Happy New Jewish Year!

Anne

Site Owner
Thread starter
Staff Member
Admin
Joined
Oct 23, 2000
Messages
40,207
Purraise
6,095
Location
On TCS
Today is the Jewish new year's eve so I want to wish everyone

Happy New Year

May this be a year of peace for people all over the globe!
 

billie

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
May 2, 2001
Messages
433
Purraise
1
Location
Bulgaria
Happy New Year to you Anne!
Peace, Love and Happiness to everyone!
 

hissy

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Feb 19, 2001
Messages
34,872
Purraise
76
And although Peace is an elusive term at the moment, here is my hope that it becomes a reality in the days ahead.......
 

threeleggedkat

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Mar 9, 2001
Messages
1,239
Purraise
2
Location
St. Louis, MO
Anne, I am wishing you and your whole family the Happiest of New Years!
This is the year that your little son will bless yours and Alpha's life together. What a beautiful thought to hold on to in this time of turmoil. Love and Joy to all "three" of you. :grin:
 

nena10

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Apr 5, 2001
Messages
1,436
Purraise
1
Location
Salt Lake City
Anne- I to wish you a Happy New Year. May peace come soon to the whole world.
:afrorainb ::blubturq:


Alicia
 

debby

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Nov 5, 2000
Messages
10,983
Purraise
4
Location
Iowa
Happy New Year, Anne!
I hope this year brings much happiness to you and your family!!! We
you!
 

deb25

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Feb 6, 2001
Messages
12,769
Purraise
5
Anne:

If you wouldn't mind, I would enjoy hearing the customs and history behind each of the Jewish holidays as they come around. I am already familiar with some (like Passover, for example). To me this history represents the living history of the roots of my religion. As Christianity grew out of Judaism, holidays and celebrations evolved to focus on the life and death of Christ. I am very interested in learning more about the faith that gave birth to mine.

Thanks.

Oh, and Happy New Year!
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #12

Anne

Site Owner
Thread starter
Staff Member
Admin
Joined
Oct 23, 2000
Messages
40,207
Purraise
6,095
Location
On TCS
Let's see, I'm no Rabbi, but I'll give it my best shot


Rosh Hashana is the name of this holiday in Hebrew. Rosh means head and Shana means year (Ha equals "the") so it is literally the Head of the Year.

It marks the start of the autumn holiday season with Yom Kipur and Sukkot coming soon. It's a 2 days sabbatical holiday, which means that religious people don't drive, light fire or anything electric etc. For the rest of us it means getting 2 days off work


Basically what you do is have a special feast with special dished and blessings. Some of these are head of fish or lamb (so that we will be heads and not tails), pomrgrenades (so that we will do as many good deeds as it has seeds), apple with honey (just to have a sweet new year). The one dish most people adhere to is apples dipped in honey.

Religious people then spend most of the holiday praying at the synagouge and when the new year comes in the evening they blow the Shofar (a special instrument made of ram's horn). By the way, in Judaism, the date changes at sunset and not at midnight so the new year begins at the evening.

Rosh Hashna also begins the countdown to Yom Kipur (day of atonement), which is 10 days later. These 10 days are deicated to lots of prayers and asking God to forgive us and also for people to ask forgiveness of each other and make peace among themselves.

That's about it I think. I'd be happy to try and answer any questions!
 

debby

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Nov 5, 2000
Messages
10,983
Purraise
4
Location
Iowa
Anne...I am just curious....I seem to remember that I was born on Yom Kiper, but never knew what it meant, but I think Yom Kiper must change dates every year, because it is not always listed on the calendar the same date as my birthday...but is there a way you could check to see what date that Yom Kiper was on in October of 1965, when I was born?
 

deb25

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Feb 6, 2001
Messages
12,769
Purraise
5
Anne:

That was wonderful, and I thank you very much. I find the traditions to be so interesting because they are historically so much older than mine.

What year is it on the Jewish calendar? How was the number of years determined? (Like our year of 2001 indicates the number of years since the birth of Christ). Was there some single event that the Jewish people are counting from?
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #17

Anne

Site Owner
Thread starter
Staff Member
Admin
Joined
Oct 23, 2000
Messages
40,207
Purraise
6,095
Location
On TCS
Only the minor event of the creation of the world
It's now year 5000 and something according to tradition. The Hebrew calendar years are counted in letters and not is numbers, so calculating the exact date would take me a while


Debby, the dates keep moving because the Jewish calendar is lunar. The months last 28 days each and a new month begins with the new moon. That means that the year is shorter then your regular solar year. Every few years they fix that with an extra month. All in all it means that the Jewish and Latin dates are the same every 19 years. That means that when you're 19, 38, 57 etc., your birth date is the same as it was when you were born on both the Latin (your) calendar and the Jewish calendar.

Yom Kippur this year is in 8 days from today (it's always exactly 10 days after new year's eve).
 
Top