Rosh Hashanah (Hebrew: ראש השנה, "head of the year,")
Rosh Hashanah is a Jewish holiday commonly referred to as the "Jewish New Year." It is observed on the first day of Tishrei, the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar, as ordained in the Torah, in . Rosh Hashanah is the first of the High Holidays or Yamim Noraim ("Days of Awe"), or Asseret Yemei Teshuva (The Ten Days of Repentance) which are days specifically set aside to focus on repentance that conclude with the holiday of Yom Kippur. Rosh Hashanah is the start of the civil year in the Hebrew calendar (one of four "new year" observances that define various legal "years" for different purposes).
It is the new year for people, animals, and legal contracts. The Mishnah also sets this day aside as the new year for calculating calendar years and sabbatical (shmita) and jubilee (yovel) years.
Rosh Hashanah commemorates the creation of man
whereas five days earlier, on 25 of Elul, marks the first day of
creation. The Mishnah, the core text of Judaism's oral Torah,
contains the first known reference to Rosh Hashanah as the "day of
judgment." In the Talmud tractate on Rosh Hashanah it states that
three books of account are opened on Rosh Hashanah, wherein the
fate of the wicked, the righteous, and those of an intermediate
class are recorded. The names of the righteous are immediately
inscribed in the book of life, and they are sealed "to live." The
middle class are allowed a respite of ten days, until Yom Kippur,
to repent and become righteous; the wicked are "blotted out of the
book of the living." (via Wikipedia)
