How to Host a Rosh Hashanah Seder: Bring More Meaning To Your Holiday Meal

Shana Tovah! As we step into the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah invites us to pause, reflect, and begin again with intention. One beautiful way to mark the occasion is with a simple Rosh Hashanah seder, a ritual of light, wine or juice, blessings, and reflection that brings depth to your celebration.

This short seder offers a meaningful structure through four symbolic toasts. It’s accessible, spiritual, and designed to help you connect.

How to Host a Rosh Hashanah Seder

Hosting your own Rosh Hashanah seder can be simple and beautiful. You can choose to do this ritual alone, or with friends or family. It can either be part of your Rosh Hashanah dinner or a separate ritual all on its own.

Why Try a Simple Rosh Hashanah Seder?

This format is perfect for:

1. Small gatherings or solo observance
2. Interfaith or multi-tradition families
3. Friend or Rosh Chodesh groups loooking for meaningful discussion
4. Adding structure to your High Holiday meal
5. Meaningful moments of reflection and gratitude

It’s a powerful, gentle way to mark the new year with intention.

What You’ll Need:

1. Festival candles

2. Wine or grape juice

3. A quiet space or festive table

4. The Simple Rosh Hashanah Seder booklet, available as a free download on Recustom

5. Friends, family, or just yourself

Follow our guide below, and then download our Simple Rosh Hashanah Seder Booklet to follow along or share with friends.

Candlelighting: Ushering in Sacred Time

Begin by lighting two candles, bringing light and sacredness into your space and home.

Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Ruler of the Universe, who makes us holy with commandments and invites us to light festival candles.

As you light the candles, take a moment to be present. The glow marks the transition into sacred time, a space for renewal, reflection, and hope.

Blessing Over Wine: Welcoming Sweetness and Joy

Raise your glass with the traditional blessing over wine, a symbol of joy and abundance.

Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha’olam, borei p’ri hagafen.

With this blessing, we invite sweetness into the year ahead. May this moment be one of gratitude and grounding.

The Four Toasts of the Rosh Hashanah Seder

As you move through your Seder, scatter in four toasts over wine or grape juice (or another drink of your choosing). Each of these toasts connects to a core theme of Rosh Hashanah, offering space for thought, prayer, or discussion. Get the full Seder guide with all four toasts and blessings for free on Recustom, or use the excerpts below.

Toast 1: Reawakening, Yom T’ruah

Rosh Hashanah is also known as Yom T’ruah, the Day of the Shofar’s Blast. The sound calls us to wake up, to ourselves, to the world, and to what really matters.

This toast reminds us that even in struggle, there is the possibility of connection, response, and breath.

Discussion prompts:

1. What moments this past year made you feel awake or fully alive?

2. When did you feel called to pay attention or make a change?

3. What "narrow places" have you moved through, and what helped you breathe again?

Toast 2: Reflection, Judgment, and Renewal

Rosh Hashanah is traditionally seen as a day of judgment, and it is also a day of becoming. We’re invited to reflect with compassion and hold ourselves gently as we ask: Who am I, and who am I becoming?

This toast is about facing ourselves with honesty and hope, trusting that reflection can lead to growth.

Discussion Prompts:

1. How have you grown or changed this past year?

2. What parts of yourself are you most proud of?

3. What is one quality or intention you want to nurture this coming year?

Toast 3: Remembrance, Yom HaZikaron

Rosh Hashanah is also Yom HaZikaron, the Day of Remembrance. We hold close the people and moments that shaped us, honoring memory as a sacred part of renewal.

Let this toast be a moment of quiet memory, gratitude, and presence.

Discussion Prompts:

1. Who are you remembering as you enter the new year, and what did they teach you?

2. What memories from the past year do you want to carry forward?

3. How does remembrance shape your sense of identity or purpose?

Toast 4: Recreation, Beginning Again

The new year is a spiritual opportunity to begin again. We are not bound by who we were yesterday.

With this toast, we celebrate the creative power of starting fresh, letting the year ahead be full of new possibilities.

Discussion Prompts:

1. What would starting fresh look like for you this year?

2. What possibilities excite you right now?

3. How can you support yourself or others in a new beginning?

Reflection Questions for Your Rosh Hashanah Table

You can either stop your Seder there, or continue on the theme of self reflection with these additional discussion prompts. These two questions can open meaningful conversations or quiet contemplation:

1. Where did I give my energy and care this past year?

2. Who or what do I want to carry in memory as I move forward?

Use these questions with our printable Rosh Hashanah Seder guide to help guide your ritual.

Closing Blessing

As you conclude your seder, offer this blessing to seal the moment:

May this new year be filled with awakening, remembrance, peace, and sweet renewal.

L’shanah tovah!

Shana Tovah, may your year be sweet, reflective, and full of renewal.