Shana Tova Rosh Hashanah Greetings


Rosh Hashanah celebrates the Jewish new year, and like the secular new year, the most common greeting for the holiday is “Happy New Year.”

Jews will often greet one another on the holiday with the rough Hebrew equivalent, shana tovah (pronounced shah-NAH toe-VAH), which literally means “good year.”

Shana tovah is actually a shortened version of a longer greeting: L’shana tovah u’metukah (pronounced l’shah-NAH toe-VAH ooh-meh-too-KAH), which literally means “for a good and sweet year.” But when greeting people in person, the shorter version is more common. And like the secular new years greeting, shana tovah is often used in the days preceding and following Rosh Hashanah, as well as on the holiday itself.

Other generic Jewish holiday greetings are also used on Rosh Hashanah. These include chag sameach (pronounced chahg sah-MAY-ach), which literally means “happy holiday.” And if you meet someone on Rosh Hashanah itself, you might say gut yontiff

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A new year is a time for celebration in any culture. Rosh Hashanah greeting cards from The Best Card Company are a creative and striking gift to get the Jewish New Year underway. These distinct printed cards recognize the start of another year for people and animals with bright colors and appropriate symbols such as pomegranates, stars of David, golden honey pots and ancient parchment scripts. Each one either has “Happy New Year” in both English and Hebrew text or the customary “Shana Tova” greeting that offers good wishes and blessings.

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Happy New Year!

The most appropriate way to greet someone in English on Rosh Hashanah would be to say, “Happy New Year!” If you aren’t Jewish, it might feel strange to use that phrase in September or October and not January 1st, but I guarantee that your Jewish friends will feel the love. And just like we continue to say Happy New Year for the first three weeks of January or so, you can Happy New Year for a couple weeks after Rosh Hashanah ends.

Psst: Can you say Happy Rosh Hashanah?

It’s best to stick with Happy New Year but I guarantee the person you greet will appreciate the sincere wish regardless. Happy holidays (plural because of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur) is a little better but still not quite as good of an option as Happy New Year.

Shana Tovah or L’shanah Tovah

לְשָׁנָה טוֹבָה or שָׁנָה טוֹבָה

TRANSLITERATION BMA STYLE: ShAH-nAH TOH-vAH OR LEH-shAH-nAH TOH-vAH

You’ll hear both of these phrases quite a lot surrounding the Rosh Hashanah holiday, so I wanted to explain the difference between the two.

Shana Tova translates directly to good year and is the best and most succinct way to greet someone in Hebrew on Rosh Hashanah.

L’shana Tova is the abbreviated version of the greeting below “l’shanah tovah tikateivu v’teichateimu.” I think that a lot of people don’t realize this and believe that adding the “L” to the beginning is more correct than Shana Tovah, but it’s not. L’shana Tova is not wrong, but it also isn’t more correct than simply saying Shana Tovah. Also, when the letter LAMED appears as a prefix to a word in Hebrew – in this case Shana – we translate to either “to” or “for.” In other words, to a good year!

(May you have a good and sweet new year!)

שָׁנָה טוֹבָה וּמְתוּקָה

TRANSLITERATION BMA STYLE: ShAH-nAH TOH-vAH OO-mEH-tOO-kAH

This traditional Rosh Hashanah greeting proves you are “in the know” even if the person who you are saying this to has no idea what “u’metukah” actually means. They will most likely have heard it before in synagogue. We dip apples into honey to express our hope for a sweet and fruitful new year in a symbolic way, and this greeting is perfect to acknowledge that promise in a verbal way.

(May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year!)

לְשָׁנָה טוֹבָה תִּכָּתֵבוּ וְתֵחָתֵמוּ

TRANSLITERATION BMA STYLE: LEH-shAH-nAH TOH-vAH TEE-kAH-tAY-vOO VEH-tAY-chAH-tAY-mOO

This particular greeting for Rosh Hashanah is ambitious, so you probably only want to use it if you are speaking to someone who is very religious or you are in a situation where you are wanting to show off your Hebraic knowledge. This is not a casual greeting and I think some Jews that don’t speak Hebrew would not even know what you were saying to them past the l’shanah tovah part.

That being said, this particular Rosh Hashanah greeting really embodies the spirit of the holiday. Not only is it the Jewish New Year, but it is the beginning of an important period of time where you must repent for your sins and ask for forgiveness so that you will be inscribed in the Book of Life for the upcoming year. And this particular greeting for Rosh Hashanah encompasses all of that.

Psst: Can you say Chag Sameach on Rosh Hashanah?

It’s complicated. Chag Sameach means Happy Holidays and to some extent has become a common way to greet one another on the many Jewish holidays throughout the year. Technically, however, Chag Sameach is meant to only be used on the three pilgrimage festivals: Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot. 

Gut Yontif

We can say this Yiddish greeting on Rosh Hashanah because it is a Yom Tov holiday. Yom Tov, which literally translates to good day but can also mean festival day, refers to the annual dates on the Jewish calendar in which the Torah prohibits work. Yom Tov lasts for the first two days of Rosh Hashanah, so you can say Gut Yontif on either of those two days.

Were these greetings for the Jewish New Year helpful to you? Learn more Hebrew on the BMA blog!


Appropriate Greetings for Rosh Hashanah

Sometimes people will greet each other with different versions of “Happy New Year” in Hebrew. The most common Rosh Hashanah greeting that is heard (which means “May you have a good year”), is:

L’shana Tovah

There are also versions of this greeting that incorporate one of the metaphors of Rosh Hashanah known as “The Book of Life.” The tradition imagines that at this time of year, while we are doing our own personal moral self-evaluation, God is preparing to inscribe us in a heavenly Book of Life for a year of whatever quality we have merited through our actions.

Most Jews don’t take this idea literally, by the way, so don’t worry if you’re not sure how you feel about this religious metaphor. Anyway, you might hear people say the following Rosh Hashanah greetings:

L’shana Tovah Tee-kah-tay-voo

“May you be inscribed in the Book of Life for a good year.”

Or

L’shana Tovah Tee-kah-tay-voo v’tee-kha-tay-moo

“May you be inscribed and sealed in the Book of Life for a good year.”

As the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur approaches, many Jews offer greetings expressing the hope that people will have an easy fast, or that they will be sealed in the Book of Life for a good year. You might hear:

Tzom Kal

“May you have an easy fast.”

Or

Khah-tee-mah Tovah

“May you be sealed for good [in the Book of Life].”

It can be fun for people new to the Rosh Hashanah holiday to practice these greetings, which are also suitable to use for Yom Kippur! But rest assured that you can’t go wrong with “Happy New Year” in English, at any time throughout the Rosh Hashanah season.


The holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are traditionally a time for introspection, asking for and giving forgiveness, resolving to do better, and praying for a healthy and happy year to come.

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is a time of prayer, family gatherings, special meals and sweet tasting foods.

Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is the most solemn day of the Jewish year and is a day of fasting, reflection and repentance.

Through testimony, artifacts, photos, cards and prayer books from Yad Vashem’s collections, we offer a glimpse into some of the ways that Jews before, during and immediately after the Holocaust marked these special days.

New Year's card that Gitta sent from Warsaw to her husband Schlomo Gorfinkel, in Paris, September 26, 1930<

Jacob Hijman Marcus wrote to his grandparents. Amsterdam, 19 September 1941.
Opa and Oma,
I wasn't a good boy every day. Sometimes I was naughty, but from now on I'll be a good boy all the time. Best wishes for the New Year. I hope that this year and many more years will be happy. From your grandson,
Jaap
Jacob Hijman Marcus wrote these words to his grandparents in Amsterdam in 1941, on the eve of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. On 23 October 1944, ten-year-old Jacob was deported to his death in Auschwitz. His grandparents, mother and father all survived.

Synagogue Schedule and Policies for the High Holiday Services in Brno, Czechoslovakia, 1941

Poland, 1938, a Rosh Hashanah card from the Stepak girls

A Calendar for the Jewish Year 5704 (1943-44) from the Theresienstadt Ghetto

Druja, Poland, Meir Levitanus (the submitter) and his sister Chaya Miriam Marla, 1941

Machzor for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur printed in Sulzbach in 1795

Bergen-Belsen, Germany, a postcard with a Happy New Year blessing from Zelda and Mordechai Perel, 20/9/1949<

Meor HaGolah (Light of the Exile) Yeshiva in Rome in 1948. Many of the students of the yeshiva were Holocaust survivors. Pictured on the card is Israel Milkow, a student in the yeshiva from Slonim, Poland. During the Holocaust Israel was in a Russian orphanage in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Israel submitted Pages of Testimony to Yad Vashem commemorating his family that was murdered in the Holocaust.

This card was sent from Eschwege, Germany on September 23, 1947


The High Holidays are a blend of joy and solemnity, feasting and fasting, prayer and introspection. The High Holidays are properly referred to as the Yomim Noraim (Days of Awe), and include Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and the ten days in between. During these ten days, it is customary to greet one another in the Synagogue with the appropriate holiday greeting. Each day has its own traditional sayings.

Rosh Hashanah

Rosh Hashanah is a celebration that marks the beginning of the Jewish new year. It begins on the first day of the Hebrew month "Tishrei". The name Rosh Hashanah means "head of the year". In the Bible, it is referred to as Yom Zikaron (Day of Remembrance) and Yom Teruah (Day of Shofar).

Rosh Hashanah is a special day to go to the Synagogue and to celebrate with friends and family. The day is spent in prayer and contemplation, and food plays a significant role as well. Although it is not a Shabbat (Saturday), work and labor is avoided because the day is like a Shabbat in that regard.

Greetings: There are several ways to wish your friends a happy new year. A few of the more common greetings include:

• L'Shana tova: Wishing your friends happy new year is as easy as saying L'Shana Tova, which means "For a good year" in Hebrew.

• Shanah tovah u'metuka: If you want to express the same sentiment but more elaborately, this phrase means "A good and sweet year."

• L'Shanah tovah tikatevu v'tichatem: A Rosh Hashanah greeting that is even more specific, this one means, "May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year."

Note ~ If it is not Saturday, please do not say "Shabbat Shalom."

Yom Kippur

Greetings: There are several ways to wish your friends well on Yom Kippur. Some of the more common greetings include:

• G'mar chatimah Tovah: This is the traditional Yom Kippur greeting. It means, "May you be sealed for a good year [in the Book of Life]."

• Tzom Kal: Yom Kippur is a fast day, so this Hebrew greeting is appropriate for wishing your friends an easy fast.

• L'Shana Tovah: This Rosh Hashanah greeting can also be used for Yom Kippur because they are both part of the 10 Days of Awe, which runs from Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur.

Note ~ If it is not Saturday, please do not say "Shabbat Shalom."

General Greetings

If you are unfamiliar with Hebrew and [for that reason] feel uncomfortable saying the greetings above, there are two simpler greetings that are equally appropriate: Chag Semeach, which means "happy holidays" - or "Yom Tov", which means "good day". Of course, all of these can also be said in English. Nevertheless, these simple greetings are more general and can be used on Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, or any other holiday!

Again, if it isn't Saturday, please don't say Shabbat Shalom 🙂


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