A Greeting for Jewish New-Year, with a few words of explanation [Read the explanation, than watch the video].

Rosh Hashana is the Jewish New-Year, which according to ancient tradition is the day when all creation started. It is also the day in which our good and bad deeds are weighed and calculated, up in the sky, and everybody gets their “sentence” for next year. Of course, that’s a “popular” explanation of more complex ideas in Jewish Philosophy, that is useful for people who have children.

Nevertheless, the bottom line is that a new year is an opportunity for new beginnings, and a time to set thing strait with both god and other people. So, in the days before (and after) Rosh Hashana, Happy New Year greetings usually come with words of apology and appeasement.

It is customary to celebrate Rosh Hashana night with a festive meal that include some symbolic dishes. The symbolism is not always easy to explain to non Hebrew speakers, because in most cases it’s pun based. For example, it is customary to eat something with carrots because the Hebrew word for carrot (“Gezer”) sounds a little bit like the word for sentence (“Gzar din”). Easier to explain is the custom to dip apples in honey, as a blessing for better, sweeter year.

Got to admit, though, that I like (the video aboves’ creator) Asaf Billet‘s interpretation better: