Rosh Hashanah's Purpose: The Birth of Our World

 Nadene Goldfoot                                              

Our ancestors got into study of astronomy right away 3,000 years ago when living outside without shelters on their 40 year Exodus with Moses from Egypt to Canaan.  The 1st dictum through Moses from G-d was to have a day to recognize and celebrate the birth of our world, and an awesome world it was.  Amazing!  For 40 years these people noticed the sky, the stars and their constellations, how the sun rose and set and which direction.  What a study of astronomy!  Most important was the movement of the moon.

A custom practiced on only this holiday is the blowing of the SHOPHAR- a ram's horn. Biblical Law prescribes its sounding for the memorial blowing on the New Year,   At various periods the shophar was sounded also on fast days, at the time of the proclamation of a rabbinic edict, in the ceremony of excommunication before the entry of the Sabbath, and at times of famine or plague.  The custom of blowing the shophar during the synagogue services in the month of Elul and on Hoshanah Rabbah and at the conclusion of the Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), are later customs.  If people have been lax in attending synagogue services throughout the year, this is one occasion they try to observe; this and Yom Kippur that comes at the end of the next 10 days.  

This year  we will leave the year of 5782 and enter the New Year of 5783.  Though our own calendars tell us this is the year of 2022, we have been tracking the years that have added up to being 5,783 years ago that we recognize as the beginning of our ancestor's lives.  We became more aware of our environment and how to deal with it that long ago.  Jews use the Lunar calendar that goes by the moon's rotations (see below).             

Literally, Rosh means Head.  This Rosh Hashanah or year means the head  of the year.  It's come to be a 2 day holiday at the beginning of the month of Tishri which always falls in September to October with our Lunar calendar.                     

Notice the 10 commandments on the wall.  The Torah is about to be taken out from behind the curtain of the Ark or Aron Kodesh.  

The way we remember and think about it is done with the Ten Days of Penitence which end on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur).  

Long ago in the Rabbinic Period,  Rosh Hashanah was regarded as a Day of Judgment for the entire world when the fate of each man for the coming year is inscribed in the Book of Life.  (If your name is inscribed in this heavenly book, you will live for another year.)  We still think of this for this holiday.   

Although termed The New Year, the Torah refers to it as the 1st day of the 7th month.  (Lev. 23:24), and not all the rabbis considered it as the day marking the creation of the world.  This is the time period for us of the creation of the world, then Adam and Eve, etc.   

A custom practiced on only this holiday is the blowing of the SHOPHAR- a ram's horn.  There is also a ceremony of Tashlikh in the afternoon of the 1st day.   This means the time prayers are said near a stream or body of water where there are fish, and bread crumbs are thrown to the fish.  

At the Kotel in Jerusalem, prayer shawls are always white

Traditionally we wear white this day.  The central theme in petitional prayers is the request for a good year.  Various customs  developed like eating of honey-a sweet year-so use an apple slice dipped in honey at our table for a sweet year to come, 

It is the period to ask forgiveness of anyone you may have harmed, any hurt feelings, etc.  The rabbis held that mortals are judged at the beginning of this period and judgment pronounced on the Day of Atonement, those whose case is in doubt may obtain clemency by sincere repentance during this period.  Each day, penitential prayers (selihot) are recited, and the extremely Orthodox practice day-long fasts, and the fast of Gedaliah.  

     Visiting my paternal grandmother's grave in Portland, Oregon They called her Hattie but her Yiddish name was Zlata; maiden name was Jermulowske.  She was a widow who raised 2 boys and 2 girls and lost a baby boy as well.  She was a proud Litvak.  

On the eve of the Day of Atonement, 10 days later, eating and drinking are regarded as a duty; also a time of a 25 hour fast;  it is also an occasion for donating to charity, for visiting cemeteries and the graves of the pious.  When living in Tzfat, Israel,  many would come to our cemetery where many pious were buried.  

The Jewish month is based on the lunar or synodic month, the time it takes for the moon to circle the earth.  Since the exact duration of one revolution is a little over 29.5 days, the length of the months normally alternates between 29 and 30 days.  A month of 30 days is called male ('full'), one of 29 days is chaser ('defective').  There are two months which are male in some years and chaser in others.

The month begins with the appearance of the new moon.  In the time of the Temple, the Sanhedrin (the highest court) sanctified the new month when two witnesses had actually sighted the moon.  In the middle of the fourth century C.E., a fixed calendar was introduced.

