Welcome to my Holidays page! I plan to change this page as the seasons change. Right now this page focuses on the High Holy Days. I apologize that it is so short, but I have so little time!! Shana Tova. :-)
Rosh Hashanah means Head of the Year in Hebrew. This two-day holiday celebrates the Jewish New Year. This is the year 5759. It is traditional to eat Challah with honey, apples dipped in honey, and even honey cake to symbolize a sweet year. Jews around the world pray for a happy and healthy year. It is said that on this holiday G-d inscribes everyone in either the Book of Life or the Book of Death.
Ten days later came Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. On this, the holiest day of the year, we pray for forgiveness from G-d for all our sins. It is said that if we are truly sorry, and truly want to repent, we will be forgiven and can start anew. To show our sincerity, we fast, for 25 hours. No food or drink...not even water. In fact, during the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Jews are supposed to ask everyone they know for forgiveness, for anything they may have done wrong throughout the year. Whether it was done inadvertently or knowingly. At the conclusion of the holiday, it is said that the Books of Life and Death are sealed.
B'Rosh Hashanah yikatevu, v'Yom Som Kippur yikatemu.
On Rosh Hashanah it is inscribed, and on Yom Kippur it is sealed.
Tonight, exactly two weeks after the start of the New Year, begins a third holiday, Sukkot. This harvest holiday commemorates the Israelite's journey through the desert from Egypt to Canaan. They slept in a Sukkah, or Tabernacle...like a little hut. During the holiday we are supposed to eat every meal in the Sukkah, and perhaps even sleep in it. (This is the hard part, because it gets cold!)
And finally are a pair of holidays called Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah. On Simchat Torah we finish reading the Torah, which takes an entire year to read. We roll the huge scrolls back and start all the way back at the beginning, with Breshit! (Literally "The Beginning," Breshit is known in English as Genesis.)
That's a brief overview of the holidays.
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