Ask another Jew to tell you the most memorable thing about Rosh haShana and the chances are s/he will either say “shofar” or “apple and honey”.

Yet the very first halacha showcased by the Kitsur Shulchan Aruch, the popular bite-sized Code of Jewish Law compiled in 1864 by Rabbi Shlomo Ganzfried, deals with neither of these highlights. Instead, it proclaims in its memorably terse style: In every Kaddish recited from Rosh haShana to Yom Kippur we double the word le’eyla – and since it is necessary to have exactly 28 words [and now we have an extra le’eyla] … we contract min kol to mikol.

What are these 28 words in the Kaddish? Halachic and kabbalistic sources clarify that they are the words from yehei shemei raba until da’amiran be’alema. Sephardim declaim all these words aloud as a Kaddish response. Ashkenazim merely recite the line yehei shmei raba mevarach le’olam ule’alemai alemaya – which fascinatingly contains 28 letters.

What is the significance of this number?

Our Sages link it to the word כח (ko’ach =........

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