Rosh Hashanah Meals - Berlin Tisch 5778

(1) One should eat beans, leeks, beets, dates, and pumpkin. And as one eats the beans (rubiya), they say: God, may our merits increase (yirbu)! Eating leeks (karti), they say: God, may our enemies be wiped out (yekartu)! Eating dates (tamri), say: God, may our enemies disappear (yetamu)! Eating pumpkin (kra), say: God, may our judgement be ripped up (yikra) and may our merits be called out (yikrau) before You! RAMA: Some have a custom of eating a sweet apple in honey, and saying: May a sweet year be renewed on us! This is what we do. Some eat pomegranates, and say: may our merits be as many as pomegranate seeds! And we are accustomed to eat fatty meat and all sorts of sweets.

(2) Eat a head of a lamb saying: Let us be as a head and not a tail. It is also a remembrance of the ram of Isaac. RAMA: There are those who are careful not to eat nuts (egoz), as the word in gematriah [is (almost) equal to] chet (sin). They also cause a lot of excess saliva and phlegm and cause abrogation of prayers. We also go to a river and say the verse: And Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:19). There are also those who do not sleep during Rosh Hashana during the day, and this is the correct thing to do.

While eating and drinking, one must feed the stranger, the orphan, the widow, and other poor unfortunates. Anyone, however, who locks the doors of his courtyard and eats and drinks along with his wife and children, without giving anything to eat and drink to the poor and the desperate, does not observe a religious celebration but indulges in the celebration of his stomach... this kind of happiness is a curse, as it says "I will put your seed under a ban, and I will strew dung upon your faces, the dung of your festival sacrifices".

(2) At four times the world is judged: On Pesach, for the crops. On Shavuot, for the fruits of the tree. On Rosh Hashnah, all the world passes before Him like sheep, as it says, "He that fashioneth the hearts of them all, that considereth all their doings." (Psalms 33:15) And on Sukkot, they are judged for the water.

Reish Lakish said: Great is repentance, since it causes intentional sins to be counted for him as unwitting transgressions, as it is stated: “Return, Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled in your iniquity” (Hosea 14:2). Is that so? Didn’t Reish Lakish himself say: Great is repentance, as one’s intentional sins are counted as merits, as it is stated: “And when the wicked turns from his wickedness, and does that which is lawful and right, he shall live thereby” (Ezekiel 33:19)!? This is not difficult: Here, when one repents out of love, his sins become like merits; there, when one repents out of fear, his sins are counted as unwitting transgressions.

The moon said to God: ‘Sovereign of the Universe, can two kings share a single crown?’ God replied: ‘Go and make yourself smaller.’ ‘Sovereign of the Universe,’ she said to him, 'because I made a proper claim before you, am I to make myself smaller?’ He said to her, 'Go, and you will rule over both the day and the night.' She said 'What good is a lamp in broad daylight?' He said, 'Go! Israel shall use you to count the days and the years.' (The moon went on complaining).... On seeing that the moon would not be consoled, the Holy One said 'Bring an atonement for me for making the moon smaller.'