random thoughts from Rosh Hashana

A Guest Post by Rafi G.
(originally posted on LII)

Here are some random things that happened on Rosh Hashana that stuck out, some of them funny, some of them not..

• During the Torah reading, the ba'al kriya mistakenly said "Zareich" instead of "Zar'acha". Both mean your child(ren), but "zareich" is the feminine usage (children of a woman), while zar'acha is the male usage. When the mistake was made, my 7 year old immediately laughed (I was surprised he even noticed it), and said "he said Avraham is a girl!"
• We woke up the second day to find a bird flitting around the house. I could not find an open window, and could not figure out how it got in, but I opened the door and tried to chase it out. The poor thing flew into a ceiling fan and hurt itself. It then hopped out of the room and then flew (at low altitude) out the door I opened for it.
• Kids enjoyed tashlich as we went down into the fields, with many others from the neighborhood, on the edge of RBS to a well/spring (that doubles as a mikva) in the middle of a field. It made it seem like a tiyul, so that was fun.
• We all enjoyed the simanim, from the carrots and beans to the sheep's head, all except for the fish head. Highlights were, of course, the apple in honey and the fish candies.
  
• I am not really sure that getting the exotic fruit for she'he'chyanu (this years was a gauva rather than the quince) would really qualify, on its own, for the bracha. Nobody really likes any of these fruits they sell for Rosh Hashana, and we seem to eat it in nibbles. It is a good thing we are making the she'he'chyanu anyway and not just for the new fruit.
• During my post-Rosh Hashana run (I know, these were supposed to be thoughts from Rosh Hashana, but I think motzei also counts), I noticed a big difference between RBS and BS. RBS is pretty much a dead town. The streets were quiet after the holiday - I guess everyone is washing dishes and taking showers. In BS things were happening. People were out all over the place. Burgers Bar was jam packed, the pizza shop nearby was busy, other food establishments were getting ready to open, people were milling about, etc.

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