Women's League

Rosh Hashana is the Jewish New Year. Like most of our holidays, our celebrations center around family and food. We gather together with a festive meal that traditionally includes dipping an apple in honey to express our hopes for a sweet and fruitful year. We also include a round challah to symbolize completeness. We want our year to start and finish, with many wonderful memories and actions of Mitzvah. The circle also reminds us of God’s infinity as it has no beginning or end. The secular New Year we tend to focus on resolutions, the Jewish New Year we focus on blessings for the coming year using symbolic foods, to highlight and connect to our history.

Sedar are not just for Passover on Rosh Hashana the Sedar includes ten foods with symbolic messages of what we want to experience in the coming year. 

The 10 Symbolic Foods for Rosh Hashana

•         Dates - A wish to triumph over our eternal enemies

•         Pomegranates – A wish to celebrate doing good for others

•         Black eye Peas – A wish for Successful spiritual growth

•         Leeks – A wish to embrace a better way of living

•         Beets – A wish for happiness

•         Squash – A wish to avoid hard times

•         Carrot – A wish for physical and spiritual abundance

•         Fish A wish for productivity

•         Fish Head – A wish for leadership and positive action

•         Apple and Honey – A wish to appreciate the sweet blessings in our lives.

Wishing you and yours a Sweet, Happy and Healthy New Year

Shana Tova U’metukah

Becky Cohen

Cuban Hebrew Foundation