[1] The Jewish year is calculated according to a lunar/solar system. The beginning of a new month is gauged by the appearance of the moon, while the beginning of the year is determined by the earth's position in relation to the sun. While the Jewish calendar year begins with the first of Tishrei, the biblical numbering of the months begins with Nisan. [Back]
	[2] The first day of Tishrei is specified in the Bible as a festival: "A Sabbath, a memorial of the sounding of the shofar" (Leviticus 23:23-24) and as "a day of the sounding of the shofar" (Numbers 29:1-6). Interestingly, no mention is made of it there as the New Year. The sounding of the shofar is one of the distinctive features of the religious celebration of the festival, and has largely determined the character of the liturgy. [Back]
	[3] The liturgy focuses on the Jewish people's yearning for the establishment of God's sovereignty over the entire world and the ushering in of the millennium. [Back]
	[4] White also recalls the verse in Isaiah (1:1) "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall become as white as snow." [Back]
	[5] The shofar also recalls the giving of the Torah at Sinai which was accompanied by blasts of the shofar, and alludes to "the great shofar" (Isaiah 27:13) that will herald the messianic age. The scriptural sources for this ritual (Leviticus 23:24; and Numbers 29:1 - see above) do not define the specific instrument to be used. Although the tractate Rosh Hashanah in the Mishnah (code of Jewish life compiled c.200 CE) rules that the horn of any ritually pure animal (except the cow) may be used as a shofar, the ram's horn was preferred at a later period, as it recalls the Binding of Isaac for whom a ram was substituted as a sacrifice to God (Genesis 22:13). [Back]
	[6] A central verse in the ceremony is from the Book of Micah (7:19): "And you kill cast [vetashlikh] all their sins in the depths of the sea." [Back]
	[7] These special penitential prayers, Selihot, are recited in the Ashkenazi tradition during the last four to nine days of Elul, while in the Sephardi tradition daily throughout the month. Selihot comes from the Hebrew rootword s-l-h which means "to forgive." [Back]
	[8] Barukh atah Adonai eloheinu melekh ha'olam, asher kid-shanu be'mitzvotav ve'tzivanu le-hadlik ner shel Yom Tov (when the festival falls on Shabbat, the concluding words are "ner shel Shabbat v'Yom Tov"). (Praised are You, Sovereign of the Universe, who has sanctified us with Your mitzvot and has commanded us to kindle light for the festival.) [Back]
	[9] Barukh atah Adonai eloheinu melekh ha'olam, she'hecheyanu v'kiymanu v'higiyanu laz-mahn ha-zeh. (Praised are You, Sovereign of the Universe, for granting us life, for sustaining us, and for enabling us to reach this day.) [Back]
	[10] On the first night, dishes are prepared that are meant to augur well for the new year, such as apples dipped in honey. The Shehe'heyanu blessing, recited at first occasions, is recited over the festival itself. On the second night, however, a new fruit is eaten in order to be able to recite the Shehe'heyanu blessing once again. [Back]