One erev Rosh Hashanah, I received a phone call from Bluma, my machatenista. “One of the teachers at school found pomegranates,” she said, “and I’ve got one to share!” Her words were like a song in my ears. Yes, over 25 years ago in Atlanta, Georgia, we were going into Rosh Hashanah without pomegranates for one of the simanim. Then, last minute, a preschool teacher found pomegranates in an Asian Farmers Market and shared them with the other teachers. Bluma drove to my house and gave me half of her pomegranate, and I drove to my friend Gavriella and gave her half of mine.
What is so
important about having a pomegranate, or even part of one, for Rosh Hashanah?
It’s because this beautiful fruit is one of the simanim, the symbolic
foods eaten before the meal on the two nights of the holiday. When we sit down
with family and friends to share the simanim, we are inspired to begin
the Ten Days of Repentance in a positive mood.
A Sweet Year
The custom of simanim
is ancient. Rabbi Yehuda Leib Finkelstein, in his sefer, Simanim
u’Minhagim of Rosh Hashanah Night, cites Abbaye as saying that at the onset
of a New Year, one should eat foods that provide positive symbolism. The author
also quotes the Me’iri, who wrote that the goal of the simanim is to
inspire us to conduct ourselves properly and that the reason we verbalize these
ideas by saying “Yehi ratzon…” is to arouse us to do teshuva.
In the Gemorah, Abbaye also says that a person should see these
foods, so if for some reason he or she can’t eat them, poskim say
that seeing them is an alternative.
Rosalie, a dear
cousin (through marriage), who grew up behind her father’s storefront, known as
Grossblatt’s Kosher Butcher Shop on the corner of Fayette and Washington
Streets, recalls that on the first night of Rosh Hashanah, her family always
dipped an apple in honey, but they didn’t taste – or see – any other simanim.
Some say this might be because lots of foods weren’t available in Europe. But
the apple and honey were almost always available.
Why an apple?
The commentary in the ArtScroll Machzor states that the almost-universal
custom of dipping the first piece of challah into honey is often followed by
dipping an apple in honey for “a sweet new year.” An apple is chosen above others
from the verse in Bereishis (27:27), where Yaakov says, “See the fragrance of
my son is like the fragrance of a field which Hashem has blessed.” According to
the Gemorah, cited by Rabbi Finkelstein, this fragrance is that of a field of
apple trees.
Customs abound
on how the apple is shared. One way recommended by rebbeim is for the
leader to hold up a whole apple and recite the bracha, to which each
person responds, “Amen.” Then he gives out slices dipped in honey, and all
recite the yehi ratzon.
Today, it has
become prevalent to first recite a bracha on one of the “seven species”
of Eretz Yisrael instead of the apple. This is because when a person plans to
eat two fruits, he must first make the bracha on the more chashuv
(halachically important) one – such as the pomegranate or dates. But since the
longstanding custom is to say the bracha on the apple first, Rabbi
Finkelstein shares that the pomegranate and dates can be kept in another room
while reciting the bracha on the apple, keeping in mind that the bracha
will cover the fruit in the other room as well.
After the apple
or one of the seven species, the simanim are presented in different
orders and various ways. Some families put all the simanim on a large
platter; some serve them on each individual’s plate. Some are raw and some are
cooked; some eat them before the meal starts, and some serve them during the
meal, with the yehi ratzon recited prior to each one.
Tradition, Tradition…
The traditional
simanim, according to Abbaye, are kra (gourd), rubia (fenugreek),
karti (leek), silka (beet), and tamri (date). The Hebrew
or Aramaic word for each food is significant because of its sound, meaning, or
association. Some signify abundance while others ask for removal of our
enemies.
The yehi
ratzon that we recite before we eat the juicy red seeds of the pomegranate
is “May our merits be increased as the seeds of a pomegranate.” While the true
goal of the day is crowning Hashem King, we also hope Hashem will grant us a
good year, and we ask Him to increase our merits so we will be worthy of such a
year.
Fish – so that
we should be fruitful and multiply – is one of my favorite simanim. In
addition to keeping in mind couples who are struggling with fertility issues,
“fruitful” can mean growing in mitzvahs and using our five senses to enjoy
life. The last siman is the head of a fish (not my favorite) or lamb (in
the Sephardic tradition), so that we should be like the head (strong) and not
the tail (weak).
Rene Chernin,
who lives in Israel – her daughters Elise and Ruby with their families reside
in Baltimore – wrote a beautiful and useful cookbook: Cooking for the
King: Rosh Hashanah: The Simanim. She includes recipes from various
traditions, such as her Sefardic leek patties, kefters de prassa, and
her famous simanim salad, which combines them all in one delicious dish.
Mrs. Chernin
also has meaningful messages in her introduction: “On inauguration day, we do
not bother the King with our daily worries, but it’s perfectly acceptable, even
praiseworthy, to give a siman, a sign, that we depend on Him for
everything.”
Rabbi Shlomo
Goldberger, director of the Shidduch Center, recalls Rosh Hashanah simanim
growing up in the home of his parents Rabbi Menachem and Bracha Goldberger. He
shares that they would try to eat the eye of the fish, an omen to have an ayin
tov (a good eye). “In all honesty,” he says, “not everyone in the family
ate the fish eye – just the more intrepid of us. The rest were just
spectators.”
The
Goldbergers’ minhag is not to serve pomegranates because they follow the
teachings of Rabbi B.C. Shlomo Twerski, zt”l, the Hornosteipel Rebbe of
Denver. He said that there is connotation of sins in the phrase: “Even those
with sins are filled with merits as the seeds of the pomegranate.” The
Goldbergers use other simanim to ask Hashem to increase their merits.
Inspiration for All
Interestingly,
leeway is given to making up one’s own siman. Most of us are familiar
with eating half a raisin on celery, an omen to have a raise in salary,
attributed to Rabbi Heinemann. A new one at the Goldberger’s table came about
when one of the siblings cut a fig into six pieces and ate it on celery for
a six-figure salary!
Rabbi Shlomo Goldberger shares that the overall atmosphere at the Rosh
Hashanah table should be “uplifting and infuse us with positivity, bracha,
and hopefulness for the coming year.”
According to my
daughter-in-law Robyn, director of Congregation Beth Jacob preschool in
Atlanta, an important role of the simanim is to get the children
interested in Rosh Hashanah. She says it’s similar to hiding the afikomen at
the beginning of the Seder to spark the children’s attention. Robyn adds, “The
things we get excited about make the most impression on them.”
Simanim are inspiring to many regardless of age
and the different minhagim we observe. In a Star-K article, “Starting
the New Year Right,” Rabbi Moshe Schuchman states, “The simanim remind us that
our every activity on Rosh Hashanah is charged with meaning. If the foods we
eat are so consequential, then certainly our conduct is critical.” He quotes
the Mishna Brurah: “We should spend these awesome days with a pleasant
comportment in a mood of sublime joy.”
My husband
says, “The majority of the ‘al chet’ confessions on Yom Kippur have to
do with our power of speech and how we misuse it during the year. By involving
ourselves in the simanim and yehi ratzons on Rosh
Hashanah, we use our power of speech in a positive way to gain a closer
relationship to Hashem.”
No matter how each
of us observes the beautiful minhag of
simanim, may the collective positive
thoughts of all Jews on Rosh Hashanah, as we crown Hashem King, bring peace to
Israel and the world.
