Simunim Thread

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Simunim Thread

Simunim Thread

On Rosh Hashanah, we eat different foods to repersent different things for the coming year. These are called simunim. Some of the common ones are:

-apples dipped in honey for a sweet new year

-the head of a fish to represent being leaders and not followers

-(pun time) lettuce, half a raisin, and celery, to let us have a raise in salary

-smores, so we can have s'more good things

-(hebrew pun time)a carrot, orגזרות  גֶזֶר, so we can have good decrees, or גזרות 

I can't think of anymore right now. Does anyone have ones that their family does?


submitted by Zahava S., age 13, the stars
(September 2, 2020 - 10:22 am)

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I'm sorry, what is Rosh Hashanah?

submitted by Strawberri, age 13 winters, earth
(September 2, 2020 - 1:31 pm)
submitted by Top
(September 2, 2020 - 2:06 pm)

It's a Jewish holliday. I don't know much about it because I'm Christian, but I'm sure someones else does.

submitted by Jade J.
(September 2, 2020 - 3:47 pm)

It's the Jewish new year. 

submitted by Zahava S., age 13, the stars
(September 2, 2020 - 7:04 pm)

Oh! I'm Jewish, and I hadn't heard of half of those things. :) Another common one, I think, is round challah or other round bread, to symbolise the circle of the year.

@Strawberri, as Zahava said, Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish new year. We have services, celebrate, and eat foods like apples and honey (which is the topic of this thread!). It's followed by Yom Kippur, a week or so later (8 days?), which is a lot more serious and involves fasting and repentance and such, but Rosh Hashanah itself is pretty positive overall.

submitted by Kitten, Daydreaming
(September 2, 2020 - 10:15 pm)

I have... never really heard of simunim. Which is a shame, because the ones you listed sound cool! I'm going to try to convince my family to do some of these this year.

Well, we obviously do apples and honey (and challah and honey -- so delicious!) but I can't think of any other ones. Oh, wait, one time we had a pommegranate. It had the same meaning as apples and honey: a sweet new year.

Also, I have this Jewish friend who's vegan, so he doesn't eat honey; instead, he eats vegan honey. I asked him what vegan honey was made of, and he said it was mostly apples. I was like, "So on Rosh Hashannah, you just eat apples and apples?" He was like, "Yeah, basically." 

submitted by Summer, age tau, Nowhere at all
(September 2, 2020 - 10:15 pm)

I just saw this thread and it is totally great because I am trying to have my family celebrate it this year. I did a lot of research, offered to do the cooking, and hunted down a shofar in my dad's office. (I knew he had one hidden behind some books I just didn't know which ones.)

submitted by PandaGirl, age 11, New England
(September 8, 2020 - 1:26 pm)