Can we ever be ready enough?  Are we ready for Rosh Hashana can be thought to mean - did we finish our cooking for the Rosh Hashanah seudos.  It can be thought to imply if we have our new wardrobe waiting with a full new attire for going to shul of Rosh Hashana.   On the spiritual realm it should imply; are you ready to hear the shofar’s call with all that it tells us.  Are we ready to coronate Hashem as our King and become his compliant servants once more?  Are we ready to say that we have made a ‘cheshbon hanefesh’ of year 5769 before heading to year 5770.  It’s a new decade.  A new era.  It could mean a new you!

Part of getting ready for the Jewish New Year also means well wishing for all our relatives and friends.  Did you visit or speak to your bubby, tante, old friend, and of course your siblings?  Did you wish them all a Shana Tova U’mesukah?  If you didn’t you can still do so today and tomorrow and even on Rosh Hashana.  It’s too late to get your greeting card to your loved ones out, but you can still make a phonecall, and you can still send a shana tova basket!

Shana Tova!

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Every kid in day school or yeshiva will come home singing the traditional song “dip the apple in the honey…”.  Does that make dipping the apple in honey a tradition or a custom accepted by all?  Many of the symbolic foods eaten on Rosh Hashana have developed from tradition, albeit they are really almost customs since they date back to many years.  Yet, dipping the apple in the honey is actually found in the ’shulchan orach’ making it a ‘minhag’ which is a true custom for Rosh Hashana.  Many ‘minhagim’ aka customs are considered ‘halacha’ once accepted by the vast majority.

As you savor the flavor of sweetness while dipping the apple into honey this Rosh Hashanah, do bear in mind that you and all your family and friends and klal Yisrael should have a sweet new year.  The sweetest year would be one of a speedy redemption from Galus.

Some of you may wonder at the relationship of pomegranates and Rosh Hoshana.  After all you may have known that apples are linked to Rosh Hashanah due to the significant symbolic routine of dipping the apple into the honey for a sweet new year.  So what does the pomegranate symbolize?  It’s really a twofold reason.  The first one being the fact that since Rosh Hashana  originated as a one-day yom tov/holiday.  This was changed all the way back and even in Eretz Yisroel two days of Rosh Hashana are celebrated.  Since the second day is still questionable if it is really a ’separate’ day we do may the bracha (blessing) of ’shechiyanu’-a blessing made for newness, but we try to have something ‘new’ to make the bracha on.  New garments are worn and ‘new’ fruits are put on the table on Rosh Hashanah.  Pomegranates were once considered a fruit that was ‘new’ in most places, and therefore even today it is still traditionally displayed with the fruits that are much ‘newer’ than the pomegranate.

The second connection between the pomegranate and Rosh Hashanah is all about the multiple seeds in the pomegranate.  On Rosh Hashana we use symbolism as a means to ask Hashem for a good year.  The many seeds found in the pomegranate is symbolic for ‘Sheyirbi Zichiyoseinu’ - loosely translated as our ‘good deeds should be multiplied’.

As you eat your luscious pomegranates this Rosh Hashanah - make it spiritual by knowing why you are eating this fruit.  Shana Tova!

It’s time to turn over a new leaf before Rosh Hashana.  It’s time to start a clean slate for the upcoming new year.  Where does one begin?  We all want a new start this Rosh Hashanah.  We need a new beginning to renew our resolutions of change we’ve been trying to implement.  We need a fresh start after a long stretch of summer lazy days.  (okay, so even if some days weren’t lazy at all!)  Rosh Hashana comes upon us and helps us create that new start, the clean slate, the new leaf and gives us a renewed lease of life - With G-d’s will for all.

So how do we actually get the renewal we seek on Rosh Hashanah?  It comes with a lot of preparation on the spiritual realm.  We need to do some inspirational shopping and introspection to recognize those elements that are calling out for change.  These changes are twofold.  We need to introspect on ; a-Bein adam lamakem - the relationship between the indvidual and G-d and b-Bein Adam Lachveiro- between one individual and his or her peers.  At this time G-d beseeches us to make amends with ‘lachveiro’ - our friends before coming to him.  It’s time to put aside those petty quarrels, it’s time to start greeting your neighbor who’s son ruined your newly planted garden with his reckless bike riding, it’s time to forgive and start forgetting those thoughtless comments you’ve heard from your coworkers and even your boss.  Once you’ve risen above all pettiness you can come before G-d and tell him ‘I’ve made amends and forgiven those that have been petty to me, so now can you not forgive my pettiness’.   And G-d will forgive us and will inscribe us all in the book of life we long to find ourselves in this Rosh Hashanah and hopefully we will live to see the Geulah-the final redemption speedily.