Rosh Hashanah (; ) is the New Year in Judaism. The biblical name for the holiday is Yom Teruah (; ). It is the first of the High Holy Days (), as specified by Leviticus 23:23–32, which occur in the late summer and early autumn in the Northern Hemisphere. Rosh Hashanah commences the Ten Days of Repentance (), culminating in Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. It is followed by the festival of Sukkot, which is immediately followed by Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah, ending the High Holy Day season.
Rosh Hashanah is a two-day observance and celebration that begins on the first day of Tishrei, which is the seventh month of the Hebrew year. Like all Jewish holidays, it follows a lunisolar calendar and begins the evening prior to the first day. Rosh Hashanah is one of four Jewish New Years and marks the beginning of the civil year. It is the traditional anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve, the first man and woman according to the Hebrew Bible, as well as the initiation of humanity's role in God's world. The , the Jewish sages whose debates are recorded in the Gemara in the Talmud, characterized the day of Rosh Hashanah as the day of God's coronation as king over all living beings. This is effectuated through the blasts delivered throughout the High Holiday season—and in the month preceding it—that symbolize the horns sounded at God's coronation, as well as a call for repentance. Other customs include the consumption of symbolic foods meant to represent the sweetness of a new year. Synagogue service attendance, the recitation of special liturgies, enjoyment of festive meals, and rest are defining components of Rosh Hashanah observance. Additionally, (), is a ritual performed between the first day of Rosh Hashanah and Hoshana Rabbah. Participants recite specific prayers by water, seeking divine forgiveness by symbolically shaking out their garments and casting away their sins into the depths of the waters. In many communities, this is done by throwing stones or pieces of bread into the water.
Etymology is the Hebrew word for "head", is the definite article ("the"), and means year. Thus means "head of the year", referring to the day of the New Year.Oxford University Press. (n.d.). Rosh Hashanah, n. In Oxford English dictionary. Retrieved 29 December 2025, from https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/4556375932
The term in its current meaning does not appear in the Torah. Leviticus 23:24 refers to the festival of the first day of the seventh month as ("a memorial of blowing [of horns]"). Numbers 29:1 calls the festival ("day of blowing [the horn]").
The term appears once in the Bible (Ezekiel 40:1), where it has a different meaning: either generally the time of the "beginning of the year", or possibly a reference to Yom Kippur, or to the month of Nisan.
In the prayer books (siddurs and machzors), Rosh Hashanah is also called Yom haZikkaron "the day of remembrance", not to be confused with the modern Israeli remembrance day of the same name.
Origin
The holiday first appears in the Book of Leviticus, in a chapter devoted to outlining all the holidays of the year: Similar verses appear again in the Book of Numbers. These verses do not describe the holiday as a New Year celebration, but simply as a feast of trumpets that precedes the day of atonement, Yom Kippur, which is described immediately after.
The holiday's role as one of the Jewish New Years first appears in rabbinic literature, and is thoroughly discussed in the Mishna and Talmud in Rosh Hashanna tractate. Rosh Hashanah is the new year for calculating ordinary calendar years, Sabbatical years, Jubilee years, and dates inscribed on legal deeds and contracts. It also commemorates the creation of humankind, which allowed God to form a relationship with his creation and take his position as king over them.
The origin of the New Year is connected to the beginning of the economic year in the agricultural societies of the ancient Near East. The New Year was the beginning of the cycle of sowing, growth, and harvest; the harvest was marked by its own set of major agricultural festivals. Semitic speakers generally set the beginning of the new year in autumn, while other ancient civilizations chose spring for that purpose, such as the Persians or Greeks or Hindus; the primary reason was agricultural in both cases, the time of sowing the seed and bringing in the harvest.
Some scholars posit a connection between the Babylonian festival Akitu and Rosh Hashanah, as there are some striking similarities. The Akitu festival of Ur was celebrated at the beginning of Nisanu (first month), which lasted at least five days, and again in Tashritu, the seventh month, which lasted eleven days. Akitu was also strongly tied to the creation myth of Enuma Elish and the victory of Marduk over the sea monster Tiamat, and the creation of the universe from her corpse. Similarly, it is said that the world was created on Rosh Hashanah.
Another view is that the birth of mankind, and by extension the anniversary of the world's creation, along with its significance as a day of coronation of God, was a tradition passed down from Adam and Eve who were created on that day. They passed it down through the generations until it was finally recorded in the Talmud.
