Eduard Abashia, a lecturer at the Department of Psychology at the Dnipro Institute of PJSC HEI "IAPM", a legal expert, psychologist at the Amur-Nizhnodniprovskyi district department of the branch of the State Institution "Probation Center" in Dnipropetrovsk region, and a member of the International Association of Psychologists and Consultants on Sexual Education, informs about the following. The New Year 5785 Rosh Hashanah begins on 1-2 Tishrei (from the evening of October 2 to sunset on October 4, 2024). From this day, the countdown of the days of the new Jewish year begins.

Rosh Hashanah (in Hebrew ראש השנה lit. "head of the year") is the Jewish New Year, celebrated for two consecutive days according to the Jewish calendar, observed in the autumn month of Tishrei, which falls in September or October. According to beliefs, it was in the seventh month that the Lord created the world. Many important biblical events are associated with the holiday of Rosh Hashanah - the creation of man, the great flood, and the salvation of Isaac.

The Jewish calendar was calculated in ancient Babylon. Since then, it has never changed. The count of months in it is related to the cycles of the moon. Each of them begins on a new moon. All Jewish holidays begin in the evening, at sunset, according to the story of the creation of the world described in the Torah: "And there was evening, and there was morning, the first day". The chronology in it begins from 3761 BC - from the day of Adam's birth, the first person who felt the all-encompassing power of nature and began to look for ways to interact with it.

The autumn holidays begin with Rosh Hashanah and end with the holidays of Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah. The latter marks the end of one cycle of reading the Torah and the beginning of the next. This is a time of summarizing what has been experienced over the year, a time of self-analysis, a time of Heavenly judgment, a time of searching for real ways to improve and self-perfect.

During these days, Jews remember not only the creation of the world but also that the Lord judges a person for their actions. The days of Rosh Hashanah should be spent reflecting on good and bad deeds. It is necessary to admit to oneself the unkind acts and sincerely repent.

In the Tanakh (the collection of Torah, Prophets, Writings), the first month of the year is considered the spring month of Aviv, later called Nisan, when the Jews left Egypt. The holiday of the first day of the seventh month of Tishrei is called a day of "sacred gatherings", when one should not work, blow the ram's horn "shofar", and make sacrifices.

With the holiday of Rosh Hashanah begin 10 days of prayer and repentance, which end with another Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) - a time when the decision is made in heaven: who will live and who will die. During this period, God carefully evaluates people's actions and rewards them for good deeds.

On Rosh Hashanah, bitter and sour dishes are not eaten, otherwise there will be many sorrows and troubles in the new year. Nuts are not eaten because their name sounds similar to the word "sin". Physical work is strictly forbidden.

For representatives of the Jewish people, every year on the day of Rosh Hashanah celebration, certain products must be on the table, which symbolize liberation from sins, as well as the beginning of a new stage of life:

• pomegranates. They are considered one of the most important products that should be on the table on the day of Rosh Hashanah celebration;
• apples. They replace pomegranates in regions where traditional products don't grow;
• honey. This product must be present on the table in every Jewish family so that the next year will be sweet.

According to ancient Jewish traditions, fish should be on the table on the day of the New Year Rosh Hashanah celebration. It should be prepared with the head, symbolizing the beginning of the year. In addition, carrots and traditional challah bread (white braided bread in an oblong shape) are placed on the festive table.

Fruits and challah are dipped in honey after reciting special prayers. During the meal, the Kiddush is performed (a Jewish sanctification ritual performed over a cup of wine). The festive table must include a fish head, and it is said: "God grant that we become the head, not the tail". All products on the table during the holiday are considered symbols of multiplication: pomegranate, carrot, and apples.

On the first day of Rosh Hashanah after the daytime prayer, but before sunset, a custom called tashlich ("casting off sins") is performed. Believers gather near a river or other body of water containing fish to symbolically cast their sins into the water, as if throwing away all the bad and unpleasant things from the past year, and recite appropriate prayers.

The history of Ukraine is closely intertwined with the history of Jewish settlement in these lands. The first mention of Jews living in the territory of the modern Ukrainian state dates back to the 1st century BC.

The emergence of large Jewish communities is associated with Prince Sviatoslav's victories over the Khazars in 965, when part of the captured Jews were settled in Kyiv. In the 13th century, Jews from Germany and Eastern Europe settled in the Galicia-Volhynia principality. The flow of these immigrants increased at the end of the 15th century when the Jews of Germany were persecuted by Emperor Maximilian I. This is how the Jewish community of Ukraine was formed.

The history of the local Jewish community begins practically from the moment the city was founded in 1776. In 1791, Empress Catherine II issued a decree "On Granting Citizenship to Jews in the Ekaterinoslav Viceroyalty and Taurida Oblast". And already in 1793, Jews rushed to Ekaterinoslav, then already a provincial city. Jewish merchants were engaged in transporting flax - one of the main export items of the province - through the rapids, down the Dnipro, to Odesa. But mostly, the Jews of Ekaterinoslav in those times were tailors - about a quarter of the Jewish families in the city were engaged in this.

In the Jewish world, Dnipro is often called the city of the Rebbe. They say this city has a special blessing. It was here that the 7th Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson spent his youth. It was here that his student and emissary - Rabbi Shmuel Kaminezki - came on shlichut (Hebrew for "activity of emissaries", "mission") in 1990.

One of the most important centers for the development of Jewish life in Ukraine was and remains the city of Dnipro (previously Dnipropetrovsk), formerly Ekaterinoslav. The Ekaterinoslav province was not called "the promised land of the Jews" for nothing - here, within the permanent Jewish Pale of Settlement, the life of religious communities flowed most actively and never interrupted, unlike many other places in the empire.

We congratulate the Jewish community on the upcoming New Year - the holiday of Rosh Hashanah! We wish everyone a sweet, happy, and peaceful year!