The lengthy preparations for the two Days of Judgment come to a climax on the evening of Rosh HaShana. In the early morning hours before Rosh HaShana, or during the preceding night, the Ashkenazic custom is to recite an exceptionally long service of penitential prayers [Selihot]. This night is sometimes called “the night of remember the covenant” [leil zekhor habrit], an allusion to the opening phrase of one of the liturgical poems that is recited: “Remember the covenant of Abraham and the binding of Isaac.”

As on every festival eve, Tahanun is not recited in the prayers of this day.

During the month of Elul, the shofar is sounded every morning after prayers. However, on the day before Rosh HaShana (the last day of Elul) the shofar is not blown, in order to create a separation between the custom-based shofar blasts of the month of Elul and the obligatory blasts of Rosh HaShana.

After the morning prayers, it is customary to perform the rite of the Annulment of Vows [Hatarat Nedarim]. This annulment serves to release a person from vows he may have uttered over the course of the past year but has forgotten to fulfill. Among these vows are included praiseworthy customs that one began to observe on a regular basis, which then automatically took on the status of a vow and became obligatory for him, even if he did not intend to undertake such a vow. The vows are annulled before Rosh HaShana begins so that one can start the new year without the burden of these vows and without concern over one’s failure to fulfill them.

Among Sephardic communities it is customary to perform the Annulment of Vows on other occasions: on the nineteenth of Av (forty days before Rosh HaShana), and on Rosh Hodesh Elul (forty days before Yom Kippur). Some annul their vows on the day before Yom Kippur as well.

The Annulment of Vows is performed before three men (some do it in the presence of ten), who serve for this purpose as a “court.” The wording of the Annulment of Vows, in the section below, can also be found in standard prayer books, the festival prayer book [mahzor], and in books of Selihot. In essence, it expresses the regret of the one seeking the annulment of the vows that he has accepted upon himself without explicitly stating that they were made without the force of a vow. The members of the “court” listen to the request and respond by annulling the past vows. In the second stage of the annulment, the one seeking the annulment issues a declaration that he wishes to cancel in advance the validity of all vows or virtuous customs that he may accept upon himself over the course of the following year, and in some versions the “court” approves the request and gives it halakhic validity.

Women fulfill the annulment of vows by reciting the Kol Nidrei prayer on the night of Yom Kippur. A married woman can also ask her husband to annul her vows together with his own vows.

This is the standard formula of the Annulment of Vows (there are minor textual variations for the different communities):

“Hear me now my masters, expert judges:

“Any vow or oath or prohibition or restriction or ban that I have vowed or sworn, whether while awake or in a dream, or that I swore by one of the holy names of God that may not be erased, or by the Tetragrammaton, blessed be He, or any nazirite-vow that I have accepted upon myself, even a nazirite-vow like that of Samson, or any proscription, even a proscription against deriving benefit from something, whether I proscribed it for myself or for others, through any expression of prohibition, whether using the language of prohibition or restriction or ban, or any commitment, even to perform a mitzva, that I accepted upon myself, whether through the language of a vow or the language of a voluntary undertaking or the language of an oath or the language of nazirite-vows, or any other such language, and even those undertaken by handshake agreement, whether it was any vow or voluntary undertaking, or virtuous custom for the fulfillment of a mitzva that I have practiced, or any utterance that I have verbalized, or any vow or acceptance of an obligation to perform a mitzva that I have undertaken mentally in the heart, or some virtuous practice or conduct that I have performed three times without specifying that it should not have the force of a vow, whether it relates to myself or others, both those known to me and those I have already forgotten – with regard to all of them, I hereby express my retroactive regret at having undertaken these vows, and ask and seek their annulment from your eminences. For I am afraid lest I become entangled, Heaven forbid, in the transgressions of the violation of vows, oaths, nazirite-vows, bans, prohibitions, restrictions, and agreements.

“Now, I do not regret, Heaven forbid, the performance of the good deeds I have done. Rather, I regret having taken them upon myself in the language of a vow, oath, nazirite-vow, prohibition, ban, restriction, agreement, or acceptance in the heart, and I regret the fact that I did not say, ‘I am doing this act without accepting it upon myself as a vow or oath or nazirite-vow or ban or prohibition or acceptance in the heart.’ Therefore, I request release from all of them, and I express regret for all that has been mentioned, whether these actions were in matters pertaining to money, matters pertaining to the body, or matters pertaining to the soul. In all these matters I regret the use of the language of vow, oath, nazirite-vow, prohibition, ban, or acceptance in the heart.

“Now, according to the letter of the law, one who regrets and seeks annulment of a vow must specify the vow. But please be aware, my masters, that it is impossible for me to specify them, for they are numerous, and that I am not requesting annulment for vows that may not be annulled. Therefore, may it be considered by you as though I had specified them.”

The “court” responds with the following declaration, which is recited three times:

“All shall be permitted to you, all is forgiven you, all is released for you. There is no vow, oath, nazirite-vow, ban, prohibition, penalty, excommunication, or curse here. Rather, there is pardon, forgiveness, and atonement here. And just as the earthly court has permitted, so may these [vows] be permitted by the heavenly court.”

