Rosh hashanah

Hello Rabbi, I have a few questions about food during the High Holidays. We have a fish but not meat eater. 1. Is anything forbidden? (Nuts, vinegar etc) 2. May one eat eggs at the erev Rosh Hashanah meal? 3. May one eat fish at the erev Rosh Hashanah meal? (Either a fillet, or gefilte fish without horseradish)? Thank you?

Shalom!

Thank you for your question.

There is indeed much literature on what to eat and not to eat during the High Holidays.

The most famous food to avoid is nuts. This includes food that includes nuts in their ingredients like many chocolates or cokes. There is some discussion as to exactly which nuts are included the advisory ban, but hazelnuts, walnuts, peanuts and almonds are incuded, however if they are  mixed into a cake and the taste of the nuts is not detectable one can be lenient.

reasons are cited for the nuts ban. One reason is that nuts increase saliva in one’s mouth making it difficult to pronounce one’s prayers properly. The other reason is because the Hebrew word for nuts is “egoz” which has the same numerical value as “sin” which, of course, is a thought and thee we want to avoid over the High holidays.

Eating sweet foods on Rosh Hashana is a well-known custom (which is why the Rosh Hashana meals begins with an apple dipped in honey), and at the same time, one is to avoid bitter and sour foods. This is because we want to be blessed with a “sweet” year and not a “bitter” one.

There is a lesser-known custom, attributed to the Vilna Gaon, not to eat grapes on Rosh Hashana based on the teaching that the Tree of Knowledge from which Adam and Eve sinned was a grape vine.

Hence, fish is fine (and encouraged, in fact, as it is one of the symbolic foods!), gefilte fish is also fine….just skip the horseradish.

OC 584 and commentaries; Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 129:9.