Rosh Hashanah traditional greeting: may you be inscribed and sealed for a good year לשנה טובה תכתבו ותחתמו

The traditional greeting for Rosh Hashanah: May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year.

According to Jewish tradition, God maintains three books: The Book of the Righteous, The Book of the Evil, and the Book for everyone else. On Rosh Hashanah God inscribes everyone in one of these three books. The Evil are sentenced to death, the Righteous to life. Everyone else has up to Yom Kippur to wait for their sentence. During this period it is up to them to pray and make amends so they will be written in the Book of Life for a good year. On Yom Kippur God seals the books and people’s fates.