tomorrow at sundown the Jewish New Year begins. 5769 is the year and these weeks are my favorite in the whole year. Non Jews know about new year's and maybe the day of atonement? But do they understand what it means? Lesson number one:
The Jewish year is based on the moon and the first month is Tishrei. Each month begins with the new moon ( rosh chodesh) and each day begins at sundown as there was darkness before there was light. So Jews all over the world will go to synagogue at sundown in their time zones and do closely the same ritual all over the world no matter what kind of Judaism they practice. New Years is often celebrated for two days because of the poor communications in ancient times. that way no one could miss out and use the excuse they did not hear.
Traditional foods are apples honey and round challah rather than the typical braided ones. and yes one spends a good part of the day in temple. or in the lobby gossiping. A very nice custom is tashlich on the afternoon of Rosh (new) HaShanah( The year) in which one throws away ones sins in a body of living water ( it moves and has fish so swimming pools are out) Traditional jews use bread crumbs. Jim and I use torn up rice paper. we write the actions we regret and in tend to avoid in the coming year and then say some blessings at the river and toss the torn up paper into the water ( rice paper will dissolve).
Then on the tenth of Tishrei we begin the observance of the day of atonement (Yom Kippur) with a beautiful and somber service called Kol Nidre. Kol Nidre means "all vows" and is an ancient Aramaic prayer. It is sung or maybe played on a violin and then the entire congregation issues a group confession that exonerates them from religious edicts made under pressure ( as in forced conversions in the 1400's)
Certainly catholic confession evolved from these customs but one is not "off the hook" unless one actually turns from action and makes a change in their lives (I mention this as I had a catholic boyfriend in HS... we would have sex, he would go to confession,. say some hail marys and then later in the week we'd have some more sex. I never understood it. If sex was a need for confessional act he shudda stopped ...no? ) but I digress.
then after YK comes a few days to prepare for Sukkot - the Fall harvest festival on which Thanksgiving and The Christian Tabernacles is based. I will no doubt be featuring my sukkah here so I will stop with the lecture. but then two holidays that some Jews who are not very observant hardly know. Simchat Torah and Shemini Atzerat. More on those later.
For now... have a sweet new year. eat some apples in honey. say some blessings and make some New Year Resolutions of some weight and then KEEP THEM............. It's so Jewish.
teaching