The individual requesting annulment now adds the following disclaimer:

“I hereby submit a disclaimer before you: I cancel from now onward all vows and all oaths, nazirite-vows, prohibitions, bans, agreements, and acceptances in the heart that I may accept upon myself, whether awake or in a dream, with the exception of vows to fast undertaken at the time of the afternoon prayer [of the previous day]. If I forget the conditions of this disclaimer and take any vows from this day onward, I regret them as of now, and stipulate that they should all be null and void, without effect or validity, and they shall have no force whatsoever. With regard to them all, I express regret over them from now and forever.”

According to some customs, in response, the “court” recites the following three times:

“All of these are permitted to you, all are released for you, all are forgiven you. And just as we have permitted [these vows] for you in the earthly court, so may these [vows] be permitted by the heavenly court. And may all curses be transformed for us into goodness and a blessing, as it is written: ‘And the Lord your God transformed for you the curse into a blessing, because the Lord your God loved you’” (Deuteronomy 23:6).

The following halakha applies to the day before Rosh HaShana at the conclusion of a Sabbatical Year.

By Torah law (Deuteronomy 15:1-2), the Sabbatical Year effects the release from all interpersonal monetary debts. In order to ensure that people would not refrain from lending money to those in need for fear of losing their money in the Sabbatical Year, the Sages instituted the prozbol, a legal transfer of the responsibility for the collection of one’s debts to the court, a step which prevents debts from becoming canceled.

Ideally, a lender should sign a prozbol document, which includes the signature of three men, who can function in this regard as a court. In various locales, the local rabbinate distributes prozbol documents. Nowadays one can also print a prozbol document from the internet. In case of need, one can make do with a verbal statement of the following formula, recited in the presence of three men:

“I hereby transfer to you all debts that I am owed, so that I may exact payment for them whenever I choose.”

There is a disagreement with regard to the proper time to make out a prozbol. The common practice is to do so before Rosh HaShana at the conclusion of the Sabbatical Year. However, there is an opinion that the proper time is before Rosh HaShana at the beginning of the Sabbatical Year. Some people fill out a prozbol before Rosh HaShana at the beginning and end of the Sabbbatical Year in order to fulfill this requirement according to all opinions. It is customary to do so immediately after the ceremony of the Annulment of Vows, when three men have already gathered into a makeshift court.

Some have the custom to visit a cemetery on the day before Rosh HaShana, in order to invoke the merit of the righteous individuals who are buried there, and thereby arouse divine mercy ahead of the day of judgment.

Many men immerse themselves in a ritual bath [mikva] on the eve of Rosh HaShana, in order to enter the new year in a state of ritual purity.

It is customary to get a haircut and to wear festive clothing for Rosh HaShana. Although these are somber days of judgment, we are confident that God will have mercy upon us and vindicate us in judgment. For the same reason, it is customary to eat festive meals on Rosh HaShana, just as on other festivals.

There are certain symbolic foods, called simanim, that are eaten on the night of the festival. These should be bought and prepared in advance of the holiday. Conversely, there are certain foods that it is customary to avoid eating on Rosh HaShana (see below, p. 141).

Before the holiday, one should light a candle from which he can transfer a flame during the festival for lighting the festival candles on the second night and for cooking if needed. It is best to use a candle that will remain burning for forty-eight hours. One who does not have such a candle should light one that lasts twenty-four hours, and if he will need a flame on the second day, he should light another twenty-four hour candle from that first candle before it expires.

When Rosh HaShana falls on Thursday and Friday, one must perform a procedure called eruv tavshilin before the festival. This procedure, which entails designating some bread and a cooked dish to be eaten on the Shabbat that immediately follows the festival, allows one to cook on the second day of the festival (through the transfer of fire from an existing flame) in honor of the approaching Shabbat. Likewise, the eruv tavshilin permits one to light Shabbat candles on the second day of Rosh HaShana before the start of Shabbat. One should make sure that the candle that is lit on the eve of the festival is large enough to remain burning until the time for lighting the Shabbat candles.

As mentioned above, Rosh HaShana is a festival, and therefore all the laws of the other festivals apply here as well. For more details on this topic, as well as how to perform an eruv tavshilin, see the chapters dealing with the halakhot of festivals (pp. 464, 474).

When the first day of Rosh HaShana is on a weekday, the candles may be lit before the festival begins, as is done for Shabbat. Alternatively, they can even be lit after the festival begins, as long as they are lit from an existing flame. However, when the festival occurs on Shabbat, the Shabbat/festival candles must be lit before sunset.

When lighting the candles on the first night of Rosh HaShana, two blessings are recited:

“Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who sanctified us through His commandments, and commanded us to light a candle for the festival (on Shabbat conclude instead: …for Shabbat and for the festival).”

“Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who has given us life, sustained us, and brought us to this time.”

Further reading: For more details on the halakhot of candle lighting, see p. 381.