Rosh Hashanah, The Jewish New Year, Begins Wednesday Night
by Arutz Sheva Staff
September 28, 2011, Ellul 29, 5771
The Jewish People begin the High Holydays on Wednesday evening, ushering in the year 5772 by starting nearly a month of special days: Two days of Rosh Hashanah on Thursday and Friday are this year followed immediately by Shabbat Shuva, the Sabbath of Repentance, and on Sunday by the Fast of Gedaliah.
Rosh Hashana is also the start of the Ten Days of Repentance which culminate with the solemn Fast of Yom Kippur on the tenth day of Tishrei. Special verses about repentance are added to the silent Amidah prayer said three times daily during these ten days.
This is Judaism's time for introspection, when Jews look back and examine their actions in the year that has just ended, seeking to improve their observance of the Torah’s commandments directed towards G-d and towards their fellow man. They are expected to ask forgiveness from those they may have offended or hurt during the past year.
On the Sabbath of Repentance this Saturday, a special chapter is read from the book of the prophet Hosea, calling the Jewish people to repent and return to G-d. Rabbis traditionally deliver a sermon, drasha, on repentance in the afternoon.
The Fast of Gedaliah commemorates the end of Jewish rule in the Land of Israel following the destruction of the First Holy Temple some 2,500 years ago, prompting the sages to say that the end of Jewish independence is comparable in solemnity to Yom Kippur.
The Jewish New Year has several names, among them the Day of Judgment. It is a time for careful stock-taking of one's relationship with G-d, and the longer Rosh Hashanah morning prayers filled with emotion, responsive readings and songs, are therefore intense and inspirational – usually led by a carefully chosen cantor or member of the congregation - concentrating on G-d's Kingship, eternal presence and His judgment of all creatures.
“Repentance, prayer and charity avert the evil decree” is a central line from the Machzor, the special holiday prayer book, listing the course of action that it is hoped will lead to meriting a good year.
Upon returning home after the evening prayers, symbolic foods – simanim - are served, whose names allow a play on words that ask for our merits to be numerous, for our enemies to be destroyed, that we lead rather than follow. There are especially sweet ones, such as apples dipped in honey, to symbolize a sweet year.
Fruits that require a special Shehecheyanu blessing, said for something new, because they are being eaten for the first time since the previous season, are served on the second night. Pomegranates are often used for this purpose. Traditionally, children wear a new garment for the first time the second night and can say the blessing. Candles are lit both nights, but it is forbidden to light a match on the holiday, so an existing flame is used to kindle them.
Based on the commandment in Numbers 29:1, 100 shofar blasts are dramatically sounded throughout the prayers, "awakening" us to improve our ways. The congregation refrains from speech from the first shofar blasts until the last ones at the end of the service..
The Tashlikh prayer is recited on the first afternoon, preferably near a live stream of water in which we ask G-d to "throw away" our sins.
Many religious Israeli youth spend the holiday at secular kibbutzim to lead the services, volunteer to lead services in the IDF and in hospitals. Breslover Hassidim and others have begun a custom of going to Uman, Ukraine, to pray at the gravesite synagogues of their spiritual leader, Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, who passed away in Tishrei of 1810. Prominent rabbis, however, oppose the idea of leaving the Holy Land to spend Rosh Hashana in the Diaspora.
Five days after Yom Kippur the holiday of Sukkot begins, which in Israel, is seven days long, but is two days longer in the Diaspora, culminating the month of holidays.
Arutz Sheva wishes all its readers and the entire Jewish people a sweet and good new year. May we be inscribed in the Book of Life for health and happiness, love of the Land of Israel and true peace.
News reporting will continue with Arutz Sheva’s reporter writing from Canada until the start of holiday NY time and then resume on Saturday night Israel time with our Israeli reporters.
Shana Tova: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW57auru_9c&feature=relmfu
Gaza Terror Attack on Israeli Kibbutz Heralds Jewish New Year
by Chana Ya'ar
September 8, 2010, Elul 29, 5770
Gaza terrorists launched a mortar attack on children and their parents in southern Israel Wednesday, just hours before the start of Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish New Year.
One mortar exploded close to several kindergarten buildings in a Negev kibbutz, just half an hour before the children were set to arrive.
No one was wounded in the attack, which occurred in the Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council district, but at least one of the buildings was damaged.
Miraculously, the shell landed between two of the buildings, according to one of the residents, who noted that things “could have ended very differently.”
The school building that was damaged by the explosion had a fortified roof – but no other part of the building is protected. Area officials have been discussing the issue with security personnel, asking for total reinforcement of the community's public buildings.
Yenina, one of the mothers who brought her son to school not long after the attack explained, “We are continuing as usual – we have no other choice. It's a holiday today. People's faces look a lot less happy today, but the buildings are protected and parents are bringing their children to school.
“We heard the explosion – to our great sorry, it was a mortar, which doesn't activate the Color Red system, the way a Kassam rocket does. So actually, it was the explosion that told us there had been an attack.
“This is the most frightening aspect of the situation, although in actuality, rockets can land anywhere. What's important to note is that it is not quiet here. Almost every day a mortar or Kassam rocket lands. It happens all the time.”
