New Year Holidays of Jews and Muslims For 2016 On Close Dates

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                                   

                                                                                                       
We are in the month of Elul right now, going by a calendar at least 4,000 years old that follows the moon; a lunar calendar.  The High Holidays are about to begin,  and we learn of them from
Moses b: 1391 BCE-d: 1271 BCE. 

so we get ready by visiting the graves of relatives and teachers-to remember the sanctity of their  lives and to gain inspiration for the coming year.  It is the custom.                                                                                                
                                                    ROSH HASHANAH-October 2nd-starting

The Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah, the New Year, starts at sundown on October 2nd,  It is the birthday of the world.  It's also the Day of Judgement, a solemn time of reconciliation and confronting the past year.  However, it is New Year's Day but not as frivolous as January 1st, but a joyous remembrance of the creation.                                                                                                                                                 

     On the eve of the holiday on the 2nd of October this year, families have a big dinner when it is customary to dip an apple in honey to bring in a sweet New Year.  On the 2nd night of the holiday, it 
is customary to eat a new fruit-not yet eaten that season.  The meal can also include more apples and honey.                                                       

 A special challah is made, the bread eaten on the Sabbath (Shabbat) that is made with an egg and braided with sesame and poppy seeds on the top for decoration, but this challah is to be 
                                                                              

made as a round loaf to symbolize a crown, or it can be made in the shape of a ladder, symbolizing Jacob's dream connecting heaven with earth.  The table may have red apples, white grapes, and white figs. I think I'll include deep blue plums while I'm at it.  We may send New Year's cards out to family and friends as well at this time.  Mothers usually buy a new outfit for the children and herself to wear at synagogue for the new year.  It's a happy occasion with high hopes for the future.
                                                                                 

                                                          
                                                           YOM KIPPUR =October 11th-                                                          starting

Ten days later comes another holiday, this time a very somber one; Yom Kippur, which falls on the 10th of Tishri. It is our most holy holiday.   This year it falls on the 11th of October, a  Tuesday.  This is the culmination of the entire High Holiday period.  After this, the old year is ended and the new one begun.  We have a big meal on the eve of Yom Kippur that is joyous. Our challah can be shaped into the forms of birds or have this figure on the top, though I haven't been that artistic.                                                                    

It would be there to symbolize the aspiration and opportunity of man to attain the level of the angels, and the sheltering protection of G-d.  After dinner on the eve of this occasion, we begin a 25 hour fast (no food or water)  that ends in a light repast the next night.  We try to eat so that we will not feel hunger as much since we spend most of the time in the Synagogue asking G-d forgiveness for our sins.  

Men in their large prayer shawls "Tallit" during Yom Kippur in Europe.
Kol Nidre is being chanted during the Maariv Service.  In orthodox synagogues,
men and women are separated for better concentration and meditation.  Usually
a screen separates them.  When men pray, they all have their tallit over their heads like a tent, and women,
if lucky enough to be above like in this picture, see a sea of tents below that is something to behold!  I feel we women are very spiritual and on a high plane anyway, so do not need to copy the men.  We are partners in life and one is not greater than the other.  One need not feel inferior; we each have our specialties and responsibilities.  One sees the rabbi holding the Torah and walking with it among the people.  Everyone will touch their tallit to their lips and then touch the Torah with it in reverence and respect for its words.  

This holiday is marked by physical abstinence of food and for married folks, relations so as to concentrate on the spiritual.  If one is sick or weak, we are exempt from doing this.  We wear shoes to synagogue that are NOT made of leather.  No major washing during this holiday like a bath.  We don't wear cosmetics or anoint our body with anything.  A service of Kol Nidre is sung by the Cantor, a beautiful heart wrenching piece of music  that starts before sunset.  We greet each other at the synagogue with  "May you be finally sealed for good in the book of life", for it is our custom to feel that if we were worthy, our name would go down in the book to live for another year.   The shofar is blown in a rhythmic blast of notes that we all want and need to hear that marks the final sealing of the heavenly gates.                       
                                     ISLAMIC HOLIDAYS 
                                              MUHARRAM OCTOBER 1st=starting
                                                                             

Food typical for this holiday of Muharram from Turkey.
It pre-dates the holiday.  Islam is the 2nd largest religious group in the world.
Mohammad started Islam and died in 632 CE (AD).  

