Page 32 - Chayei Adam LAYOUT sivan 5782

Chayei Adam - K’lal 139 - The Laws of Rosh Hashana Night & Rosh Hashana Tefilos

and say ןֹוצ ָּר י ִהְּי (“yehi ratzon - may it be Your will) to renew a good sweet year
upon us”. Then, before eating the head of a fish, one should say “may it be Your
will that we be the head and not the tail” but [if it possible] using the head of a
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lamb is much better. Then [the custom is to] eat cooked dishes such as carrots
or ‘ribin’ which connote increased growth and say “may it be Your will that we
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should have many merits”. One should not eat foods cooked in vinegar and
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one should eat fatty meats and sweet foods as it says “go eat sweet foods…”
and all of this is that it should be a good omen. Therefore, it is clear that one
shouldn’t get angry during these days because aside from the severe prohibition,
[his conduct] should be for a good sign. Rather, one should be happy and put his
trust in Hashem [together] with his good deeds. One should not eat nuts [on Rosh
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Hashana] as they cause excess saliva and phlegm. People of stature learn the
four chapters of meseches Rosh Hashana at the table. 42

םדו רשב
apple and eating it, one should eat a small but adds that the Maharam Mi’Rotenburg
piece of it before reciting the yehi ratzon. (See would eat a ram’s head since it is [also]
טכ
Mateh Efraim that b’dieveved it is not reminiscent of the akeidas Yitzchak. Eating the
considered an interruption and the beracIha head of any lamb is also reminiscent of the
need not be repeated.) akeidah but if this is not possible, one should
ל
Although the prevalent custom is to begin take the head of a chicken or fish as an omen
the simanim with the apple, several poskim for being at the head. The Chayei Adam who
point out that one should really recite the instructs one to use a fish head, and then adds
beracha over the dates or pomegranates (if he that a lamb’s head is preferred as even more
eats them) as they take priority since they are preferable, is likely coming from a more
from the seven species. (See Chayei Adam practical perspective in that fish heads were
K’lal 57:5 and Shulchan Aruch O.C. 211) (R’ more readily available to the masses.
Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, and so is reported
to be the opinion of R’ Yosef Chaim 37. In Yiddish, carrots are called mehren,
Zonnenfeld) Others however defend common which is similar to ‘mehr’, the Yiddish word for
practice since eating apples on Rosh Hashana more. The custom to add simanim based on
has kabbalistic significance, as above. other languages is mentioned by the Magen
Avraham, and the Machtzis Hashekel finds a
36. The Tur cites a custom to eat the head source for it in the gemara (Berachos 56b)
of a lamb on Rosh Hashana and pray that we which teaches that seeing a cat in a dream can
should be at the head, and not at the tail end, be a good sign, or a bad one, depending if it is

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