In the Torah, the months are numbered; the first is the one in which the Exodus from Egypt occurred (Yetziat Mitzrayim; cf. Shemot [Exodus] 12:2).  Later, names of Babylonian origin were adopted:

1. ניסן — Nisan — (30 days)
2. אייר — Iyyar — (29 days)
3. סיון — Sivan — (30 days)
4. תמוז — Tammuz — (29 days)
5. אב — Av — (30 days)
6. אלול — Elul — (29 days)
7. תשרי — Tishri — (30 days)
8. חשון — Cheshvan — (29 or 30 days)
9. כסלו — Kislev — (30 or 29 days)
10. טבת — Tevet — (29 days)
11. שבט — Sh'vat — (30 days)
12. אדר — Adar — (29 days)

The first day of each month (with the exception of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year) is Rosh Chodesh (lit. 'head of the month', abbreviated ) — and so is the thirtieth day of the preceding month, if there is one.  For example, if a gravestone inscription mentions the first day of Rosh Chodesh Elul, the calendar date "30 Av" is meant.

Happy New Year, everybody!  

YOM KIPPUR: Hardest of Our Holidays To Remember Alone This Year

Nadene Goldfoot                                                     

  We are now in The Days of Awe.  They are not to be sad days.  Yom Kippur is the happiest day of the year coming next Sunday-Yom Kippur.  This is when we receive G-d's forgiveness, an expression of His eternal, unconditional love.  It is on this day that G-d reveals most clearly that our essence and His essence are one.  On the level of the soul, the Jewish people are all truly equal and indivisible.  The more we demonstrate our essential unity by acting with love and friendship amongst ourselves, the more fully G-d's love will be revealed to us.  

 This year we will be celebrating Yom Kippur alone due to the pandemic and isolation of trying to rid our communities of this Corona Virus, AKA COVID 19.  This once a year holiday was meant to be a time of being in the company of our fellow Jewish community.   Pictured above is the blowing of the shofer, an important element in the services taking place in the synagogues all over the world each year in remembrance.                                                                      

    Secular and religious Israelis at the conclusion of Yom Kippur services in the community center in Kiryat Ono, near Tel  Aviv (Courtesy of Tzohar)  Women are upstairs.  

Yom Kippur is our day of atonement.  We are asked by G-d to fast for 25 hours in the act of atoning for our sins of the past year.  To atone means the expiation of a sin and its consequent forgiveness through appropriate repentance and reparation.  Ever since the previous holiday of Rosh Hashana, the birthday of the world 10 days previous, called the Ten Days of Teshuvah (2 days of Rosh Hashana and 7 days following and Yom Kippur), our minds have been on such atonement with proper preparation.  It's not something done at the snap of our fingers at the moment.  It means "returning."  Our essential nature, the divine spark of the soul, is good.  True repentance is but achieved not through harsh self-condemnation, but through the realization   that our deepest desire is to do good, in accordance with the will of G-d.          

To do Teshuvah is to make amends.  Monday: we can make amends for whatever wrong we may have done on all Mondays of the previous year--and so forth.  This coming Shabbat is called Shabbat Shuvah after reading "Return, O Israel, for you have stumbled.." Today is a fast day, the Fast of Gedaliah, to remember the tragic assassination of Gedaliah, a great Jewish leader during the Babylonian exile.        

It's always an event that takes place on the Hebrew month of Tishri 10, looked upon as the "Sabbath of solemn rest"-Sabbath of Sabbaths", being the Sabbath is a holy day whereas no work is to take place, as our mind is on thanking G-d for our gift of life and what we have been given.  It's the day when a man must cleanse himself of all sin, when we shouldn't sin ever but know somehow being man and not our One G-d, that we will possibly slip somehow.  In our group in the synagogue, every sin imaginable will be mentioned, covering all of man's thoughtless acts as we touch our chests each time in this act of saying we will do better the coming year.                         

 The Shofar is sounded at the end of Yom Kippur.  

It had been sounded throughout the service during Rosh Hashanah. 

This year, Rosh Hashana and Shabbat came on the same day.  

      This confession time, in Temple days led by the high priest, is phrased in the plural "We" because of the mutual responsibility of all Jews.  The confession enumerates ethical lapses exclusively and covers almost the whole range of human failings.  

Especially impressive are the Evening Service of Kol Nidre with its opening formula canceling rash vows between man and G-d and the Concluding Service of Neilah Service which ends with the invocation of the SHEMA and the declaration: "Next year in Jerusalem!                                 

