The purpose of my blog is not only to share my traditions with all of you but to help you understand holidays you don't celebrate. (I'm Jewish so for some of you this might be quite a few.) For those of you that do celebrate the holidays I talk about, I hope to hear your stories in the comments!
This first blog comes at a perfect time because this Sunday starts Rosh Hashanah. Since most people don't know about Rosh Hashanah, besides it being a day some public schools get off for, let me give a brief explanation. Rosh Hashanah is pretty much the Jewish "New Year". The word Rosh Hashanah means "head of the year." The reason it is celebrated this weekend is based purely on the Jewish calendar. This Sunday is pretty much "New Year's Eve" since it is the last day of the year, and of the month of Elul. On Monday, "New Year's Day" is celebrated as the month of Tishri begins. This Rosh Hashanah will begin the year 5776. Rosh Hashanah is one of the high holidays and is considered one of the holiest days of the year.
Photo by: My Jewish Hartford
Now that you have a basic understanding of what Rosh Hashanah is I'm going to explain the rest of the holiday through my traditions since many of them are traditional throughout Judaism.
Before I start explaining my traditions of the holiday it is very important to emphasize the other reason I chose to write about Rosh Hashanah this week, besides the proximity of this post and the holiday. I wanted to be sure to explain in my first post how traditions change over time and for me in particular Rosh Hashanah is a great example of this. It's quite interesting how one tradition becomes so ingrained in a person that it becomes part of their personality, but then this tradition can morph for a variety of reasons through the years and help build a new, more experienced attitude on the same event.
Now let's get to the fun part, celebrating! Many people on Rosh Hashanah's "New Years Eve," called Erev Rosh Hashannah, will have a big dinner with their family. My immediate family, local aunt and uncle, grandparents on my dad's side, uncle's side of the family, and any cousins that are in town either go to my Aunt Judy's house or everyone comes to ours, depending on the year. When people arrive at the dinner we greet each other with "L'shana Tova Tikvatevu" meaning "may you be inscribed in the book of life for a good year." Everyone greets each other this way throughout the holiday. The whole idea of this is after the high holiday, Yom Kippur, the following week, which is the day of repentance you are either inscribed in the book of life or not; so, you wish your friends and family to be inscribed in the book of life. This dinner is pretty much just a way to celebrate and welcome in a good year. You may have noticed in the HUB on Thursday Hillel, the Jewish club on campus, was giving out apples and honey. This symbolizes the start of a fresh, sweet new year. Apples and honey are found on every dinning table during Rosh Hashanah. Another special food during Rosh Hashanah is a circular challah, a braided bread. This challah is round to show the cycle of each year. In my family my brother and I compete to rip the knot on top of the challah off. This always leads to my uncle rolling his eyes at us. The rest of our family then eats out the center of the challah since it is so soft and leave the crust behind until the very end. The rest of dinner is normally chicken and kugel, a pasta dish.
This Rosh Hashanah I will attend services on Erev Rosh Hashanah and eat dinner with Hillel which will be very different for me since I won't be with my family. On Rosh Hashanah day I will also attend services at Hillel. The major part of my changing traditions I mentioned earlier involve services; let me explain. Growing up, we always attended services at my synagogue Kol Emet. My immediate family and aunt and uncle were members at this synagogue. I went to religious school there and grew up meeting all the kids and adults that belonged there. Eventually, my dad became president of the congregation. However, within a year politics happened between the Rabbi, the service leader, and the executive board so he stepped down along with most of the board. We then left the synagogue along with about 50 families. The next high holidays that came around we needed a place to celebrate. So my dad along with several other adults who had left began a ritual committee and started planning the service. The 50 families that left plus some had high holidays together. We had started a havarah, a group that prays together. My dad ended up leading services that year and for the next 5 years.
Rosh Hashanah became my favorite service of the year because they were held under a pavilion in a state park, near my home. It was really cool to see over a hundred people show up all dressed up and sit in lawn chairs under a pavilion to celebrate the Jewish new year. After services we would walk down to the lake and throw bread into the lake to "throw away our sins" which was very entertaining in my heels, yes I did fall once. One year during services it began to pour and thunder cracked louder than I have ever heard. It is my favorite memory of services because it was as if G-d was talking to us. Another cool part of being outside was watching the expressions of people walking their dogs by the pavilion, some even stopped and listened. Part of the service includes blowing the shofar, a rams horn that rings in the new year. When my dad and others blew the shofars the sound echoed through the trees and across the lake; it was truly amazing. Plus the looks we got from the sound were priceless.
Recently, the havarah ended and my family returned to Kol Emet under a new Rabbi, just in time for last year's high holidays. For me this was a full circle of tradition. While it was a strange feeling coming back to Kol Emet after being away for so long and leaving the people I had grown close to over the past several years it was like coming home. For our family, it was a relieving to finally be back at a synagogue and feel as though we had a place to call home.
