Rosh Hashanah, marking the start of the new year on the Jewish calendar, will be here soon, so it’s time to plan the menu for the annual feast. This year, go beyond the traditional apple-dipped-in-honey! There are plenty of symbolic foods that can help us reflect on the year that has passed and set expectations for the year ahead.

Among Ashkenazic Jews, the apple is still the most popular – reminding us of Adam and Eve as we commemorate the creation of the world. But you don’t have to limit yourself to honey as a symbol of sweetness. How about substituting caramel, maple syrup, or (my favorite) melted chocolate?

Many families add a rimon, or pomegranate, to their holiday table. Pomegranates allegedly contain 613 seeds, the same number of mitzvot listed in the Torah. Just as the fruit is full of seeds, we hope we'll be full of good deeds in the coming year.

Sephardic Jews traditionally eat a variety of other fruits and vegetables, known as simanim, or signs, each accompanied by a wish that is a play on the name of the particular food. Most of these wishes are for physical safety, victory over enemies, prosperity, and other basic concerns in primitive societies, but as these simanim have gained wider popularity in recent years, Jews have taken some liberty with more modern interpretations.

As an example, the gezer, Hebrew for carrot, represents g'zar din, Hebrew for decree or judgement. Eating a carrot on Rosh Hashanah reflected a desire that any negative decrees against us would be nullified. Today, we are unlikely to be facing fatal judgements, but we can eat a gezer to express hope that we will exercise our own good judgement in the new year.

The Hebrew word for beets, selek, is a form of the word lisalek, to banish. In olden times, Jews prayed that their enemies would be physically banished. But if we play with the English spelling of the word, maybe eating beets will help us find our own inner beat, or perhaps inspire us to beat a path to justice.

Another traditional siman is the head of a fish (vegans prefer to substitute a head of cabbage or lettuce), symbolizing our hope that we are more like a head than a tail of an animal -- charging forward rather than lagging behind. Our more modern sensibilities might point us toward hoping for good leaders in our communities, or confidence in our own leadership abilities.

The word for leek, karti, is related to the word kareyt, meaning to cut off. This food was eaten with the hope that “those who wish to hurt us will be cut off or cut down.” If we want to put a more positive spin on our leeks, we can wish that we not be cut off from our community and friends.

Try adding some new items to your Rosh Hashanah table and creating some punny new blessings of your own. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• May we have many RAISINS to celebrate in the new year.
• Let it be a PEASful year.
• LETTUCE be successful at work and earn a higher CELERY.
• May our PEARants and kids and siblings be healthy.

I hope that 5782 will be a year in which we show that we CARABout our neighbors and that we CHERRYish our loved ones.

Shana tova u’metuka! Have a good and sweet year!