Rosh Hashana is a somewhat enigmatic chag. It is Yom HaDin, the Day of Judgment. And yet, we don’t say Viduy or Selichot, we don’t fast, and instead we dip the apple in honey and enjoy festive meals. We also have a number of interesting practices on Rosh Hashana that seems at 1st glance a bit superstitious:
-We don’t blow the shofar on Erev Rosh Hashana so as to confuse the Satan.
-We throw our sins into the water at Tashlich.
-We do not eat nuts, whose Gematria is Cheit.
-Some do not take naps so that we won’t sleep the year away.
One of the most interesting minhagim is that of the Simanei Milta, the symbolic foods that we eat to merit a year of blessing. In addition to the Tapuach V’Dvash, which we eat to merit a sweet new year, many people eat a Rimon so that our zechuyot (merits) will be as numerous as the seeds of the pomegranate, the Head of a Fish so that we will be a Rosh and not a Zanav, and many other such foods.
In modern times I have even heard of people who will eat:
-Lettuce, Raisins, and Celery (“Let us have a raise in salary”)
-Sardines (Sar Din, removal of strict judgment)
-Bananas (Bonne Annee, Good Year, in French)
-Kiwi (“MeOlam Kivinu Lach - We always look to you with hope”)
-Olives (“May we All Live”)
-And of course Meat (“Shenitbaser Besorot Tovot”)
What is the meaning behind this unusual practice? It almost seems like superstition. Do we really believe that just by eating these Simanim we will merit a good year?
I want to share with you one approach to this question which not only explains why we eat these Simanim on Rosh Hashana, but also teaches us a powerful lesson about Teshuva. What is a SIMAN? The concept of a SIMAN comes up in the mitzvah of Hashavat Aveidah, Returning a Lost Object. A SIMAN is an identifying mark. If you lose an object you can prove that it is yours if the item has your name on it or some other unique feature that you can point to to prove that it is yours. Without a SIMAN the owner has YIUSH, despair of ever seeing their object again, in which case the object becomes Hefker, ownerless. But with a SIMAN the owner retains hope.
Could it be that the SIMANIM of Rosh Hashana are here to remind us that we too are searching for something lost? The word Teshuva means Return. It shares the same shoresh with Hashavat Aveida. What is it that we have lost? What are we searching for? When we do Teshuva to what are we returning?
-Of course, on one level, we are returning to Hashem.
-And we are also returning to ourselves. To the real us inside. To the best version of ourselves.
I want to invite each of us to imagine for a moment our best version of ourselves. Many of us are more used to thinking about our shortcomings. But for a moment, really try to picture what that looks and feels like. What qualities do we like about ourselves? When we are at our best what do other people like about us? In this version of ourselves how do we handle adversity or failure? When we wake up each morning, what kind of attitude and mindset would we have? Imagine if you could really live your life like this.
Now I want to invite us each to take a moment to reflect on our actual reality. Because we’re not always at our best. We sometimes get discouraged, and jealous, and stressed out. We doubt ourselves. We make mistakes. We act selfishly. We lose sight of our goals. We settle for average. We stop trying to grow. At some point in our lives, often without even realizing it, we adopt a fixed mindset: This is who I am. I’ll never be anything more.
It’s not that we’re evil people. We’re good people who mean well and generally try to treat others well and do the right thing. But in falling into this routine we lose sight of our true identity, of who we could be if we were great, if we were the best version of ourselves. At some point we lose our SIMAN, our identifying mark, that inner concept of what we are working towards, of who we could be, of who we really are. And so we have YIUSH. We give up hope of ever being that person. Maybe we don’t even remember that such a version of ourselves exists.
Which brings us back to this moment. To Rosh Hashana. To the mitzvah of Teshuva. Some people feel discouraged by the fact that every year we are back in shul on Rosh Hashana making similar pledges to the ones we made the year before. But maybe a different way to look at it is that Teshuva is a gift from Hashem. That it is human nature to stray off course sometimes, and that Hashem, who created us and knows us better than we know ourselves, gave us this gift of Teshuva to help us recalibrate and get back on track, like a GPS recalculating its route to help the driver reach their destination.
