Rosh Hashanah

Rosh Hashanah is the New Year in Judaism. The biblical name for this holiday is Yom Teruah. It is the first of the High Holy Days, as specified by Leviticus 23:23–25, that occur in the late summer/early autumn of the Northern Hemisphere. Rosh Hashanah begins the Ten Days of Repentance, culminating in Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. It is followed by the festival of Sukkot, which ends with Shemini Atzeret in Israel and Simchat Torah everywhere else.

thumbnail|Shofar thumbnail|Shofar thumbnail|Blowing the shofar A shofar ( ; from , ) is an ancient musical horn, typically a ram's horn, used for Jewish ritual purposes. Like the modern bugle, the shofar lacks pitch-altering devices, with all pitch control done by the player's varying their embouchure. The shofar is blown in synagogue services on Rosh Hashanah and at the end of Yom Kippur; it is also blown every weekday morning in the month of Elul running up to Rosh Hashanah. Shofars come in a variety of sizes and shapes, depending on the choice of animal and level of finish.

story from the Tanakh

thumb|Amsterdam Machzor, written in [[Cologne c. 1250, is one of the earliest illuminated manuscripts of Ashkenazi origin. Joods Historisch Museum]] thumb|Mahzor written on parchment in Hebrew in an Italian square script and dated to the 14th or 15th century. [[Chester Beatty Library]] The machzor (, plural machzorim, and , respectively) is the prayer book which is used by Jews on the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Many Jews also make use of specialized machzorim on the three pilgrimage festivals of Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot. The machzor is a specialized form of the siddur

Tractate in Moed

thumb|200px|Holiday card depicting Tashlikh (early 20th century) Tashlikh or Tashlich ( "cast off") is an customary Jewish atonement ritual performed during the High Holy Days on Rosh Hashanah for Ashkenazi Jews. In some Judaeo-Spanish-speaking communities the practice is referred to as sakudirse las faldas ('to shake the flaps [of clothing]') or simply as faldas.

right|thumb|220px|A kittel

thumb|The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (1852 painting by John Martin (painter)|John Martin) Vayeira, Vayera, or '''' (—Hebrew for "and He appeared," the first word in the parashah) is the fourth weekly Torah portion (, parashah'') in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading. It constitutes Genesis 18:1–22:24. The parashah tells the stories of Abraham's three visitors, Abraham's bargaining with God over Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot's two visitors, Lot's bargaining with the Sodomites, Lot's flight, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, how Lot's daughters became pregnant by their father, how Ab

Judaistic prayer

piyyut, part of the Rosh Hashanah liturgy, and in some customs also the Yom Kippur liturgy

large prayer assemblage of Breslover Hasidim held on the Jewish New Year