This year the members of KKSY will celebrate Rosh haShana, the Jewish New Year, on October 3rd and 4th, 2024. While Rosh haShana is a day of remembrance and reckoning with our deeds in the past 12 months, it is also a day of celebration and joy. In the synagogue, the cantor blows the shofar or ram’s horn. This sound connects congregants with early Jewish history, reminding them that at Mount Sinai the Jewish people received the Torah to the shofar’s sound.

Sometimes people outside Judaism wonder how important women have been in developing Jewish traditions—or indeed if they have played a meaningful historical role at all. The Rosh Hashanah service shows one example of a woman whose actions influenced Jewish practice up until our own time. During the first day’s morning service, the prophetic portion emphasizes the importance of women’s role in developing Jewish prayer. In synagogue, congregants hear the story of Hannah the childless wife of Elkanah who prayed silently and meaningfully for a baby at Shiloh in the eleventh century BCE. Her prayers were answered and she gave birth to Samuel who became a great judge and anointed King Saul and King David. In gratitude she composed a hymn of praise to the Lord which we read in its entirety. In several ways, the rabbis fashioned the Amidah prayer which Jews say each day on Hannah’s practice. Because she stood to pray we stand during the Amidah prayer. Because she moved her lips but did not speak in a loud voice we are encouraged to do so as well.  

At meals after evening services, the custom is to eat foods that have special meaning; the nature of the meal changes depending on the country and on what grows there. For instance, in Northern countries, many Jews eat apples, as the Hebrew word for apple is Tappūaḥ, which has the same letters as Potéaḥ (opening). Eating apple symbolizes the hope that God will open His hand in the New Year and provide us with blessings and all the things we need.  Ashkenazi Jews often dip the apple in honey, which is sweet, to wish for a sweet year.
In countries around the Mediterranean Sea, many Jews eat pomegranates because this fruit has many seeds. The hope is that we all may perform many good deeds. 

Abayudaya in Uganda are developing their own customs and expressing their special wishes with the foods that are available to them. One choice is to eat sweet banana, which in Luganda is Mattooke. It sounds almost exactly like the Hebrew word for ‘sweet’, Matὸk, or Metukkā. What you would say while eating it is, “As we eat this Mattooke, may we be blessed with a Sweet Year, a “Shanā Metukkā”.