The first month of the Jewish year is always an exciting one. Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year, catapults us right into a festive celebration of this year’s potential – we say special prayers, we blow the shofar, and we eat special foods that symbolize the blessings we hope to benefit from and bring with us into the new year.
On Tuesday night and Wednesday, we will be observing Yom Kippur, otherwise known as the Day of Atonement, the holiest day of the year. It is a time when Jews all over the world spend the day in fasting and prayer.
The Day of Atonement is, indeed, the holiest day of the year. The most important element of the holiday, however, is the atonement connected with it. “You shall be clean before the Lord from all your sins.” And again at the end of the section: “And this shall be a statute forever for you, that atonement may be made for the people of Israel once in the year because of all their sins.” (verse 34)
The news in Israel is focusing on two subjects right now: Syria and Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur, otherwise known as the Day of Atonement, is the holiest day of the year when Jews all over the world spend the day in fasting and prayer. This year, though, marked the 40th anniversary of the Yom Kippur … Read more
October 2011 I found myself daydreaming last night while washing the dishes from dinner. My sink looks out onto our porch where our Feast of Tabernacle booth, our Sukka, stands, slightly darkening the kitchen. The Feast of Tabernacles is one of my favorite Jewish holidays. Maybe because it comes on the heels of the High … Read more
May 2011 Last week I attended the ceremony commemorating Israel’s Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terror at my son’s school. Every school, every city, every small community, has a ceremony commemorating the country’s heroes– those who fell in the battlefields of our endlessly long list of wars, and those who fell … Read more