Rosh Hashanah

Bring apples, honey, and a shofar (or a picture/recording). Open by tasting apples and honey together.

Children wonder and discover; you facilitate more than you lecture.

• What do you do with your family to celebrate Rosh Hashanah?
• How do you feel at the start of a new year (and a new school year)?
• What would make this a sweet year?

Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish new year, a happy holiday of fresh starts. The round challah shows the year coming around again; the shofar wakes us up to be our best selves.

• Shanah Tovah — a good year
• Shofar — ram’s horn
• Challah — special bread

“Why is the challah round?”

Because the year goes around and around — round and round, again and again.

• Children can name customs: going to synagogue, apples and honey, round challah, blowing the shofar.
• Children connect the new year to their own hopes.

Some children may not celebrate at home yet — invite every wish for a sweet year equally; there is no “right” way to celebrate.

Folktale. King Solomon and the Bee (Folklore) — the wisest king is saved by the tiniest bee, so even the smallest of us can do something sweet.

Changemaker. The ba’al tekiah — the person in this building who blows the shofar. They practise for weeks, because it is much harder than it looks, so that everybody can hear the year begin.

I wonder what small, sweet thing I could do to start the new year?

“We tasted apples and honey for a sweet new year! Ask your child what they wish for this year. Try at home: dip something sweet and share one hope each.”