JUDAISM'S FEASTS & FESTIVALS - YOM KIPPUR

Moses (Charlton Heston in The Ten Commandments)
Returns to find the People Worshipping the Golden Calf

Hello My Friend and Welcome.

Ten days ago we put up a post about the Jewish New Year, Rosh HaShanah. Now, ten days later, we are back to visit Highest Holyday of the Jewish year, Yom Kippur or The Day of Atonement begins at sundown Spetember, 24th.

FORGIVENESS OF SIN

Yom Kippur commemorates the day when God forgave the Jewish people in the desert for the sin of the Golden Calf. Forty days after hearing God say at Mount Sinai: “You shall not have the gods of others in My presence; you shall not make for yourself a graven image,” the Jews committed the cardinal sin of idolatry. Moses spent nearly three months on top of the mountain pleading with God on their behalf, and on the tenth of Tishri it was finally granted. “For on this day He will forgive you, to purify you, that you be cleansed from all your sins before God.” (Leviticus 16:30)

That date has been kept sacred ever after and became known as the Day of Atonement. While this is the most solemn day of the year, underlying it is a joyful confidence that God will forgive the people’s sins. From several minutes before sunset on Tishri 9 until after nightfall on Tishri 10 the people afflict their souls by abstaining from food and drink, they do not wash or anoint their bodies, do not wear leather footwear, and abstain from spousal intimacy. Instead of focusing on the physical, Jews spend much of the day in the synagogue, engaged in repentance and prayer.

The Yom Kippur Service in a Modern Synagogue

PREPARING FOR THE TIME OF ATONEMENT

On the day prior to Yom Kippur, the people eat and drink in abundance. Two festive meals are eaten, one early in the day, and one just prior to the onset of Yom Kippur fast. Another special observance of the day includes requesting and receiving honey cake. This is done to acknowledge that all we have comes from God. It also gives testimony to the prayerful hope that the following year be a sweet one. Jews also ask forgiveness from anyone they may have wronged during the past year, make extra charitable donations, and ceremonially bless their children. Before sunset, women and girls light holiday candles, and everyone makes their way to the synagogue for the Kol Nidrei services.

RITUAL PRAYERS AND READINGS

There are five prayer services held in the course of Yom Kippur: Maariv, with its solemn Kol Nidrei service, on the eve of Yom Kippur; Shacharit, the morning prayer, Musaf, which includes a detailed account of the Yom Kippur Temple service, Minchah, which includes the reading of the Book of Jonah. They say the Al Chet confession of sins eight times in the course of Yom Kippur, and recite Psalms every available moment. This is in compliance to the command, “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 Lord.  (Leviticus 16:29-30)

Most of the holiday is spent in the synagogue, in prayer. In Orthodox synagogues, services begin early in the morning (8 or 9 AM) and continue until about 3 PM. People then usually go home for an afternoon nap and return around 5 or 6 PM for the afternoon and evening services, which continue until nightfall. It is customary to wear white on Yom Kippur, which symbolizes purity and calls to mind the promise that our sins shall be made as white as snow (Is. 1:18). Some people wear a kittel, the white robe in which the dead are buried.

There are many additions to the regular liturgy. Perhaps the most important addition is the confession of the sins of the community, which is inserted into the Shemoneh Esrei (Amidah) prayer. It is important to note that all sins are confessed in the plural (we have done this, we have done that), emphasizing communal responsibility for transgressions.

Many in Israel go to the Wailing Wall, The Remaining
Western Wall of the Jerusalem Temple, to Pray During Yom Kippur

CONFESSION OF SINS

There are two basic parts of this confession. The Ashamnu contains a shorter, more general list (we have been treasonable, we have been aggressive, we have been slanderous...), the the Al Cheit is a longer and more specific list (for the sin we sinned before you forcibly or willingly, and for the sin we sinned before you by acting callously...) Frequent petitions for forgiveness are interspersed in these prayers. There's also a general confession reminiscent of the Catholic prayer, “…forgive our sins of omission and commission.” The Jewish form is, “Forgive us the breach of positive commands and negative commands, whether or not they involve an act, whether or not they are known to us.”

It is interesting to note that these confessions do not specifically address the kinds of ritual sins that some people might imagine. For instance, there is no “for the sin we have sinned before you by eating pork, and for the sin we have sinned against you by driving on Shabbat,”…though these are obviously included in the general confession. The vast majority of the sins enumerated involve mistreatment of other people, most of them by speech (offensive speech, scoffing, slander, tale-bearing, and swearing falsely, to name a few). These all come into the category of sin known as lashon ha-ra (the evil tongue), which is considered a very serious sin in Judaism.

The concluding service of Yom Kippur, known as Ne'ilah, is unique to the day. It usually runs about an hour. The ark, or cabinet where the scrolls of the Torah are kept, is left open throughout this service. Thus everyone is required to stand throughout the readings, unless physically unable to. There is a tone of desperation in the prayers of this service. The service is sometimes referred to as the closing of the gates. That is, it's the last chance to get in a good word before the holiday ends. The service ends with a very long blast of the Shofar, the tekiah gedolah. 

LOOKING AHEAD

The weeks following Rosh HaShanah are a time of feasts and festivals. The next comes just five days after Yom Kippur…the feast of Sukkoth, literally the feast of booths. One of three so-called pilgrim feasts during which the people left their homes and journeyed to Jerusalem, it was also called the Feast of Tabernacles or the Festival of Ingathering. Jesus, being an observant Jew, traveled to Jerusalem each year to observe this feast. One such instance is noted in John’s Gospel. “After this Jesus went about in Galilee; he would not go about in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill him. Now the Jews' feast of Tabernacles was at hand...” (John 7:1-2) “About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and taught.” (John 7:7:14)

Until NEXT TIME, we wish you Peace and Blessings.

