Sunday is the final day of this year, 5775. How will we be preparing for the holy Rosh HaShana. Many people prepare by cooking and cleaning. This makes sense as many parts of Rosh HaShana are about food. There’s the apples and honey. Also, the first piece of challah gets dipped in honey. On the first night, we eat a bunch of simonim (symbols) for a good year. Some eat carrots, pomegranates, the head of a fish, or leeks. The second night we have a new fruit. Also, there is the custom not to eat nuts. One of the reasons for this custom is because the gematria of nuts (egoz) equals sin (chait). So much of Rosh HaShana is about food, so why shouldn’t we spend the last day preparing food?

Now, don’t worry, I’m not going to say that we should not enjoy the food we eat on Rosh HaShana. We have a mitzvah to have four meals and we are supposed to have pleasure from the food we eat. But that is not all of Rosh HaShana. We are supposed to have the physical enjoyment, but we also need to have spiritual growth.

My Rav suggested the following: instead of only eating at the meal, make it a little more spiritual. Ask a question and get everyone at the table involved. It does not need to be a deep discussion from a difficult Gemara. It does not even need to have a right or wrong answer. For example, you can ask, “as a family, what should we take on during this coming year to make us better? What mitzvah should be our special mitzvah?” Or ask, “Name one area where you want to improve this coming year.”

Rosh HaShana is not only a time for our waistline to grow. It is a time when we should grow closer to Hashem. But just as we prepare for the meals by cooking, we should prepare for the meals with something special that can be discussed.

I’d like to finish with one final thought I once heard. As stated above, we do not eat nuts on Rosh HaShana because the gematria equals the same as sin. A Chassidic Rebbe once pointed out that there is another gematria that equals the same as “chait”… and that is the gematria of the word “chait”. What he meant is that sometimes we get so involved with the customs that we get upset and angry at others if they are not fulfilled perfectly. The customs are very nice, but it is not a good way to start the year by getting angry, because that is a sin. It’s nice to remember to avoid nuts, but the main focus is not that nuts are bad. The main focus is that sin is what we are trying to avoid. As we eat our apples and honey, the ultimate goal is not to eat something sweet. It’s to remember that we are to have a sweet year. And to have a sweet year is by being a sweet person.

Good Shabbos!
Shana Tova!
-y.e.s.
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