Jewish Holidays

Amanda wanted to know about the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashana and Sukkot. I have mentioned both in recent blog posts because this is the time of year when Jews celebrate the "High Holidays." The High Holidays encompass the time between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, falls on the first day of the Jewish month of Tishri. (Jewish holidays follow the Jewish/lunar calendar. According to the Jewish calendar, this is the year 5765. That's how many years since Creation(!) Please don't ask me how it's calculated. For everyday life, I follow the same calendar that you do). Many Jews in the diaspora, that is, Jews not living in Israel, observe two days of Rosh Hashana. On Rosh Hashana we go to synagogue and pray to be inscribed by God in The Book of Life for another year. We eat special foods -- special round challahs that symbolize a crown that you would wear on your head or your rosh. We eat apples dipped in honey to symbolize a sweet new year. Many cooks serve fish with the head intact. You see, everything is symbolic in Judaism. From our foods to our clothing. Many people wear what is called a kittel to synagogue. A kittle is white and white symbolizes purity.

After Rosh Hashana services on the second day, we go to a body of water and hold a service. We throw bread crumbs in the water. The breadcrumbs symbolize our sins and we hope they will be washed away by the water.

Ten days after Rosh Hashana is the holiday of Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur is the most holy of holidays. It is on Yom Kippur that we ask God to seal us in The Book of Life for another year. We spend the day denying ourselves many pleasures -- eating, drinking, wearing perfume, wearing leather, having sex -- so that we may concentrate fully on asking forgiveness of God for our sins. We are also supposed to appologize to people we may have wronged during the course of the year. This is supposed to be done face to face with the person we have affronted.

As soon as Yom Kippur is over, it is time to get ready to have some fun. The holiday of Sukkot is the Jewish harvest festival of biblical times. It is also called The Festival of Booths. To commemorate the booths that ancient Israelites would construct while they were in the fields harvesting their crops, we build what is called a sukkah or a booth. It is a temporary structure and we are commanded to eat and sleep in the sukkah during the holiday. Most people celebrate by inviting friends to come and dine in their sukkah or by throwing sukkah parties.

At the end of the eight days of Sukkot, we will celebrate Simchat Torah to commemorate the end of the cycle of Torah reading for the year. Each week, on Shabbat, we read a portion of the Torah. On Simchat Torah, we finish up the last portion of the year and begin the next portion -- Bereshit, which means "In the Beginning..." -- the first chapter of Genesis. It is a big celebration with lots of dancing.

So, that is about the briefest of explanations I can give and I hope that I got it right!