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Seder Akhilat haSimanim

This is an archive of resources prepared for, or relevant to, the Feast of Portentous, Symbolic Foods — Seder Akhilat haSimanim — on the night of Rosh haShanah.

Click here to contribute a resource you have prepared for Seder Akhilat haSimanim.

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📄 סדר אכילת הסמנים | The Seder of Auspicious Foods for the Feast of Rosh Hashanah according to the Persian custom

Thank you to Nili Simhai and Yosh Schulman for sharing the Farsi (Persian) Nusaḥ of this punful minhag — the order of reciting kavvanot (intentions) for the New Year. Profound thanks are also due to Rabbi Simcha Daniel Burstyn of Kibbutz Lotan for his translation. Please help the Open Siddur Project by helping to translate and transcribe all of the Hebrew and Farsi in this seder. Sol’e nu Mobarak! سال نو مبارک — L’shanah Tova! . . .

Categories: Seder Akhilat haSimanim

Tags: festive meals, Nusaḥ Farsi, punning, סגולות segulot, סעודות seudot, סימנים simanim, symbolic foods, teḥinot during meals, teḥinot over foods

Contributor(s): Nili Simhai and Simcha Daniel Burstyn (translation)

An Accounting of Punny Foods for the Rosh haShanah Feast, by Stephen Belsky

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. . . .

Categories: Seder Akhilat haSimanim

Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., festive meals, punning, סגולות segulot, סעודות seudot, סימנים simanim, symbolic foods

Contributor(s): Stephen Belsky

🗍 סדר אכילת הסמנים | Seder Akhilat haSimanim: The “Symbolic Foods of Life” Seder for Rosh Hashanah by R’ R. Karpov, Ph.D.

Ḥazal, — some of our Jewish Sages, May Their Memory Be For A Blessing — suggest that ‘simanah milsah‘ — a symbol has significance. Some of the teachers of Jewish tradition encourage us on Rosh HaShanah to partake of a variety of foods suggestive of prosperity and happiness. This usage is alluded to in the directive of the prophet Nechemiah to the assembly: ‘Go your way, eat the fat and drink the sweet …” (Nechemiah 8:10). Our kavvanoth — sacred intentions — are that these Symbolic Foods Of Life are to help us effect a good coming year. . . .

Categories: Seder Akhilat haSimanim

Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., ecoḥasid, festive meals, four worlds, neo-lurianic, סגולות segulot, סעודות seudot, סימנים simanim

Contributor(s): Rabbi R. Karpov, Ph.D.

Additions to the Rosh Hashanah Seder Akhilat haSimanim for the Shmitah Year, by Rabbi David Seidenberg (neohasid.org)

Many people eat special foods as part of a mini-seder at the beginning of the Rosh Hashanah meal and invoke blessings for the year as they eat them. This year, you can add figs to your Rosh Hashanah seder (apples and honey, or apples, dates, beets, etc.) and recite with this kavvanah (intention). . . .

Categories: Symbolic Foods, the Shmitah Year (Earth's Shabbat), Seder Akhilat haSimanim

Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., ecoḥasid

Contributor(s): David Seidenberg and Neohasid [dot] org

📖 סדר אכילת הסמנים | Seder Akhilat haSimanim for Rosh Hashanah 5781, by Ḥayyim Obadyah (2020)

A liturgy of symbolic foods exclusively for the eve of the Hebrew new year 5781. A traditional egalitarian Hebrew text being a newly revised liturgy with contemporary text and additional prayers suitable to our perilous and worrisome state at the beginning of this second year of the pandemic and including a modern English translation together with learned annotations and guidance for observance in the home. . . .

Categories: Epidemics & Pandemics, Seder Akhilat haSimanim

Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., COVID-19 coronavirus, festive meals, סגולות segulot, סעודות seudot, סימנים simanim

Contributor(s): Ḥayyim Obadyah

📄 סֵדֶר סִימָנִים לְרֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה – שִׁכְתּוּב אַנְגְּלִי שֶׁשּׁוֹמֵר לָשׁוֹן־שֶׁנּוֹפֵל־עַל־לָשׁוֹן | Order of Simanim for Rosh haShanah — an English paraphrase that preserves wordplay, by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer

Many communities have a custom of reciting “simanim” on the night of Rosh haShanah — invocations on a series of foods punning over their Hebrew or Aramaic names. This is an assortment of common simanim, along with English loose translations that preserve the punning aspects of the foods. . . .

Categories: Seder Akhilat haSimanim

Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., festive meals, punning, סגולות segulot, סעודות seudot, סימנים simanim, symbolic foods, teḥinot during meals, teḥinot over foods

Contributor(s): Isaac Gantwerk Mayer

Additions to the Rosh haShanah Seder Akhilat haSimanim, from Rabbi David Seidenberg (neohasid.org)

If you are doing a Rosh Hashanah seder of simanim (signs, augurs, portents) using food puns, here are some topical additions including for beginning the Shmitah year. . . .

Categories: Symbolic Foods, Seder Akhilat haSimanim

Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., eco-conscious, ecoḥasid, punning, symbolic foods

Contributor(s): David Seidenberg and Neohasid [dot] org

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Pomegranate fruit - whole and piece with arils (credit: Ivar Leidus, license: CC BY-SA)

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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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