Have a Sweet, Healthy, Joyful and Successful Year 5775

There's a custom to serve many symbolic foods on Rosh Hashannah and make up puns to use as good wishes. Some people decorate their holiday table with a fish head or even a sheep's head, so they'll be "heads" and not "tails" in the new year. My custom is to make a fruit head.

Each year our head is different. We shouldn't be bored, should we?

I haven't yet made the latest one. That will be closer to candle-lighting time. Our Rosh Hashannah meal is full of blessings, not just "be a head not a tail."

Many English speakers serve raisins, so they will have a "raise in" salary.

There are families that have dozens of foods on the table these blessings.

The first food that the Gemora mentions is gourds, or "K'ra." The word "K'ra" sounds both like the word for "read/proclaim" and the word for "tear." When we eat the gourd, there are two possible "Yehi Ratzons" that can be said. The first goes "Yehi Ratzon milfanecha... _sheyikaru'u lifanecha zechuyo'seinu" "May it be your will Hashem that our merits _ be read/proclaimed_ before you." The other is"...sheyikora g'zar de'nainu." "...that the decree of our sentence should be torn up." There are varying customs as to this Yehi Ratzon, and a prevalent custom is to recite both endings together in one Yehi Ratzon. (Torah.org, read more)

Israel Forever

Others make one food dish that combines many of the foods. You can actually do that with a fruit head or even the meal's main course or interesting salad. These are all customs, so do what's best for your family and guests.

Tell me about your family's food customs in the comments here, thanks. Although my husband and I have been married married forty-four years, we're still building ours.

Shannah Tovah and Chag Sameach!

Dry Bones, Happy 5775