Overnight, the western Negev was also struck by a Kassam rocket attack launched by terrorists. Those residents of Sderot and the Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council district who were not cooking and otherwise preparing for the holiday, were rudely awakened by the scream of the Color Red air raid siren at about 2:00 a.m. Within 15 seconds, at least one rocket exploded in the area, but did not cause damage, and no one was wounded in the attack.
Local residents told Israel National News that attacks from Gaza have sharply escalated following Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's trip to Washington D.C. for direct talks with Palestinian Authority Chairman and Fatah Leader Mahmoud Abbas.
Home Front Command recommended Wednesday that kindergartens in the region be kept open in order to provide a safe indoor facility in which children can play for hours leading up to the holiday, which begins at sunset.
Judea, Samaria Crossings Closed
In other security news, the security crossings from Judea and Samaria were closed overnight for the duration of the Rosh HaShanah New Year's holiday.
Although the holiday does not begin until sunset Wednesday, the crossings closed one minute prior to midnight Tuesday night, September 7, and will not reopen until September 11, one minute prior to midnight late Saturday night.
Per standard practice, persons in need of medical attention, will be allowed to pass through. The passage of humanitarian aid, as well as doctors, medical personnel, NGO members, attorneys and additional professionals will be coordinated by the Civil Administration.
“Additionally, special accommodations were made in light of the Muslim holiday of Eid ul-Fitr for the purpose of family visitations,” the IDF Spokesperson said in a statement.
Border Crossing?
Journalists have been warned by the IDF Spokesperson, who coordinates all statements with the Government Press Office (GPO), to prepare passports and visas as well as standard press credentials to pass through the crossings, in much the same way as one would for travel to a different country.
“In order to pass, media personnel with Israeli or dual citizenship are required to sign release forms prior to visiting the A areas and are encouraged to coordinate their passage in advance with the IDF Spokesperson's News Desk,” the statement said.
G-d Does Not Expect Us To Get It Right All the Time
by Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks
September 8, 2010, Elul 29, 5770
Guilt is out of fashion these days, like sports jackets, courtesy, humility and handkerchiefs. It has a sepia-tinted Victorian air about it. It belongs, so it seems, to that foreign country, the past. They do things differently there. For us, when things go wrong, it was someone else’s fault: the boss, the colleague, the system, the government, the media, our parents, the way we were brought up, society, bad luck or our genes.
Feeling guilty, they say, is bad for us. It lowers self esteem. Who does it any more? We have finally reached the age Shelley dreamed of in his poem Prometheus Unbound. We are “free from guilt or pain.”
All of which makes it difficult to understand – except as some relic of the past – what Jews throughout the world are now doing, getting ready for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the Jewish New Year and the Day of Atonement, what we call “the Days of Awe.” Yom Kippur could almost be defined as a festival of guilt. We repent and confess our sins repeatedly in long alphabetical lists. “We have been guilty, we have betrayed, we have robbed, we have spoken slander.” “For the sin we committed through hardness of heart, for the sin we committed through utterance of the lips,” and so on throughout the day.
Yom Kippur itself is the culmination of a process that begins forty days before with the sounding of the shofar, the ram’s horn, our moral early warning system. Then come Selichot, the special penitential prayers said for a week before the New Year, then the New Year itself with its symbolism of the world as a courtroom in session, with our lives on trial. It’s hard to think of anything less in keeping with the zeitgeist, the mood of now.
I think, though, that Judaism gets it right and the zeitgeistgets it spectacularly, dangerously wrong. Consider: guilt enters the world hand in hand with the spirit of forgiveness. G-d forgives: that is the message emblazoned all over Yom Kippur. G-d doesn’t expect us to get it right all the time. The greatest of the great, Abraham, Sarah, Moses, David, had their faults and failings, defeats and doubts. There is only one person in the Hebrew Bible who is said to have committed no sin: Job. And look what happened to him.
So, because G-d forgives, we can be honest with Him and therefore with ourselves. Unlike a shame culture, a guilt culture separates agent from act, the person from the deed. What I did may be wrong, but I am still intact, still loved by G-d, still His child. In a guilt culture, acknowledging our mistakes is doable, and that makes all the difference.
Today’s secular environment is a shame culture. It involves trial by the media, or public opinion, or the courts, or economic necessity, all of which are unforgiving. When shame is involved, it’s us, not just our actions, that are found wanting. That’s why in a shame culture you don’t hear people saying, “I was wrong. It was my fault. I’m sorry. Forgive me.” Instead, people try to brazen it out. The only way to survive in a shame culture is to be shameless. Some people manage this quite well, but deep down we know that there’s something rotten in a system where no one is willing to accept responsibility.
Ultimately, guilt cultures produce strong individuals precisely because they force us to accept responsibility. When things go wrong we don’t waste time blaming others. We don’t luxuriate in the most addictive, destructive drug known to humankind, namely victimhood. We say, honestly and seriously, “I’m sorry. Forgive me. Now let me do what I can to put it right.” That way we and the people we offend can move on. Through our mistakes we discover the strength to heal, learn and grow.
Shame cultures produce people who conform. Guilt cultures produces people with the courage to be free. The Talmud says that the Day of Atonement was one of the happiest days of the year. That’s an odd thing to say about a day of fasting and confession. But the rabbis were right.
In place of a low dishonest culture where everyone blames someone else and no one admits responsibility, Yom Kippur offers a world of honesty and responsibility where guilt melts in the flames of G-d’s forgiveness and we are made new in the fire of His unconditional love.