tagged: punning • the Open Siddur Project ✍ פְּרוֺיֶקְט הַסִּדּוּר הַפָּתוּחַ

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

Contributor(s):

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. . . .

📄 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

Contributor(s):

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. . . .

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

Contributor(s):

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. . . .

Peas on Earth, a song by the Jewish environmental educators of the Teva Learning Center (Fall 2010)

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription)

A pun filled ditty by the Fall 2010 Jewish environmental educators of the Teva Learning Center. . . .

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

Contributor(s):

Nili Simhai and Simcha Daniel Burstyn (translation)

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! . . .