Rather than viewing these Simanim as some hocus pocus formula to try to convince Hashem to grant us a good year, perhaps we are really meant to perform them in order to remind ourselves of our own SIMANIM, our own internal identities that define who we really are deep down, what our deepest desires, hopes, and dreams really are.
You know, sometimes it is easier to see the beauty and the potential in others than it is too see it in ourselves. Sometimes all it takes is a word, a look, a hug from a friend or loved one to remind us of who we really are, of how much we are really worth. Look no further than Rachel and Leah in the Torah. Rachel, in an incredible act of self-sacrifice, gives her sister Leah the Simanim, the signs that she and Yaakov had made between them for their wedding night. She sees how special her sister is and wants to make sure that Leah sees that in herself as well. This Rosh Hashana, in addition to thinking about your own Simanim, tell the people in your life what you see when you look at them. Perform the mitzvah of Hashavat Aveidah and remind them of their Simanim, of their special unique qualities, so that they can return to themselves, to the person they are becoming.
If we are having a hard time finding our own Simanim, and even our friends and loved ones have not been able to perform Hashavat Aveida and restore them to us, there is one more path for rediscovering who we really are. Sometimes Hashem Himself will send us a Siman, a sign, helping us get on track.
I will share with you one story that happened to me to illustrate this point. A number of years ago I was driving home from a Rabbinic conference and I was thinking about what I wanted to do with my life. Did I want to be a pulpit Rabbi? Become a school leader? Go into business? I had been doing a Cheshbon HaNefesh, a bit of soul searching, about this, and was deep in thought when suddenly I noticed a white pickup truck in the lane next to me with crates of chickens in the back. I didn’t think twice about it until a moment later I noticed something unbelievable. On the driver’s side door, in black letters, were the letters RABI LEVIT. Now, Rabbi has two B’s and Levitt has two T’s, but that’s pretty close, right? I couldn’t believe it. What are the odds of seeing your name on a truck driving next to you? I said to myself, this must be a sign from Hashem! But what is He telling me? That I feel trapped and want out? Or maybe the opposite: that I shouldn’t be a chicken but should go for it? Or maybe that I should become a shochet!
The truth is, what exactly the message was is not important for right now. What I want to share from that story is that I believe Hashem is always sending us signs. It’s just that we usually don’t have our antennas tuned in to catch the signal. It may not always be with our name on a car right next to us. Maybe I needed something obvious because I was missing all the other signs. The Simanim Hashem sends us might be in the form of a person we meet, a dream we have, something we learn in the parsha, who knows? If we lose sight of our own Simanim, of our own identifying marks, sometimes we are lucky enough to have a family member, friend, or teacher remind us of them. But if even that fails, let’s remember that Hashem never forgets who we are and how great we can become.
This Rosh Hashana, our Avodah is to find our Siman, our inner essence, our identifying mark. We are about to blow the Shofar. The Shofar is beyond words. It comes from the deepest part of us. And our mitzvah is “Lishmoah Kol Shofar,” to hear the sound of the Shofar and to internalize its message. To let the sound of the Shofar penetrate all the layers that have covered up our true identity hidden deep down. Listen to the Shofar. Let it uncover your Siman. Remind yourself of your deepest hopes and dreams. Remind yourself not to have Yiush, despair, but rather to have great hope and optimism. Because Hashem loves you and knows the greatness within you. This Rosh Hashana let’s find ourselves. We are the Aveida, the lost object, but the mitzvah of Teshuva is a gift that helps us find ourselves.
Before eating each of the Simanim we recite a formula which starts with the words, “Yehi Ratzon Milfanecha Hashem Elokeinu V’Elokei Avoteinu - May it be Your will Hashem our God, the God of our ancestors.” Let me leave us all with the bracha that this Rosh Hashana we should search for the lost objects inside us: the hope, the optimism, the spirituality, the kindness, and the goodness, which we each possess. Yehi Ratzon, May it be Hashem’s will, that we should each see our own potential and strive to live a life that reaches those ideals. When those days come that we lose sight of who we really are, may we be surrounded by friends who will remind us. And when even that fails, may we tune our antennas to receive the Simanim Hashem sends us every day of our lives.
I wish each of you a Shana Tova, a year of growth, of purpose, of health, and of happiness. A year of Siman Tov U’Mazal Tov.
Shana Tova
