New Year, New Knife

A new knife for Rosh Hashanah: Understanding an enigmatic tradition

There is an ancient tradition to buy a new, sharpened knife - in honor of Rosh Hashana.

New Year and knives? What's the connection (or shaychus, as you'd say in Yiddish)?

Chassidic tradition says that the Hebrew word for knife - sakin - has the same numerical value (gematria) as the phrase v'nomar lefanav shir chadash - and we will say before Him a new song.

Some say the sharpened knife symbolizes our hope for a year of clarity and decisiveness - cutting away the old and dull, making way for a fresh start.

Others connect it to the challah and the round loaves of Rosh Hashanah, sliced with a knife made new for the occasion.

And there are those who point to the deeper idea that a knife both severs and prepares - it separates us from the year gone by, and readies the sustenance of the year to come.