24 Rosh Hashanah Recipes to Celebrate the New Year (2024)

FAQs

What is the menu for Rosh Hashanah? ›

Perhaps no other food custom is more important to Rosh Hashanah than the eating of apples and honey together. At the start of each Rosh Hashanah dinner, everyone seated at the table dips a piece of apple into honey. This is eaten to symbolize the hope that the new year will be a sweet one.

Two of the most popular foods are apples dipped in honey, and pomegranates. Each food symbolizes a different good fortune that we pray for in the coming year. These foods are generally eaten at the beginning of the two evening Rosh Hashanah meals. Each food is given separate attention and a brief blessing.

Favorite recipes and sweet foods are popular choices for families on the first and second nights of Rosh Hashanah. Sour foods are usually avoided. Some people avoid nuts during Rosh Hashanah since the numerical value of the Hebrew letters in the word “nu*t” add up to the same number as the word “sin.”

Eating round challah (to mark the cycle of the year) and apples dipped in honey (to wish for a sweet new year) are lovely customs for Rosh Hashanah, but they are just that, customs.

At a traditional Rosh Hashanah table, you'll find round loaves of challah to symbolize the circle of life, and many-seeded pomegranates, which represent the 613 commandments in the Torah. For sweetness in the new year, it's tradition to dip apples in honey and bake fragrant honey cakes.

Challah. Another of the most recognizable features of a Rosh Hashanah meal, this braided egg bread is typically served on Shabbat. During Rosh Hashanah, the bread is shaped into spirals or rounds to symbolize continuity. The challah is often dipped in honey before eating, and shared around the table.

The sweet foods that are eaten during Rosh Hashanah are therefore meant to symbolise the hope for a sweet and happy year ahead. One of the most recognisable food staples that adorns the dinner table during Rosh Hashanah is apple and honey, a traditional combination that has passed down the generations for centuries.

Pomegranate. The pomegranate is also a highly symbolic fruit eaten by the Jewish people during the New Year.

The common Jewish prayer known as Shehechiyanu expresses gratitude to God for making it possible that family and friends reached the holiday season. In English, it reads: "Blessed are You, Lord our G-d, King of the Universe, who has kept us alive and sustained us and brought us to this holiday season."

What should I do on the first day of Rosh Hashanah? ›

On the first afternoon of Rosh Hashanah (provided that it is not Shabbat), it is customary to go to a body of water (ocean, river, pond, etc.) and perform the Tashlich ceremony, in which we ceremonially cast our sins into the water.

Only the work of preparing food, or that involving carrying and transferring is allowed on this day. The Jews do not engage themselves in jobs, business or other such activities on this day. 2) No afternoon nap: Sleeping or just taking a nap in the afternoon is also prohibited on the day of Rosh Hashanah.

Mateh Efrayim (583:3) extends this minhag to include not eating beans. However, some poskim write that nuts that are ground up and mixed into a recipe do not pose a concern. Also, chickpeas do not present this problem and may be served. It is written that the Vilna Gaon would not eat grapes on Rosh Hashanah.

We usher in Rosh Hashanah with lighting candles, just as we do on Shabbat.

On the first night of Rosh Hashanah, we dip challah into honey and say the blessing over the challah. Then we dip apple slices into honey and say a prayer asking God for a sweet year.

The Seder for the night of Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish tradition of eating a festive meal composed of symbolic foods, reciting psalms, and singing zmirot.

Brisket is often found on Jewish menus because it's a large kosher cut of meat, and Rosh Hashanah is no different—we've got three recipes for you here, including a Korean-inspired one and one made in your slow cooker.