10 Things You Didn’t Know About Rosh Hashanah
Rosh Hashanah isn’t just apples and honey. It’s one of the richest holidays on the Jewish calendar, filled with history, symbolism, and meaning you might not know about.
Please consider supporting our mission to help everyone better understand and become smarter about the Jewish world. A gift of any amount helps keep our platform free of advertising and accessible to all.
You can also listen to the podcast version of this essay on Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, YouTube, and Spotify.
Rosh Hashanah may be best known for apples dipped in honey, but there’s far more to the Jewish New Year than sweet snacks and shofar blasts.
It’s a holiday layered with ancient history, global traditions, mystical meanings, and even a few quirks you might not expect — from symbolic foods and hidden wordplay to courtroom imagery and century-old resistance rituals.
Whether you grew up celebrating Rosh Hashanah every year or are just discovering it for the first time, here are 10 surprising facts, customs, and insights that reveal the depth — and delight — of the holiday. Some will inspire you, some might make you smile, and all of them will give you a deeper appreciation of this sacred season.
1) Rosh Hashanah isn’t mentioned by name in the Torah.
The Torah refers to it as Yom Teruah — “the day of sounding the shofar” — or Zichron Teruah, “a memorial of trumpet blasts.” The name Rosh Hashanah (“Head of the Year”) came later in rabbinic texts.
2) It’s not the only Jewish New Year.
According to the Mishnah, Judaism actually has four different new years — one for kings and festivals, one for trees (Tu BiShvat), one for tithing animals, and one for years (Rosh Hashanah).
3) The shofar isn’t always a ram’s horn.
Most communities use a ram’s horn to recall the Binding of Isaac, but technically any kosher animal (except a cow) is permitted. Some Sephardic Jews blow from antelope horns, called kudu.
4) Apples and honey are medieval, not biblical.
Eating apples dipped in honey for a sweet new year only became widespread in medieval Ashkenaz (Germany/France). Sephardic Jews developed their own symbolic foods (simanim), like pomegranates, dates, or beets.
5) Every food has a double meaning.
Jews developed symbolic “Rosh Hashanah seder” foods whose Hebrew or Aramaic names hint at blessings:
Carrots (gezer) = decree (gezerah)
Beets (selek) = remove (salek)
Pomegranates = many merits (as many as the seeds!)
Ancient Jews ate gourds and leeks on Rosh Hashanah. These foods, with Hebrew wordplay, symbolized cutting off enemies or increasing blessings.
6) Tashlich wasn’t always by the river.
The custom of symbolically casting sins into water began in medieval Europe. Some communities do it at fountains, wells, or even fish tanks if no river is nearby!
7) It’s a two-day holiday.
Rabbis once debated how many days it should be. Some argued for a one-day holiday even outside Israel, but the tradition of two days won and stuck for centuries. The sages gave it special status because of its cosmic importance.
In Israel, both days of Rosh Hashanah are official national holidays. By contrast, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day are not national holidays at all in Israel; they’re treated like any other day, including work days when they fall during the week.
8) Pomegranates aren’t just pretty.
The fruit, often on the holiday table, is said to have 613 seeds — the number of mitzvot (commandments) in the Torah.
9) It’s older than Yom Kippur.
Rosh Hashanah was celebrated in Temple times with sacrifices and shofar blasts long before Yom Kippur’s central rituals were developed.
10) There are 100 shofar blasts (or more).
The tradition is to blow 100 sounds during services, but some communities go beyond, symbolizing tears, cries, and wails of the soul. Each blast has its own name, such as tekiah (long blast), shevarim (three sob-like sounds), and teruah (nine short cries) — each representing a different kind of human emotion.
And, when Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbat, traditional law says no shofar is blown, to prevent someone from carrying it improperly to synagogue.
During British Mandate Palestine, Jews blew the shofar at the Western Wall even though it was banned. It became an act of resistance.
As a Catholic South African with a Jewish great grandad on Mum’s side, I have many mates celebrating tonight in Johannesburg with their beloved families.
I just want all the hostages released immediately with no more delays or demands from the kidnappers who tore them from their communities in one fell swoop of evil.
Why don’t people understand that this was savagery of the worst kind?
Beggars belief.
Kindest regards
Shana Tovah
Carol Power
Johannesburg
South Africa