Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, begins at sundown on Monday evening, marking the start of the year 5786.

Jews around the world will refrain from work, attend synagogue services, and eat festive meals. The mood of the holiday is joyous, but also reflective, as Rosh Hashanah is a time of repentance as well as celebration.

The central mitzvah , or commandment, of the holiday, is to listen to the sound of a shofar , or ram’s horn, being blown. The sound is a call to repentance; the root of the word “shofar” is the same as the root of the verb “to repair oneself.”

Traditional foods include apples dipped in honey, for a sweet New Year; pomegranates, for a year as full of good deeds as the pomegranate has seeds; and even a mystery fruit eaten on the second night of the holiday, to dif

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