Each year, in synagogues around the world, the recitation of Unetaneh Tokef on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur marks a crescendo of the high holy day prayer service:
On Rosh Hashanah it is inscribed,
And on Yom Kippur it is sealed.
How many shall pass away and how many shall be born,
Who shall live and who shall die,
Who shall reach the full measure of their days and who shall not.
On today’s daf, the Talmud describes an omen that can predict whether a person will in fact live to see another year:
Rabbi Ami said: This person who seeks to know if he will complete his year or if he will not, let him light a lamp during the ten days that are between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in a house in which wind does not blow. If its light continues, he knows that he will complete his year.
According to Rabbi Ami, there’s a surefire way to tell if you’ve been inscribed in the Book of Life. All you have to do is light a lamp in a non-drafty house during the Ten Days of Repentance, and if it doesn’t go out, you’re in the clear. Hallelujah!
The 16th-century Polish commentator Rabbi Shmuel Eidels, known as the Maharsha, explains why a lamp in particular is a credible portent: Proverbs 20:27 notes that “the flame of the Lord is the soul of a person,” and so a steady flame is a sign of continued life.
The Gemara shares other omens:
And one who seeks to conduct a business venture and wishes to know if he will succeed or if he will not succeed, let him raise a rooster. If it grows fat and healthy, he will succeed.
One who seeks to embark on a journey and wishes to know if he will return and come to his home or if he will not, let him go to a dark house. If he sees the shadow of a shadow, he shall know that he will return and come home.
Want to know if your business will thrive? Just raise a rooster and see if it grows fat or not. Want to know if you’ll come back safely from a journey? If you see a penumbra around your shadow in a dimly lit house, you’re golden. If this all seems a little suspicious, you’re not alone. The sages agree, noting:
This is not a significant matter. Perhaps he will be disheartened (if the omen fails to appear), and his fortune will suffer.
Omens can be faulty portents, say the rabbis. After all, it’s possible that raising a sickly rooster or failing to see a secondary shadow in a poorly lit home will worry a person enough that they lose focus and their ventures fail because of their concern, not because of any magical occurrence.
Speaking of magic, hasn’t the Torah already told us that divination is forbidden? Leviticus 19:26 clearly states: “You shall not practice divination or soothsaying.” Why, then, is it even allowable to interpret omens in this way? Once again, the Maharsha comes to explain that giving credence to a good omen is simply a way of underscoring God’s beneficence towards humans. Bad omens are another matter.
According to the Maharsha, these do constitute divination and are therefore prohibited. This view explains why, on our daf, Rabbi Ami (and everyone else) notes only the positive outcome of a portent (e.g., that if the light burns steadily the person will survive the year) without stating the negative corollary — that if the flame goes out, the person will die.
Coming full circle back to the High Holy Days, our passage concludes by listing the following symbolic foods one ought to display on Rosh Hashanah:
Abaye said: Now that you said that an omen is a significant matter, a person should always be accustomed to seeing these on Rosh Hashana: Squash, and fenugreek, leeks, and chard and dates.
Along with apples and honey, these symbolic foods are features of the Rosh Hashanah seder, originally a Sephardic custom that has gained popularity in recent years. Both because of their inherent symbolism (dates are sweet) and wordplay (the word for fenugreek is rubia, which sounds like harbeh, or abundance), these items take the good omens the rabbis list on our daf and put them right on our 21st-century holiday tables. And that continuity of Jewish tradition over 2,000 years seems a very good sign, indeed.
Read all of Horayot 12 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on September 13, 2025. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
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