                                                                                  

For Muslims, the first day of Muharram, which is the first month in the Islamic calendar, marks the start of the Islamic New Year.  According to my desk calendar, it starts on October 1st, a Saturday this year.    It lasts until October 31st, ending on a Monday. "The festival of Muharram has significant religious importance for Muslims, beginning with the first day, which is known as the Islamic New Year.
                                                                                      

"Note that in the Muslim calender, a holiday begins on the sunset of the previous day, so observing Muslims will celebrate Al-Hijra / Muharram on the sunset of Saturday, the 1st of October." "Some Muslim Americans choose to fast during this month, although fasting is not obligatory. Many Muslims engage in voluntary prayer, including evening prayer, during Muharram."
                                                            

ASHURA=OCTOBER 10th-starting 

                                                                             

They also have another holiday called Ashura.  Note that in the Muslim calendar, a holiday begins on the sunset of the previous day, so observing Muslims will celebrate Ashura on the sunset of Monday, the 10th of October."The Day of Ashura (or Ashurah) is known as the most sacred day in the month of Muharram.
                                                                                     

It is the 10th day of Muharram and is a day of fasting for many Sunni Muslims. Many Shi’a Muslims use the day to commemorate the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali in 680 CE. Some Muslims give to charity on this day.

I wish my family and friends a Happy New Year:  : שנה טובה
Leshana tovah tikatev v’tichatem” (לשנה טובה תכתב ותחתם).  “May you be written and sealed for a good year.”  From noon on Rosh Hashanah, when our fates are already written, until Yom Kippur, when our fates for the coming year are to be sealed, we wish each other “Gemar chatimah tovah” (גמר חתימה טובה), “A good final sealing.”
So I also wish my Muslim friends a Happy New Year, and may you also be written in the book of life.  

Resource: The Jewish Catalog by Richard Siegel, Michael Strassfeld, Sharon Strassfeld
https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/us/muharram-new-year
http://www.when-is.com/al-hijra-muharram-2016.asp

2016: Year Judaism and Islam Get Together at Sundown, October 11th

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                      

Our Book of Life where everything we do is written down:
Only we ourselves are responsible, and no one else pays for our sins but us,
so we ask forgiveness and better mean it, for G-d will know.  "The Talmud,  (Rosh Hashana 32b),  says that on Rosh Hashana, God inscribes everyone's name into one of three books. The righteous go into the Book of Life, the evil go into the Book of Death, and those in-between have judgment suspended until Yom Kippur."

Blowing the Shofar on Rosh Hashana and Yom KippurThe shofar blast marks the beginning of a period of amnesty which is known as The Ten Days of Repentance. Repentance is based on the fact that since humanity has been given free-will, and our actions are not pre-determined, we must take responsiblity for our actions. The ability to repent teaches us that our future is not bound by our past and that by changing our behaviour we have the ability to change our past.

 Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of Atonement, falls on October 11, 2016 at sundown.  It's a remembrance day that starts with a special large dinner with the family and friends in preparation for the next 25 hours of fasting and being in the synagogue asking  for forgiveness for our sins against G-d..  Jews were directed by Moses to hold this holiday in perpetuity. ...In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and you shall not do any work ... For on that day he shall provide atonement for you to cleanse you from all your sins before the L-RD. -Leviticus 16:29-30 This is our most holy and  important holiday of the year.

This year, a holiday I did not know about, Ashura, is also celebrated by Muslims at the very same hour, sundown of October 11th.  This is celebrated differently by Sunnis and Shiites.  With Sunnis,   (who refer to it as The Day of Atonement) as the day on which the Israelites were freed from the Pharaoh (called 'Firaun' in Arabic) of Egypt.   
                                                                               

Celebration of Shiite Muslims during Ashura showing extremes of the day. "Ashura is an islamic holiday that only the Shi’ites celebrate like this. Ashura is the day in which the Shi’ites repent for the loss of Husayn, Muhammad’s grandson." This is something they cannot pin on the Jews.  Ashura is also a day of fasting for some Sunni Muslims. The basis for Ashura in Sunni Islam, according to tradition, is the prophet Muhammad's adoption of this practice after observing Jews in Medina fasting on this day. 
However,Shi'a Muslims who are mainly found in Iran,  reject these stories and maintain that Ashura is a day of great sorrow due to the tragic events of Karbala so atone for letting Husayn get killed in battle.  .

