It’s All in the Head

While Rosh Hashanah is commonly referred to as the “Jewish New Year”, in fact, the precise translation of Rosh Hashanah is actually “Head of the Year”.

We call this holiday “Head of the Year” since these two days stand in the same relationship to the rest of the year as the head does to the body. Just like the head is the source of the life force of the person, and afterwards this life force is distributed to each individual organ of the body, so too Rosh Hashanah has hidden within it all of the life force of the year, and from the holiday it is apportioned to each and every individual day.

Among the many wonderful traditions of Rosh Hashanah, you may be familiar with the custom of eating from the head of a ram or a fish on the night of holiday to symbolize that in the coming year “we should be the head and not the tail".

However, practically speaking, how can we expect everyone to serve as a head?