Rosh Hashanah How-To:

The Rosh Hashanah 2008 Calendar

• Special Selichot services before the morning prayers.
• Hatarat Nedarim ("Annulment of Vows") after the morning services.
• Click here for more customs associated with the day before Rosh Hashanah.

Women and girls light holiday candles tonight to usher in the holiday. Click here for the blessings, and here for local candle lighting times.

After the evening services we wish one another, "Leshana tova tekatev v'etachetem - May you be inscribed for a good year!"

After reciting the holiday kiddush, we eat challah dipped in honey. It is then customary to eat a sweet apple dipped in honey; the head of a fish, ram, or other kosher animal; and a pomegranate. In different communities there are other traditional foods eaten at this meal. Click here for more about this holiday meal.

Torah reading: Genesis 21:1-34; Numbers 29:1-6.
Haftarah: I Samuel 1:1-2:10.

All men, women and children should go to the synagogue to hear the sounding of the shofar. Click here to find a synagogue near you. No way you can make it? Contact your local Chabad rabbi. He'll do his best to arrange for a shofar blower to pay you a personal visit.

The Priests bless the congregation with the Priestly Blessing during the Musaf prayer.

Festive lunch meal; the challah is dipped in honey.

In the afternoon, the Tashlich prayer service, in which we ask G-d to "cast away our sins in the depths of the sea," is recited at a body of water (sea, river, lake, pond, etc.) containing fish. Click here for more on the Tashlich ceremony.

Women and girls light holiday candles tonight after dark to usher in the holiday. Click here for the blessings, and here for local candle lighting times. A "new fruit" should be present on the table when the candles are lit. When reciting the Shehecheyanu blessing, the kindler should have in mind the new fruit which will be eaten after Kiddush. The same applies when the Shehecheyanu is recited during kiddush.

After the holiday kiddush, before washing for bread, the new fruit is eaten.

The challah is again dipped in honey.

Torah reading: Genesis 22:1-24; Numbers 29:1-6.
Haftarah: Jeremiah 31:1-20.

All men, women and children should go to the synagogue to hear the sounding of the shofar. Click here to find a synagogue near you. No way you can make it? Contact your local Chabad rabbi. He'll do his best to arrange for a shofar blower to pay you a personal visit.

The Priests bless the congregation with the Priestly Blessing during the Musaf prayer.

Festive lunch meal; the challah is dipped in honey.

Afternoon and evening prayers are followed by havdallah (no havdallah candle or incense).

• All men and women over the age of bar/bat mitzvah fast from dawn until nightfall. in commemoration of the assassination of Gedaliah, governor of Judea. See Today in Jewish History for more about Gedaliah. Click here for fast beginning and end times in your location.
• Pregnant and nursing women do not have to fast on this day. Someone who is ill should consult a rabbi.
• During the morning prayers we recite Selichot (elegies).
• The Torah is read during the morning and afternoon prayers (Exodus 32:11-14; 34:1-10). After the Minchah (afternoon) Torah reading, a special fast-day Haftorah is read (Isaiah 55:6-56:8).
• During the Amidah of the Mincha prayer, all those who are fasting add a small section, the Aneinu, to the Shema Koleinu blessing.