Although not the most entertaining traditions these are all very important as they are the beginning of the Jewish new year. I wanted to start with Rosh Hashanah to show although traditions can change but you can still be connected to the holiday or the event, no matter what you do. I hope you enjoyed learning a bit more about the Jewish new year and my traditions. If you want to know anything else please feel free to ask me and/or check out this website.
As an ending note I would like to share my favorite song involving tradition to get you in the mood for future tradition stories. L'shanah Tova Tikvatenu!
Photo by: Ledger Online
This Rosh Hashanah I will attend services on Erev Rosh Hashanah and eat dinner with Hillel which will be very different for me since I won't be with my family. On Rosh Hashanah day I will also attend services at Hillel. The major part of my changing traditions I mentioned earlier involve services; let me explain. Growing up, we always attended services at my synagogue Kol Emet. My immediate family and aunt and uncle were members at this synagogue. I went to religious school there and grew up meeting all the kids and adults that belonged there. Eventually, my dad became president of the congregation. However, within a year politics happened between the Rabbi, the service leader, and the executive board so he stepped down along with most of the board. We then left the synagogue along with about 50 families. The next high holidays that came around we needed a place to celebrate. So my dad along with several other adults who had left began a ritual committee and started planning the service. The 50 families that left plus some had high holidays together. We had started a havarah, a group that prays together. My dad ended up leading services that year and for the next 5 years.
Rosh Hashanah became my favorite service of the year because they were held under a pavilion in a state park, near my home. It was really cool to see over a hundred people show up all dressed up and sit in lawn chairs under a pavilion to celebrate the Jewish new year. After services we would walk down to the lake and throw bread into the lake to "throw away our sins" which was very entertaining in my heels, yes I did fall once. One year during services it began to pour and thunder cracked louder than I have ever heard. It is my favorite memory of services because it was as if G-d was talking to us. Another cool part of being outside was watching the expressions of people walking their dogs by the pavilion, some even stopped and listened. Part of the service includes blowing the shofar, a rams horn that rings in the new year. When my dad and others blew the shofars the sound echoed through the trees and across the lake; it was truly amazing. Plus the looks we got from the sound were priceless.
Recently, the havarah ended and my family returned to Kol Emet under a new Rabbi, just in time for last year's high holidays. For me this was a full circle of tradition. While it was a strange feeling coming back to Kol Emet after being away for so long and leaving the people I had grown close to over the past several years it was like coming home. For our family, it was a relieving to finally be back at a synagogue and feel as though we had a place to call home.
Although not the most entertaining traditions these are all very important as they are the beginning of the Jewish new year. I wanted to start with Rosh Hashanah to show although traditions can change but you can still be connected to the holiday or the event, no matter what you do. I hope you enjoyed learning a bit more about the Jewish new year and my traditions. If you want to know anything else please feel free to ask me and/or check out this website.
As an ending note I would like to share my favorite song involving tradition to get you in the mood for future tradition stories. L'shanah Tova Tikvatenu!
First of all let me say that this post made me very hungry. Food and family dinners seem to be a common theme between most holidays, but I would love to taste the different foods you mentioned, especially the bread. I also did not know that there was a Jewish calendar, so thank you for including the chart to help me understand how the Jewish months fall compared to the Gregorian calendar. Wishing you the best for the upcoming holiday as you experience Rosh Hashanah at Penn State. Maybe you will start some new traditions!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your tradition! I am only slightly familiar with Jewish culture, so it was nice to learn a more complete version of Rosh Hashanah. I'm glad you mentioned challah, it has been my favorite kind of bread since I tried it. Also, your video of the dog howling was hilarious!
ReplyDeleteThis was a great first post! I loved how you gave just enough history about Rosh Hashanah without making your post too boring. I actually have a friend here who's in Hillel too!! I hope you have a fantastic Rosh Hashanah.
ReplyDeleteInteresting! I'm not very familiar with the Jewish culture, I knew bits and pieces, but this was cool. I knew about the calendar, but I never knew how it was laid out over the year! The food made me a little hungry as well. Every holiday has a food that goes with it, or at least in my family it seemed like that and I'd love to try and make some of the food you mention, if I get the chance, so if you want to include a special dish for every holiday I think that would be pretty awesome too! Have a great Rosh Hashanah.
ReplyDeleteInteresting! I'm not very familiar with the Jewish culture, I knew bits and pieces, but this was cool. I knew about the calendar, but I never knew how it was laid out over the year! The food made me a little hungry as well. Every holiday has a food that goes with it, or at least in my family it seemed like that and I'd love to try and make some of the food you mention, if I get the chance, so if you want to include a special dish for every holiday I think that would be pretty awesome too! Have a great Rosh Hashanah.
ReplyDeleteTradition! As your parents and extended family, it is our responsibility to pass on the traditions and teachings to the next generation. You have learned your lessons well and I look forward to learning what new traditions you will develop.
ReplyDeleteAunt Judy
This is interesting to me. I will be the first to admit I am pretty ignorant to cultures and traditions other than my own. I never though that there could be other cultures who are on a whole different calender or in a different year. It will be neat learning about Jewish tradition through this blog.
ReplyDelete