Rosh Hashanah foods have deep meaning for the holiday, rabbi says

The traditional foods eaten during the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah, which began at sunset on Wednesday, complement the deeper meaning of the holiday, a rabbi told Fox News Digital.

“Rosh Hashanah is the beginning of the Jewish year,” said Daniel Rowe, rabbi and senior educator at Aish Jerusalem, in a video interview. “It is also seen as a day of judgment and it is a celebration – because this verdict sounds very harsh.” (See the video at the top of this article.)

According to its website, Aish is a Jewish organization that aims to “inspire people to live more thoughtful, spiritual and impactful lives.”

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Rosh Hashanah, Rowe said, “is a time of very deep introspection and reflection, (a) time of truly planning ahead.”

He added: “Really, it is the belief that God believes in us and that our actions matter. This is significant. And then we can use each year to recreate ourselves and become better people in the coming year.”

Rosh Hashanah celebrations include blowing shofars and eating traditional meals to celebrate the Jewish New Year. (Karen Warren/Houston Chronicle; Creative Touch Imaging Ltd./NurPhoto via Getty Images)

During the two days of Rosh Hashanah, “Jewish people look intently toward the coming year. It’s almost like we lay the genetic code for who we want to become,” Rowe said.

This also includes food.

“Everything we do on Rosh Hashanah, whether it's the food we eat, whether it's the prayers we say, revolves around that deep cry within us that says, 'This world can be a better place be,'” Rowe said.

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During the holidays, a person thinks about how “everything I do, from the largest deeds to the smallest act of eating with a deeper awareness,” “can help me become a blessing to others and bring God's light to them “To shine in the world,” Rowe said.

There are “quite a few food customs” associated with the holiday, Rowe said – and many Jewish cultures have their own traditions.

“The most popular (Rosh Hashanah food custom) is to dip an apple in honey.”

“The most popular thing is to dip an apple in honey,” Rowe said.

The apple, he said, “is a simple fruit that grows on a tree” and serves as a symbol of the blessings of the world that produce things throughout the year.

Apples and honey, Rowe said, symbolize the blessings of the world. (iStock)

“But we also want it to be sweet because the apple represents what is nutritious and good for us,” he said.

Rowe continued, “We don't just want things to be 'good.' We also want to be able to celebrate the good in everyone.”

Rosh Hashanah, Rowe said, is a time to reflect on how “every single food could be a blessing and express some kind of goodness.”

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“We should therefore take advantage of every opportunity and, like food, put it into ourselves, build ourselves up and then become a blessing for the coming year,” he said.

Unlike Passover, where kosher food is defined differently, standard rules apply on Rosh Hashanah.

Staying kosher “means following the biblical commandment,” Rowe said.

Staying kosher “means following the biblical commandment.”

“God asks the Israelites about certain foods they can and cannot eat. For example, we cannot eat – carnivorous animals, animals that kill other animals,” he said.

Rowe said: “So if an animal hurts another animal, we don’t eat it. We have an animal instinct. We don’t want that to be a part of us.”

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Kosher animals, Rowe said, are animals with cloven hooves that chew the cud – characteristics that symbolize something a person wants to embody.

“The cloven-hoofed ones are typically animals that are easily domesticated,” he said, citing examples such as sheep and cows.

Cows are kosher because they have cloven hooves and chew their cud, Rowe said. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, File)

Conversely, things like horses and camels are not kosher because “these animals cannot be tamed.”

There are also no beetles that could cause problems if parts of beetles are used in animal paints, he said.

Rumination means the animal doesn't waste, Rowe said.

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“The Torah tells us, 'Ensure that our own animal instincts are also tamable and do not waste anything,'” he said.

“Furthermore, foods need to be prepared in certain ways,” Rowe said, without mixing meat and dairy.

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“The biblical commandment is not to mix meat and milk, which is a bit like life and death,” Rowe said.

“So in a kitchen, dairy products and meat products are kept separate while food is being prepared, and they are also eaten separately.”

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Adhering to kosher laws, Rowe said, is a way to acknowledge “we are what we eat” and consider the impact of the foods we eat.

“Our bodies are made up of the foods we eat,” he said. “And it almost at least poses the question to us – how many understand this – that when we put things in our bodies we should think, 'What kind of beings do we want to be?'”