Prayers, Poems, and Piyyutim  ☞  ☽ Prayers for the Moon, Month, and Festival Calendar  ☞  Days of Awe (Yamim Nora'im)  ☞  Rosh Hashanah  ☞  חשבון הפנים | An accounting of punny foods for the Rosh Hashanah feast

חשבון הפנים | An accounting of punny foods for the Rosh Hashanah feast

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Rosh Hashanah, Rosh haShanah la-Maaseh Bereshit (New Year's Day for Creation)
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As חז”ל [Ḥazal] taught us, on ראש השנה [Rosh Hashanah] we elevate puns from the lowest form of humor to the highest religious experience.

The foods suggested by our Sages had names in Aramaic or Hebrew that symbolized hopes for the new year — here is a list of foods with English names for those of us for whom English is our vernacular:

SQUASH so that Gd will squash your enemies

SAGE for wisdom

TARRAGON so terror will be gone

SUNFLOWER SEEDS for illumination

AVOCADOS for divine advocacy

CASHEWS for financial success (but some customarily do not eat nuts on Rosh Hashanah)

PLANTAINS so all your plans will be attained

SOLE for spiritual depth

DATES for successful romance

JERUSALEM ARTICHOKES for an end to exile and a rebuilt Jerusalem

POMEGRANATES so we will be soft like pom-poms but tough like granite

CHERRIES for a year of cheer

GRAINS for brains

PASSIONFRUIT for passion and/or compassion

BERRIES to bury the past

TURKEY or KEY LIMES to unlock a good future

COFFEE to breathe easy

MUSHROOMS for a speedy end to homelessness

PEAS for peace

LEEK for structural integrity or keeping confidence

CORN for humor

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“חשבון הפנים | An accounting of punny foods for the Rosh Hashanah feast” is shared by Stephen Belsky with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.
Stephen Belsky

Stephen Belsky

A native of Brooklyn, New York, Stephen Belsky is a graduate of the Yeshiva of Flatbush, the State University of New York at Binghamton, and the Educators Program of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. He received semikha at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, and while studying there held internships at Beth David Synagogue in West Hartford, Connecticut, and the International Rabbinic Fellowship. Before starting semikha, Stephen taught at the Schechter high school in Teaneck, New Jersey, and after ordination, he returned to education, teaching Jewish Studies in the middle and high school divisions of Yeshivat Akiva in Southfield, Michigan. In addition to classroom teaching, Stephen has taught and lectured both in his local community and in synagogues across the eastern United States.

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established."–Psalms 90:17

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