SIMANIM

Why do we eat apples and honey? 

It’s an answer you all need to hear. 

Like the honey, the apples are sweet 

 To ensure for us all a sweet year.

But that's not all of the foods

That we eat at the head of the year.

While simanim are ritually eaten,

Their meaning is not always clear.

So, let us start with Rosh Hashanah

If that is what you would wish.

Rosh is the word meaning "head."

That's the reason for the head of a fish.

Symbolically, we often eat dates.

T'marim is the word in Hebrew.

The letters suggest the word "end"

Of bad things that make us feel blue.

Even the challah we eat at our meals

Is round, not oval, for a reason.

It reminds us that a year, like a circle,

Continues from season to season.

Now pomegranates, that is a mouthful.

The rabbis say each of those seeds

Is an opportunity to do mitzvahs –

What we all know as doing good deeds.

in Yiddish the word meren means two things

It means increase, but it also means carrots.

So we eat carrots in the hope that this new year

Will see increase in our worth and our merits.

The last item on the menu is your selection

The pri chadash or "new fruit" you must choose.

That completes the cycle of new foods

That are sampled at new year's by Jews.

©2021 Alan Smason