Why It Matters That God Is Faithful

Yael Eckstein  |  September 20, 2024

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is a time when the Jewish people are in such deep prayer. We pray for good things for our family and for our health. We pray for our nation, for our people, and for the world. We pray for everything that we want for the coming year. On Rosh Hashanah, we make foods that are symbolic, and they are used as a prayer as well. I once heard a beautiful example that can explain why we use symbolic food as a prayer. It is said that when you are pomegranates—which are said to hold 613 seeds, a biblical number—to say to God we want to do good deeds and follow God’s commands in the New Year. Our honey cakes are in the shape of a circle to show that there is no beginning or end to our love and our heart for God. These are our deepest prayers, and we show them to God not only through our words but through the foods we prepare. So this Rosh Hashanah, I pray that your prayers will be answered—that you will reveal the deepest desires of your heart in the most beautiful way to our God.

Happy New Year