Rosh Hashanah is set aside by the Mishna as the new year for calculating calendar years, sabbatical and jubilee years, vegetable tithes, and tree-planting (determining the age of a tree). According to Jewish legend, the creation of the world was completed on Tishri 1. This holiday is characterized by the blowing of the shofar, a trumpet made from a ram's horn. The practice of Tashlikh, the symbolic casting away of sins by throwing either stones or bread crumbs into the waters, occurs during the afternoon of the first day. Rosh Hashanah is always observed as a two-day holiday, both inside and outside the boundaries of Israel. The two days are considered together to be a yoma arichta, a single "long day".
Rosh Hashanah (Hebrew: øàù äùðä transliterated ro’sh ha-shānāh, "head of the year") is the Jewish New Year. In fact, Judaism has four "new years" which mark various legal "years", much like 1 January marks the "New Year" of the Gregorian calendar. Rosh Hashanah is the new year for people, animals and legal contracts. The Mishnah also sets this day aside as the new year for calculating calendar years and sabbatical (shemitta) and jubilee (yovel) years.
The Torah refers to the day as "The Day of the Blowing of the Shofar" (Yom Terua, Leviticus 23:24), and rabbinic literature and the liturgy itself describe Rosh Hashanah as "The Day of Judgment" (Yom ha-Din) and "The Day of Remembrance" (Yom ha-Zikkaron). Some midrashic descriptions depict God as sitting upon a throne, while books containing the deeds of all humanity are opened for review, and each person passing in front of Him for evaluation of his or her deeds.
This holiday is the first of the Yamim Noraim (Hebrew, "Days of Awe"), the most solemn days of the Jewish year; the Yamim Noraim are preceded by the month of Elul, during which Jews are supposed to begin a self-examination and repentance, a process that culminates in the ten days of the Yamim Noraim, beginning with Rosh Hashanah and ending with the holiday of Yom Kippur.
For the week before Rosh Hashana among Ashkenazim, and the entire month of Elul among Sephardim, special additional morning prayers are added known as Selichot.
Erev Rosh Hashanah (evening of the first day) - 29 Elul
- Rosh Hashanah - 1 Tishri
øàù äùðä - à' áúùøé
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