Shanah Tovah! Here’s what to know about the Rosh Hashanah high holiday

Rabbi Lisa Grushcow explains some of the traditions, greetings and significance of Rash Hashanah, the first Jewish high holiday.

On Monday evening, Rosh Hashanah 5,786 begins, the first high holy day in Judaism. The holiday runs until Wednesday at nightfall.

Rabbi Lisa Grushcow is getting ready for the holiday at the Temple Emanu’El-Beth-Sholom in Westmount and explained that Jewish family and friends will come together, say “shanah tovah” (a traditional Hebrew greeting meaning “a good year“) and have a festive meal, often featuring a round challah bread, symbolizing the cycle of the year.

“We have honey together with apples or challah for a sweet new year, our Sephardi friends will have things like fish heads, so that the year should be a head and not a tail,” said Grushcow. “So there’s all kinds of different culinary and communal practices.”

The central observance is blowing the shofar (ram’s horn) on both mornings, which is typically done in a synagogue.

In Montreal, the federal Mont-Royal riding has the second-highest percentage of Jewish people in the country at 21.3 per cent, behind only Thornhill, Ontario (29.5 per cent).

Outremont (9.1), NDG-Westmount (7.8), Pierrefonds-Dollard (6.6), Saint-Laurent (5.3), and Ville-Marie–Le Sud-Ouest–Île-des-Soeurs (2.1) all have Jewish populations over two per cent, according to a 2019 Elections Canada survey.

Statistics Canada said around 335,000 people in Canada reported being Jewish in 2021, and the Montreal Jewish Community Foundation (CJA) says that there are over 90,000 in Montreal.

Grushcow said that many Jews will also attend synagogue during Rosh Hashanah, which could explain colleagues’ or classmates’ absence.

“It’s a time for celebration and for a fresh start, but also a time for reflection, for looking back on the year that’s behind us, for looking towards the year that’s ahead,” she said. “Who are we? Who do we want to be? What do we need to change? What do we want to do differently? All of those are the questions of this time of year as well.”

For those who aren’t Jewish, Grushcow said it’s perfectly acceptable to say “shanah tovah” or “shanah tovah umetukah” to friends and family to wish them a happy new year.

“Unfortunately, I think sometimes when people don’t know what to say, they don’t say anything,” she said. “It’s a good time to remind people, like a Jewish holiday is not the time that you need to express your opinion on the Middle East. Not every Jew is responsible for having an opinion on that, and so it is a great opportunity to say something nice, to do something nice, to be a good neighbour. It really is very simple.”

She said that simply reaching out in a kind way goes a long way, particularly in 2025.

“It does. I think it’s no secret that the Jewish community has been and felt very isolated for the past year, especially in the past couple years and and there are all kinds of things that we wish were different, but it’s amazing what a kind gesture can do and can say in terms of someone’s own feeling about about their community in their year,” said Grushcow.