joeyknuccione wrote:Apples and honey?
I am soooo converting.
Have a great Rosh HaShanah!
Lol--we had you at apples and honey, huh? Wait till your first Seder.
Thanks, both of you, for your well wishes! Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur are reflective kind of holidays. Rosh HaShanah represents not only the Jewish new year, but, mythically speaking, also the anniversary of creation and the time when we re-proclaim HaShem as our King.
And, mythically, the idea is that on Rosh HaShana HaShem is ready to inscribe (or not to inscribe) each person in the book of life for another year. . . but the book isn't sealed till Yom Kippur. As our liturgy puts it (in English translation):
On Rosh HaShanah it is written,
And on Yom Kippur it is sealed:
How many shall leave this world, and how many shall be born; who shall live and who shall die, who in the fullness of years and who before; who shall perish by fire and who by water, who by sword and who by a wild beast; who by famine and who by thirst, who by earthquake and who by plague; who by strangling and who by stoning, who shall rest and who shall wander; who shall be serene and who disturbed, who shall be at ease and who afflicted; who shall be impoverished and who enriched, who shall be humbled and who exalted.
BUT REPENTANCE, PRAYER, AND DEEDS OF KINDNESS
CAN REMOVE THE SEVERITY OF THE DECREE.
Our High Holy Day prayerbook--or at least the one used by many Conservative synagogues--also has this poem/prayer:
Each of Us is an Author
"You open the Book of Remembrance, and it speaks for itself,
For each of us has signed it with deeds."
This is the sobering truth,
Which both frightens us and consoles us:
Each of us is an author,
Writing, with deeds, in life's Great Book.
And to each You have given the power,
To write lines that will never be lost.
No song is so trivial,
No story is so commonplace,
No deed is so insignificant,
That you do not record it.
No kindness is ever done in vain;
Each mean act leaves its imprint;
All our deeds, the good and the bad,
Are noted and remembered by You.
So help us to remember always,
That what we do will live forever;
That the echoes of the words we speak,
Will resound until the end of time.
May our lives relfect this awareness;
May our deeds bring no shame or reporach.
May the entries we make in the Book of Remembrance
Be ever acceptable to You.
So Rosh HaShana sets off the Days of Awe, when we try to evaluate our lives, deeds and decisions and committ ourselves to doing better. We repent of any sins, trusting that HaShem will forgive them--but there is a catch to that. HaShem only forgives sins that we committed against Him. He doesn't forgive wrongs we've done to another person. Only the person we've wronged can do that. So the Days of Awe are also a time to reconcile with the people we've offended.
(We shouldn't be waiting till the High Holy Days to reconcile, of course . . . but if we have waited that long, the Days of Awe remind us to go ahead and make things right to the best of our abiliities.)
And lest we forget the purpose of these days, the blasts of the shofar we hear at services rattle us into remembering!
And it all leads up to Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement--a full day fast filled with profound, gut wrenching services (if they're done right).
And that, I hope, serves as a decent introduction to the High Holy Days.
