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ESPECIALLY if you’re invited to celebrate the New Year at a Rosh Hashana dinner!!!

First you need to know that they get to celebrate New Year’s twice, once with the rest of us at a party with no real food and too much cheap champagne and then when their own Hebrew calendar indicates the date of the new year and they celebrate this day with family and friends and lots of good food.  This is the year 5771 -just in case anyone should ask you at the table.

Balaboste: A good homemaker, a gracious host and of course the woman to whose home you have been invited.  This is important to remember.

Bissel: A little bit, a taste.  Even if you’ve had enough to eat, if your hostess wants to give you more, say “well just a bissel”.

Challah Bread: An eggy doughy bread – a special recipe bread for holidays, shaped so you can tear a piece off easily – and then you can dip in honey for a sweet new year!

Gilfelte Fish: Not really a fish but rather a combination of ground fish- served with horseradish, often as the first course.

Mishpocheh: Family- as in the whole mishpocheh might be present this meal.

Mishegas: Craziness – so if you hear one person say to the other “you’re mishegas”, stay out of that conversation.

Nosh: Nibble – The hostess may offer you some tidbits before dinner, something to nosh on.

Shofar: A ram’s horn -During the New Year service, a prayer is read and the ram’s horn is blown.

Schmutz: A little dirt or smear-When one of the kids spills something on their clothes at the table – “oh it’s just a little schmutz”.

L’Shanah Tovah: “For a good year” – This is the new year greeting that you will hear all night long.