These are some of the important halachot for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Keep them simple and meaningful, and don’t overdo it — the goal is connection and joy, not exhaustion.
🕍 Mikvah & Preparation
- Mikvah is optional. It’s a minhag, not a halachic requirement.
- A clean swimming pool is kosher even for women all year round.
- Don’t risk health or hygiene by going to a dirty or unsafe mikvah.
📖 Praying and Time in Shul
- The main obligations: Shacharit, Musaf, Mincha, Maariv (and on Yom Kippur also Ne’ilah).
- The main mitzvah is the Shemoneh Esrei (Amidah) – that’s the core.
- You can pray in Hebrew even if you don’t fully understand it, as long as you look at a translation in English so you know what you are saying.
- You do not have to sit through every piyut, poem, and long part of the service. It’s fine to take breaks, go outside, or pray some parts at home.
- Bring something spiritual or inspiring to read during the long parts so you stay uplifted.
- If you need to go to the bathroom during davening — even in the middle of Shemoneh Esrei — you must stop, step back three steps, go, and then return and continue from where you left off.
- If the Aron Kodesh (Ark) is open and you can see the Torah scrolls, you are not required to stand. You only have to stand when the Torah scroll is being removed and carried through the shul to the bimah, until it is set down.
📯 Shofar
- Minimum requirement: 10 sounds — one of each of the three sets (Tashrat, Tashat, Tarat).
- The first set is 30 sounds — if you hear that (with the blessings), you are completely yotzei.
- The 100 sounds is a custom on the community, not a personal obligation.
- If you arrive later and the blessing was already said, you can make the blessing yourself before hearing the shofar. If you forget or there isn’t time, it’s still fine — the mitzvah of shofar is a Torah commandment, and the blessing is a rabbinic requirement. Even without the blessing, you have fulfilled the mitzvah of shofar.
📝 Vidui & Al Chet
- Required: One short vidui — “Aval Anachnu Va’avoteinu Chatanu.”
- The long Al Chet is a minhag — don’t say it if it doesn’t mean anything to you or if it brings negative feelings.
👞 Leather Shoes (Yom Kippur)
- On Yom Kippur you should not wear leather shoes, but if you need supportive shoes for walking or for health — even if they are leather — you may wear them.
🍽 Eating & Fasting
- Rosh Hashanah: Eat — it’s Yom Tov. Have breakfast if the davening is long.
- Yom Kippur: If your doctor says you should not fast, then do not fast — eat normally.
- Do not try to eat “less than a shiur” if your doctor says to eat — that can be dangerous.
- There is no restriction on what you eat — eat whatever you want, even ice cream just because you feel like it.
- Putting your health at risk by fasting is a far worse sin than eating on Yom Kippur.
🌊 Tashlich
- Tashlich is a nice minhag, not an obligation.
- Say just the two pesukim — don’t add pages of extra verses.
- Do not throw bread or food into the water (you are not allowed to feed fish that are not yours on Yom Tov).
- You can do Tashlich any day until Hoshana Rabbah — it doesn’t have to be on Rosh Hashanah itself.
🍎 Simanim & Shehechiyanu
- The Yehi Ratzon / simanim (apple in honey, pomegranate, etc.) are meant to lift your spirits and give you optimism for the new year.
- If they make you feel good and hopeful, do them. If not, skip them.
- Shehechiyanu: Say both nights, preferably on a new fruit the second night.
🚿 Showers & Personal Care
My father, Rav Yitzchak Abadi, was very strong that everyone should take showers on Yom Tov — there is nothing wrong with it. Showers today are not like the public bathhouses of ancient times, and halacha allows them. You can use hot water at any temperature you like, any type of soap or shampoo, squeeze the water out of your hair into a towel, and towel dry normally. You can brush your teeth as you do any day of the week. You can even brush your teeth on Yom Kippur, with toothpaste — not a problem.
📆 Tzom Gedalia
Tzom Gedalia, the fast after the second day of Rosh Hashanah, is not an obligation. It is a minhag. If you are not feeling well, taking medication, pregnant, or nursing — do not fast. If you are healthy you may fast, but if you are not in the mood you do not have to — it is basically optional.
Take these days seriously but with joy. The goal is to connect with Hashem, feel uplifted, and walk away renewed — not worn out.