Rosh Hashanah: the Jewish New Year

Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year: a time of reflection and spiritual renewal. It is the moment when the process of judgment opens, when we review our actions of the year that is ending and ask for a new year full of blessings. With it begin the Yamim Noraim (the Days of Awe), ten days of introspection that culminate in Yom Kippur.

What it is

Rosh Hashanah literally means “head of the year.” Tradition teaches that in these days God is acknowledged as King and as judge: the actions of the past year are weighed and, in the image of our sages, the “book of life” is opened for the year ahead.

It is not merely a date on the calendar but an invitation to pause, take stock, and turn the heart anew. That is why it is both solemn and hopeful: we acknowledge our shortcomings, yet we trust in mercy and ask to be inscribed for a good year.

When it is celebrated

Rosh Hashanah is celebrated at the beginning of the month of Tishrei, the first of the Jewish calendar. On the Gregorian calendar it usually falls between September and October, and the festival lasts two days.

In Barranquilla, candle-lighting and exact times can be found in the Times section of our home page, calculated for our city.

The shofar

The most characteristic sound of Rosh Hashanah is the shofar, a ram's horn sounded to mark the beginning of the new year. Its sound is like a call: it awakens the soul and invites us to return.

Three traditional sounds are blown, each with its own shape:

• Tekiah — one long, whole blast, like a proclamation.
• Shevarim — three broken sounds, like a sigh.
• Teruah — nine short, staccato sounds, like weeping.

Customs and symbols

Around Rosh Hashanah, meaningful customs flourish, many of them meant to express, through simple gestures, the wish for a good and sweet year:

• Sounding the shofar to mark the start of the year.
• Dipping apple in honey, a symbol of the wish for a sweet year.
• Blessing over the round challah, evoking the cycle of the year and continuity.
• Reciting special prayers in the synagogue, such as Avinu Malkeinu (“Our Father, our King”).
• Performing Tashlich: going to a body of water and symbolically “casting away” the year's shortcomings.

Teshuvah: returning

The heart of these days is teshuvah. The word is often translated as “repentance,” but its root means to return: to come back to who we truly are, to repair what we harmed, and to reorient the path.

Teshuvah has three classic steps: acknowledging the wrong, feeling sincere regret for it, and firmly resolving to act differently. Rosh Hashanah opens this process, which deepens during the Ten Days of Repentance until Yom Kippur.

May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year.

The greeting

The traditional greeting of these days is “Shanah Tovah” (שנה טובה), which means “a good year.” The fuller forms are also heard:

• Shanah Tovah — “good year.”
• Shanah Tovah uMetukah — “a good and sweet year.”
• Ketivah vaChatimah Tovah — “may you be inscribed and sealed for good.”

At Beit Jasdó

In our community we live Rosh Hashanah as a family: with the shofar, the prayers, the festive table, and the shared wish to begin the year with a renewed heart. We invite you to join us and experience this festival up close.