afternoon service). During Yom Kippur, the memorial service, Yizkor, and a symbolic reenactment of the ancient ritual for Yom Kippur, Avodah (My Jewish Learning), are recited. Also, during Yom Kippur, a main part of the ritual is the repetition of confessing sins as a community, the Viddui. The day ends with a special and emotionally powerful service of Neilah, during which the ritual imagines the gates of heaven closing at the end of this period of the High Holidays. Neilah ends with a lengthy blast of the shofar, which is “understood by many as signifying God’s redemptive act in answer to true repentance” (My Jewish Learning).

Overall, the theme of the High Holidays is repentance. During these holidays, all of one’s thoughts should be centered around this theme. From Kol Nidrei to the repetition of Viddui during Yom Kippur to Zikhronot during Rosh Hashanah, these days revolve around the theme of repentance as a community for sins committed during the past year. This is so that both the community and an individual will be inscribed into the Book of Life during the coming year.