It is the day so long ago when Moses came down from Mt. Sinai with the 2nd set of tablets of the law and announced to the people the Divine pardon for the sin of the Golden Calf.  Besides not working, using perfumes or lotions, washing for pleasure or wearing leather shoes, or eating, nor drinking even water, nor any sexual intercourse, the day was outstanding for the elaborate Temple ceremonial ritual of listening and saying prayers with the Cantor (our prayers are sung and led by this person-a man with a beautiful voice a cappella).  

Long ago, the orthodox in the past days already would have included the dispatch  of the scapegoat to the wilderness, laden with the sins of the congregation as a visual reenactment that became a ritual, a symbol.                      

 In the days of the Temples, only on this day was the high priest allowed to enter the room called the Holy of Holies  clad not in his golden vestments but in white linen, symbolic of purity and humility. He was regarded as the holiest man in the world and he was in the holiest place on earth, the Kodesh HaKadoshim of the Temple in Jerusalem, and he was in there to pray on behalf of his people.  When he would then appear at the conclusion of the service, he was greeted with rejoicing by the people, confident that their sins had been forgiven.  He was said to be radiant, like the iridescence of the rainbow, like a rose in a garden of delight, like the morning star sparkling on the horizen.  Except for the absence of priestly ceremonial, the observance of this day in late Judaism  is similar in character to that of Temple procedure. 

                                                                 

  So on the eve of Yom Kippur, we will feast with a special meal with not too much salt in it so as not to thirst so much on Yom Kippur.

                         Bagels and lox, sour cream, veggies and I hope-coffee 
 And then there is the breaking of the fast, finally, as weak as you are, usually with friends or relatives,  enjoying the first taste of special foods and drink after a long fast.  You are proud of yourselves, in this group fast, for sticking to it till the end.  

Yom Kippur's Prayer to Include

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                            

Yom Kippur in Jerusalem

Praying for Israel.

May 14, 1948

"Do you realize what has happened in these last 65 years? Our holy tongue has been revived, our inheritance has been claimed, our Land has been settled and today - 5774 - for the first time in 2,000 years; the majority of the world's Halachic Jews are living in Israel!! These facts cannot be ignored and we must give thanks and praise to the Creator of the world for allowing this to happen!" by Shmuel Sackett.  This year, be sure to pray for Israel's well being and continuance.  

This is the time to ask for G-d's forgiveness for our sins.  We're not angels, but we try to be as good as humanely possible.  We've been given 613 rules of conduct to be a civilized nation besides our 10 Commandments. 

 For me, the Golden Rule stands as one of the more important lessons for us: to not do to others what we do not want done to us.  Very often this shows us the differences in people and their standards of morality.  There are those who have never heard of this lesson of life and continue to due inhumane harm to others.  They should know this story:  Once there was a gentile who came before Shammai, and said to him: "Convert me on the condition that you teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot. Shammai pushed him aside with the measuring stick he was holding. The same fellow came before Hillel, and Hillel converted him, saying: That which is despicable to you, do not do to your fellow, this is the whole Torah, and the rest is commentary, go and learn it."(Hillel-from the Babylonian Talmud).                                                         

                                                             Jerusalem Below
To me, it's a sin to believe propaganda which  has said  that we have slaughtered people such as when our IDF had to go into Gaza after being attacked.  They should know by their own research and heart, not by hearsay, what our army does.  If they did they would know our young IDF have been praised by other nation's generals for taking precautions not to injure civilians but have even put their own lives in harm's way to follow our morality established so long ago by Moses. If our own people understand our principals from our religion, they would know how we lead our lives, in sickness, in war and peace.   

We're not complete pacifists like Gandi was in India as we have learned that we must  protect ourselves and our people, for there are people who hate us without reason, but we as a people know how precious life is. For us, to save one life is to save the world.  (Mishnah)-Babylonian Talmud   

• Whoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.

"If Hamas lays down its weapons there will be no more war, but if Israel lays down its weapons there would be ?  no more Israel" Netanyahu.  

For those who have committed the sin of not defending Israel, but have been sucked into siding with those who want to destroy us, know that the Mandate for Palestine  of July 24, 1922, was a legally binding document published by the League of Nations, which came just before the UN. It was a legally binding document that laid down the Jewish legal right to settle anywhere in western Palestine, the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, an entitlement unaltered in international law.   "51 countries unanimously declared that "whereas recognition has been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country."  

Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour of England simply continued with England's feelings at that time with his Balfour Doctrine showing their favor and sympathy for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.  

Washington added in September 1922 the Lodge-Fish Joint Resolution signed by President Warren Harding which said, "Favors the establishment in Palestine of a National Home for the Jewish people. "

"Not once are Arabs as a people ever mentioned in the Mandate for Palestine."  We've led an unnatural life since 70 CE when Jerusalem fell to the Romans, and after 2,000 years of constant anti-Semitism, were finally recognized and   rewarded with our ancient territory once again which was without ownership.  Yet 1.7 million Arabs are citizens with us in this, our Eretz Yisrael. of our own choosing .  

Our people are young and busy.  They have little time to worry about Israel if they don't live there, but feel secure, a first in our 2,000 history of living in the diaspora.  It is high time for this sin of omission to be thought about, to ask forgiveness for being so smug about their security, and pray for Israel's life.  

Resource:  http://www.jewishisrael.org/eng_contents/articles/Sackett/sackett018.html?utm_source=Shmuel+Sackett%3A+The+Prayer+You+Must+Say&utm_campaign=update&utm_medium=email
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Benjamin_Netanyahu
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090127063400AALd9Y0
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Quote/hillel.html
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talmud 

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- Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:9; Babylonian Talmud Tractate Sanhedrin 37a

Time For Self Evaluation

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                

Like Native Americans and Muslims, Jews have always relied on the moon and its movements to tell time. A lunar calendar, the oldest known type of calendar,  is used today to determine holidays.   "From very early times, the Mesopotamian lunisolar calendar was in wide use by the countries of the western Asia region. The calendar , which was also used by the Israelites, was based on lunar months with the intercalation of an additional month to bring the cycle closer to the solar cycle."  We have already left the month of Av and Elul started on last Wednesday, the 7th of August, which was celebrated as Rosh Hodesh, or the new moon which is the head of the new month.

We are starting to think of the next big holiday period called The High Holy Days that come in Tishrei -Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) and that is followed by Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement).  Though they will come next month, our repentance begins now.

The Jewish belief is that we as individuals as well as nations and the whole world are judged on Rosh Hashanah.  By Yom Kippur, their fate for the year is sealed.  In Elul, we begin a self-examination to "get right with G-d."

"The Hebrew letters that make the word “Elul,” aleph, lamed, vav and lamed, are an acronym for the phrase (from the biblical Song of Songs) ani l’dodi v’dodi li, which means “I am to my beloved and my beloved is to me.”

This beautiful and romantic phrase is that which represents our relationship with our Creator, which is often paralleled to that of a husband and wife, a bride and groom, in our individual lives."

Repentance in Hebrew is teshuvah, which means to return.  If we commit a sin, we are distancing ourselves from G-d.  When we follow his will, this brings us nearer to G-d.   So we are to take inventory of who we are, what we've done, and what we need to do and ask ourselves the hard questions.  What do we need to atone for?  Do we have talents we haven't used?  How about our personality?  What do we need to work on this year?

In very ancient days, a subject could go to visit his king but had to have an appointment.  He'd have to go to his castle, wait at the gate, go through many chambers and finally he would be taken to the throne room.  In Elul, the King is in his fields and is more accessible.  So G-d is the king in the fields at this time as he has come to his subjects and is waiting for us.

Repentance is something we should be doing all the time to improve, which we all need to do.  This is the time to jump start and finish what needs to be done before the new year.

When Rosh Hashanah rolls around at sundown on Wednesday, September 4th, we say that this is the birthday of the world, the day G-d finished the creation of our world by creating Adam.  Each Rosh Hashanah,  G-d reconsiders and re-evaluates the quality of our relationship with Him, and creates our world anew.

If we are found worthy, we are "inscribed" in the "Book of Life." on Yom Kippur which is 10 days later at sundown,   Friday, September 13,  the Book is sealed.  Our repentance, prayers and charity can sweeten the decree and earn g-d's blessings for health, well-being and prosperity for the coming year, 5773 according to the Hebrew Calendar or 2013 by the Gregorian calendar.

Resource: http://www.ifcj.org/site/News2?abbr=sfi_&page=NewsArticle&id=39470&news_iv_ctrl=3342&s_src=SFIEN1&s_subsrc=EN21308XXEXXA
http://www.chabad.org/theJewishWoman/article_cdo/aid/424441/jewish/The-Jewish-Heart.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_calendar