Rosh Hashanah Greetings

It is September 8, 2010. Happy Rosh Hashanah to everyone. Here are some traditional Rosh Hashanah greetings.

* On the first night of Rosh Hashanah after the evening prayer, it is the Ashkenazi and Hasidic custom to wish Leshana Tova Tikoseiv Vesichoseim (Le’Alter LeChaim Tovim U’Leshalom) which is Hebrew for “May you (immediately) be inscribed and sealed for a Good Year (and for a Good and Peaceful Life)”

* Shana Tova is the traditional greeting on Rosh Hashanah which in Hebrew means “A Good Year.”

* Shana Tova Umetukah is Hebrew for “A Good and Sweet Year.”

* Ketiva ve-chatima tovah which translates as “May You Be Written and Sealed for a Good Year.”

* The formal Sephardic greeting is Tizku leshanim rabbot (“may you merit many years”), to which the answer is ne’imot ve-tovot (“pleasant and good ones”). Less formally, people wish each other “many years” in the local language.

* In Germanic countries, the New Year’s greeting “Guten Rutsch” is derived from the Yiddish version of Rosh Hashanah.

* In Yiddish, it is common to wish someone gut-yor or “Good Year” on and around Rosh Hashanah.