Rosh Hashanah

1 and 2 Tishri (September or October)

The pineapple groans under her sharp knife like a live fish. Its juice, like white blood, trickles onto my fingers. I lick them. It is a tart-sweet taste.

Is this the taste of the New Year?

—BELLA CHAGALL, BURNING LIGHTS

Some of the townspeople stood on the wooden bridge reciting the “tashlikh”; others lined the river banks. Young women took out their handkerchiefs and shook out their sins. Boys playfully emptied their pockets to be sure no transgressions remained.

—ISAAC BASHEVIS SINGER, “TASHLIKH”