  The Battle of Karbala took place on Muharram 10, in the year 61 AHof the Islamic calendar (October 10, 680 CE)  in Karbala, in present-day Iraq.  The battle took place between a small group of supporters and relatives of Muhammad's grandson, Husayn ibn Ali, and a larger military detachment from the forces of Yazid I, the Umayyad caliph.  
                                                                          

A revered Torah, a scroll

It is important to remember at this point that Judaism is far far older than Islam.  We attribute our Torah being written by Moses, who was already 80 years old when he trekked back to Egypt to talk to the Pharoah, his relative by adoption, about freeing the Israelite slaves.  That would have been in about 1311 BCE, and he wrote down his messages from G-d for the next 40 years, and died in 1271 BCE.  So our Yom Kippur day of atonement is 3,326 years old, and Jews still abide by this day.  
                                                                            

Middle Ages-in the Synagogue on Yom Kippur,
Carrying the Torah for everyone to see and touch

Mohammad lived in the vicinity of Jews in Arabia, who resided in Medina.  Amazingly, here are Muslims now celebrating on this special day, something they learned from him who learned some of our Jewish history when it was already 1,942 years old, for he was born in 570 CE and died in 632 CE.  They are not celebrating the same holiday, however.  They have mixed this day with our Passover (Pesach) celebrated in the early Spring. 
                                                                                    

Jews praying on Yom Kippur in Israel

Yom Kippur on October  11th is the Jewish day of Atonement, but to G-d for sins. 

Passover was this past April 22nd at sundown when the Israelites were freed from the Pharaoh.  

Then again, the Shiites have a different concept. " Shiite commemorations of the Day of Ashura have traditionally included rituals which have been condemned by many Shia religious authorities recently under the claim that such practices are wrong or unislamic."   
                                                                                  

Karbala was a time of a great battle.  "The Battle of Karbala took place on Muharram 10, in the year 61 AHof the Islamic calendar (October 10, 680 AD)^a in Karbala, in present-day  Iraq.  The battle took place between a small group of supporters and relatives of Muhammad's grandson, Husayn ibn Ali, and a larger military detachment from the forces of Yazid I, the Umayyad caliph."  There were 3 of them.  Yazid I (680-683) of the Sufyan Branch, and ; Yazid II (720-724) of the Marwan Branch, and Yazid III (744) of the Marwan Branch.  

What they are remembering is an ambush of Husayn ibn Ali where he was killed.  In 680, when Yazid became caliph, Husayn refused to acknowledge him and secretly left Medina to join his own followers in Kufa, who had already proclaimed him caliph.  Unfortunately for Husayn, the plot was discovered and the small band, including women and children, was ambushed in Karbala, and oasis south of modern Baghdad.  Most of the men were killed.  Husayn, the grandson of the Prophet, was beheaded;  and the women and children were taken captive.  

This was the culmination of a series of unsuccessful political moves on the part of the partisans of Ali to secure the caliphate.  The ambush could have been recorded as another political failure, and at the time it did not create much excitement.  Later, it assumed important religious significance.  Ali and Husayn became more formidable foes of the established caliphate through their deaths than through their lives.  Husayn was considered the prince of martyrs, and his death in 680 became a rallying time for opponents of the caliphate.  The followers of Ali separated themselves from the main body of Islam and formed their own theology and philosophy of its own.  

Interestingly, Marwan, founder of the Marwanid branch of the Umayyads, came to power in Damascus with the help of the southern Arabs.  
                                                                          

The Umayyads expanded Islam throughout the world from 661 to 750 CE.  Then the Abbasids took over.  Perhaps they all learned from the Byzantine Empire previously who did the same thing.  "It's riches beckoned the fighters of Islam, and the possibility of its conversion kindled the hopes of many Muslims."  

Resource:  CE (Common Era) and AHof =AD (anno domini.from (year 1-2016)
http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday4.htm  Yom Kippur
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_Ashura
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Karbala
http://classroom.synonym.com/significance-ashura-sunni-islam-8916.html
http://www.aish.com/atr/Book_of_Life.html
http://www.chabad.org/holidays/JewishNewYear/template_cdo/aid/3061833/jewish/Why-Do-We-Blow-Shofar-at-the-End-of-Neilah-After-Yom-Kippur.htm
College text: MIDDLE EAST-PAST & PRESENT, by Yahya Armajani, Thomas M. Ricks, pp 55-58.