16 Sep NITZAVIM – ROSH HASHANAH: SIMANIM

On Rosh Hashanah
night, we eat
simanim, such as
an apple dipped in
honey, among other
simanim.
The origin of this
custom is the Gemara
(Krisus 6), which
states, symbolic signs
have significance.
Eliyah Rabba (quoted
in Mishnah Berurah)
writes, “The Shlah
teaches that these signs remind the person to
rouse himself to teshuvah and to daven for
these matters.”
Reb Shlomo Kluger (Chochmas Shlomo)
writes, “Eating these foods isn’t a tefillah.
Eating is never a tefillah. Rather, we eat
these foods to show our trust that Hashem
will give us a good year…and we say on
them [that it should be a good year]. If chas
veshalom there was a harsh decree, it will
be turned for the good through our words.
Amen, so shall be His will.” Words are
powerful. Saying it will be a sweet year is
like a prophecy, which has the power to be
fulfilled.

Reb Shlomo Kluger adds, “On Rosh
Hashanah, after shacharis, one should
say, Kol Ma De’avid Rachmana Letav
Avid, ‘Everything Hashem does is for the
good.’V’Gam Zu L’tovah’ And this is also
for the good.’ Such words turn things over
that everything will indeed be good.”
The ultimate siman is to be happy on Rosh
Hashanah. The Mishnah Berurah writes,
“We do simanim as a good omen. Therefore,
it’s obvious that one must be cautious not to
become angry on these days. In addition to
the severe sin, one must make a good sign
for the new year. He should be happy and
trust in Hashem.”
People in Yerushalayim would say, “If an
apple dipped in honey is a sign of a sweet
year, certainly, if a person is a ‘sweet Yid,’ by
keeping a smile on his face and by greeting
others warmly, what better omen can there
be for a sweet new year?”
The Gemara (Brachos 18) relates a story of
a poor chassid who gave tzedakah to another
needy person on erev Rosh Hashanah during
a famine. His wife was upset at him for
giving away money they needed to tzedakah,
so he spent that night in the cemetery. In
the graveyard, he overheard a conversation
between two neshamos. One said, ‘My

friend, let’s float around the world and listen
in from behind the curtain [of heaven] to
know which punishments are decreed for the
coming year.’”
The second soul answered that she couldn’t
leave her grave because she was buried in a
mat of reeds.
The first soul went alone. When she returned,
she told her friend, “Heaven decreed that all
crops planted by the first rains of the season
will be ruined by hail.”
The chassid, having overheard their
conversation, planted his field by the second
rain. Everyone’s crop was destroyed in the
hail that year except for his.
The following year, on Rosh Hashanah night,
he returned to the cemetery and heard the
two souls conversing again. Once again, one
of them asked her friend to float around the
world to overhear the heaven decrees, and
the other replied that she couldn’t because
she was buried in a mat of reeds. So, one soul
traveled alone, and when she returned, she
said that she heard that this year, the crops
planted at the second rain will be destroyed
by a disease called shidafon.”
That year, everyone planted by the second
rain (because they remembered from the

previous year that only the chassid’s crops,
planted at the second rain, survived). But a
disease destroyed all the crops planted that
year at the second rain. The chassid planted
during the first rain, and his crops flourished.
When we think about this Gemara, we
understand that the chassid had terrible
simanim on Rosh Hashanah. We can’t
imagine worse simanim! His wife was
angry at him, and he slept in a cemetery!
But despite the ominous signs, he became
wealthy two years in a row! This is because
a person’s disposition and mood are even
more important than the foods he eats.
This chassid remained happy despite trying
circumstances, and his happiness brought
him success.