Nuts on Rosh HaShanah – Ask the Rabbi
Q. Why do many people not eat nuts on Rosh HaShanah?
A. Probably because they irritate the throat and interfere with fluent davening.
A popular view is that the numerical value of the Hebrew letters of egoz (nut) is the same as that of chet (sin). But in reality egoz is 17 and chet is 18.
The lesson may be that we should avoid anything that even comes close to a transgression.
