* Translation by Yehoshua Siskin
1. Rosh Hashanah arrives tomorrow, Wednesday evening. Lasting two days, it will be immediately followed by Shabbat so that 5785 will begin with three consecutive days of holiness.
2. As opposed to Yom Kippur when we will be focused on forgiveness and purification and rectifying out relationship with Hashem, on Rosh Hashanah, when we are preoccupied with recognizing God as King and Ruler over us and over the entire world. Even if during the year we have often been ruled by “what will people say,” we strive on Rosh Hashanah to stabilize our lives by living according to what God expects from us.
3. The principle mitzvah on Rosh Hashanah is to hear the blowing of the shofar. The sounds of the shofar are heard in synagogues on Thursday and Friday, in the morning and afternoon. Throughout Israel, there is also “operation shofar” that takes place not only in Chabad houses but in parks, in apartment buildings, and in the streets. At the beginning of the year, we silence all the noise and distractions of everyday life in order to hear not only the blasts of the shofar, but our own quiet inner voice.
4. It is customary to take upon ourselves a small commitment or resolution for the new year, a small, but practical improvement in our lives that we can institute now. Our sages say that just as we buy a new garment for our bodies, a new resolution is a new garment for the soul for the new year.
5. On Rosh Hashanah it is customary to eat simanim or special foods to sweeten the new year: apple dipped in honey, pomegranate seeds and many others. The Chofetz Chaim used to say that the best siman for a sweet and good year is simply to be sweet and good, to begin the new year stress-free and with joy.
May we hear only good news and have a good and sweet year.
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