Religious significance
Rosh Hashanah is described in the Mishnah as a day when "creatures pass before [God] like sheep" (Rosh Hashanah 1:2), receiving their judgment. The Talmud expands on this, with tractate Rosh Hashanah 16a:6 noting that Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Yehudah, both Tannaim from the second century CE during the Mishnaic period, agree that humanity is judged on Rosh Hashanah. Furthermore, the Talmud, citing the opinion of Rabbi Kruspedai—who in turn attributes his opinion to Rabbi Yochanan—in Rosh Hashanah 16b:12, states that three books of judgment are opened on Rosh Hashanah. The books are inscribed with the fates of the individuals' names: one for the completely wicked, a second for the wholly righteous, and a third for those in an intermediate moral state, all judged by God. The names of the entirely righteous are immediately inscribed in the book of the living () and they are sealed "for life". The intermediate group is given ten days until Yom Kippur to reflect, repent, and become righteous; the wicked are "blotted out of the book of the living," teaches Rabbi Avin, referencing Psalm 69:29.
Some midrashic descriptions depict God sitting upon a throne before open books containing the deeds of all humanity, with each person passing before God for evaluation of their deeds. Rosh Hashanah, along with Yom Kippur, was identified as an anniversary holiday to "reflect on the past [...] only for the sake of the future" by Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth Ephraim Mirvis on 7 October 2024.Office of the Chief Rabbi, Marking 7 October during a season of anniversaries, published on 7 October 2024, accessed on 8 October 2024 The general understanding of the holiday's religious significance is that it marks a period when members of the Jewish community can atone for their personal sins from the past year. This period begins ten days before Yom Kippur, which is dedicated to communal reflection and repentance. This is reflected in the prayers composed by classical rabbinic sages for Rosh Hashanah, which are included in contemporary traditional High Holy Day machzorim (, ; machzor) The overarching theme of the prayers is the "coronation" of God as King of the universe, in preparation for the acceptance of judgments that will follow on that day. For instance, page 15 of the ArtScroll machzor for Rosh Hashanah reads:
According to Jewish mysticism, Rosh Hashanah is the day in which the life-force of the world is renewed. It is the day that God so to speak decides if the world should continue to exist for another year. The Shofar's blows symbolize our plea to God to renew the lease on the world.
Shofar blowing
The best-known ritual of Rosh Hashanah is the blowing of the shofar, a musical instrument made from an animal horn. The shofar is blown at various points during the Rosh Hashanah prayers, and it is customary in most communities to have a total of 100 blasts on each day. The shofar is not blown on Shabbat.Jewish Law permits the Shofar to be blown in the presence of a rabbinical court called the Sanhedrin, which had not existed since ancient times. A recent group of Orthodox rabbis in Israel claiming to constitute a modern Sanhedrin held, for the first time in many years, an Orthodox shofar-blowing on Shabbat for Rosh Hashanah in 2006. TheSanhedrin.net: Shofar Blowing on Shabbat (translation of Haaretz article)
While the blowing of the shofar is a Biblical statute, it is also a symbolic "wake-up call", stirring Jews to mend their ways and repent. The shofar blasts call out: "Sleepers, wake up from your slumber! Examine your ways and repent and remember your Creator."Mishneh Torah, Laws of Repentance 3:4. The blowing of the shofar is also seen as a reminder to God of the plight of humanity.
In modern times the Lubavitcher Rebbe made the Shofar blowing into the theme of a global campaign to encourage and facilitate the hearing of the Shofar in public areas and underserviced places such as prisons and hospitals.
Prayer service
On Rosh Hashanah day, religious poems called are added to the regular services. A special prayer book, the machzor (plural ), is used on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Some additions are made to the regular service, most notably in the Ashkenazic rite (both Nusach Ashkenaz and Nusach Sefard) an extended repetition of the Amidah prayer for both Shacharit and Mussaf including piyyutim; even communities that omit most piyyutim throughout the year recite some selection of these piyyutim. In the contemporary Sephardic rite, no piyyutim are recited inside the repetition, and in the Italian rite very few are recited, but many Sephardic communities recite piyyutim before or after the Torah reading. The shofar is blown during Mussaf at the conclusion of each of the middle blessing of the Chazzan's repetition; in some communities, it is also blown during the silent Musaf. (In many synagogues, even little children come and hear the shofar being blown.). The Aleinu prayer is recited during the silent prayer as well as the repetition of the Mussaf Amidah.
Among the most well-known and widely recited liturgical poems () in all Jewish communities is Unetaneh Tokef, traditionally recited around the Musaf prayer on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
The special Avinu Malkeinu prayer is also recited on Rosh Hashanah. In the Ashkenazic rite, Avinu Malkeinu is never recited on Shabbat (except in Ne'ila on Yom Kippur), and it is also omitted at Mincha on Fridays.
The narrative in the Book of Genesis describing the announcement of Isaac's birth and his subsequent birth is part of the Torah readings in synagogues on the first day of Rosh Hashanah, and the narrative of the sacrifice and binding of Isaac is read in synagogue on the second day of Rosh Hashanah.