Yehi Ratzonim (Symbolic Foods of Rosh Hashanah)
The Sephardic-Mizrachi 12-food Rosh Hashanah seder, each food eaten with a Hebrew-Aramaic pun calling down a specific blessing for the year.
On Rosh Hashanah night, many Sephardic and Middle Eastern families hold a short "seder" of symbolic foods — dates, leek, gourd, beans, pomegranate, the head of a fish, and more. Over each, they recite a brief "yehi ratzon" ("may it be Your will") that puns on the food's Hebrew or Aramaic name to ask for a specific blessing in the year ahead. It is a playful, hopeful way of tasting one's prayers.
Key passages(1)
Keritot · Anonymous (Stammaim, redactors of the Bavli) · 450 CE
בָּבוּאָה לְבָבוּאָה דְבָבוּאָה, נִידַּע דְּאָתֵי לְבֵיתֵיהּ. וְלָאו מִילְּתָא הִיא, דִּילְמָא חָלְשָׁא דַּעְתֵּיהּ, וּמִתְּרַע מַזָּלֵיהּ.
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