ROSH HASHANAH

Sounding the Shofar at Rosh HaShanah

Hello My Friend and Welcome.

Judaism, like Christianity, has its calendar of Feasts and Festivals. And again, like Christianity, the liturgical year that governs them does not follow the secular calendar.

FROM ADAM TO THE PRESENT DAY

The term Rosh HaShanah, meaning the head of the year, is not found in the Bible. The Torah refers to the holiday as Yom Ha-Zikkaron (the day of remembrance) or Yom Teruah (the day of the sounding of the Shofar). The holiday is instituted in Leviticus 23:24-25. In Ezekiel 40:1 there is a general reference to the time of Yom Kippur as the "beginning of the year", but it does not specifically refer to the holiday of Rosh HaShanah.

The Jewish ecclesiastical calendar for the year 5773 begins the first day of the month of Tishri. This corresponds to our Gregorian date of September 17^th, 2011. However, since each new day by Jewish reckoning begins at sundown, it actually starts at sundown, September 15^th. Tradition says that Tishri 1 represents either the creation of the world or the creation of man. In the second case, the creation of the world occurred five days earlier on the 25^th of Elul. Either way, the time from Adam to the present time is calculated to be 5,773 years.

HONORING THE HOLYDAY

For the Jew, no work is permitted on Rosh HaShanah. Much of the day is spent in synagogue, where the regular daily liturgy is somewhat expanded. In fact, there is a special prayer book called the machzor used for Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur because of the extensive liturgical changes for these holydays.

One of the most important observances of this holiday is hearing the sounding of the Shofar in the synagogue. A total of 100 notes are sounded each day. There are four different types of Shofar notes: tekiah, a 3 second sustained note; shevarim, three 1-second notes rising in tone, teruah, a series of short, staccato notes extending over a period of about 3 seconds; and tekiah gedolah (literally, big tekiah), the final blast in a set, which lasts 10 seconds minimum. The Shofar is not blown if the holiday falls on Shabbat.

The common greeting at this time is L'shanah tovah (for a good year). This is a shortening of L'shanah tovah tikatev v'taihatem (or to women, L'shanah tovah tikatevi v'taihatemi), which means "May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year." A term that references the coming of Yom Kippur.

BEGINNING THE HIGH HOLYDAYS

The celebration of Rosh HaShanah, which lasts either one or two days, has similarities and differences to our celebration of New Year’s Day. Although the Jews gather and celebrate, their celebration is not the all-out party we sometimes see in America. There are no midnight bashes, no Rose Parade floats, no memorial bowl games, and no ball drops in Times Square. Though in one way we are very alike; the Jews, like many Americans, make it a time of introspection, looking back on the mistakes of the past year and planning changes for the year to come.

Rosh HaShanah ushers in what are known as the High Holy Days. This ten-day period begins on Rosh HaShanah and concludes on Yom Kippor, the Day of Atonement. The belief is that this is a time of judgment for each Jewish person. The righteous have their names recorded in the Book of Life. The wicked have their names expunged, and the middle-of-the-roaders have this time in which to repent and join the righteous.

KEEPING MORE THAN ONE YEAR

Those familiar with the Hebrew Bible may notice an apparent contradiction between Rosh HaShanah, which occurs on the first day of the seventh month and the first month of the Jewish calendar Nissan, which occurs in March and April.

Judaism has several different years. At first glance this may seem strange, but it’s no different than  the American calendar New Year starting in January, while the new school year starts in September, and many businesses have fiscal years that start at various times throughout the year. In Judaism, Nissan 1 is the new year for the purpose of counting the reign of kings and months on the calendar. Elul 1 in August is the new year for the tithing of animals. Shevat 15 in February is the new year for trees which determines when first fruits can be eaten, etc., and Tishri 1, Rosh HaShanah is when the year number is increased and Sabbatical and Jubilee years begin.

The Traditional meal Begins with Apples and Honey

TRADITIONAL FOODS

All holidays, secular and religious, have certain foods associated with them. If you don’t believe this, try serving something other than turkey on Thanksgiving and see what happens. The Rosh HaShanah meal traditionally begins with apples served with honey to give the New Year a sweet start. This is a late medieval Ashkenazi addition that is now almost universally accepted.

The Ashkenazi are Jews whose history can be traced to the medieval Jewish communities along the Rhine in Germany from Alsace in the south to the Rhineland in the north. Ashkenaz is the medieval Hebrew name for this region, and thus for Germany. They later migrated, forming communities in non German-speaking areas throughout Europe and the United States. Although they composed only 3 percent of the world's Jewish population in the 11th century, at their peak in 1931, Ashkenazi Jews accounted for 92 percent of the world's Jews.

The Usual Oblong Shape of a Braided Loaf of Challah Bread

Several other traditional foods eaten during this holiday are honey cake, braised brisket of beef, and Challah. The C is silent so this rich, braided, egg bread is pronounced Hallah. Raisins, or other bits of fruit, are typically added to the Rosh HaShanah bread. It can also be formed from multiple types of dough for added variety. Rather than appearing in its typical oblong braid, the holiday Challah comes to the table formed into a round braid representing the crown of God.

The very simplest way to make a round Challah loaf is to take a round baking pan, such as a cake pan, and put about a dozen equally sized balls of dough in it. When the dough rises, it takes on the semblance of a woven loaf. You can also actually weave, or braid, the dough in increasingly complex forms. The video below offers three options; the simple circular spiral, a four-strand braid, and a cut bird applied to the Challah crown. Click Here for Video

Until next time, we wish you Peace and Blessings