Religion

[Jennifer13]

Yes, I was right, it was 12 Sept for Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year). Thanks to Wikipedia for the following explanation!

Rosh Hashanah (Hebrew: ראש השנה, Biblical: ˈɾoʃ haʃ:ɔˈnɔh, Israeli: ˈroʃ haʃaˈna, Yiddish: ˈroʊʃ hɑˈʃɔnə) is literally translated as "head of the year", and idiomatically refers to the Jewish New Year. The term first appears in the Tanakh, in Ezekiel 40:1.

In fact, Judaism has four "new year" observances which mark various legal "years", much like 1 January marks the "New Year" of the Gregorian calendar while other dates mark fiscal or other "new year" events. Rosh Hashanah is the new year for people, animals, and legal contracts. The Mishnah also sets this day aside as the new year for calculating calendar years and sabbatical (shemitta) and jubilee (yovel) years.

The Torah refers to the day as "The Day of the Blowing of the Shofar" (Yom Terua, Leviticus 23:24), and rabbinic literature and the liturgy itself describe Rosh Hashanah as "The Day of Judgment" (Yom ha-Din) and "The Day of Remembrance" (Yom ha-Zikkaron). Some midrashic descriptions depict God as sitting upon a throne, while books containing the deeds of all humanity are opened for review, and each person passing in front of Him for evaluation of his or her deeds. All of these names are also referenced in the holiday's extensive liturgy.

This holiday is the first of the Yamim Noraim (Hebrew, "Days of Awe"), the most solemn days of the Jewish year; the Yamim Noraim are preceded by the month of Elul, during which Jews are supposed to begin a self-examination and repentance, a process that culminates in the ten days of the Yamim Noraim known as Asseret Yemei Teshuva - The Ten Days of Repentance, beginning with Rosh Hashanah and ending with the holiday of Yom Kippur.

This holiday is characterized by the blowing of the shofar (per Leviticus 23:24), a trumpet made from a ram's horn. In fact, the shofar is blown in traditional communities every morning for the entire month of Elul, the month preceding Rosh Hashanah. The sound of the shofar is intended to awaken the listener from his or her "slumber" and alert them to the coming judgment (Maimonides, Yad, Laws of Repentance 3:4). Orthodox Judaism and some Conservative Judaic communities will not blow the shofar on Shabbat. (There is an exception. Jewish Law permits the Shofar to be blown in the presence of a rabbinical court called the Sanhedrin, which had not existed since ancient times. A recent group of Orthodox rabbis in Israel claiming to constitute a modern Sanhedrin held, for the first time in many years, an Orthodox shofar-blowing on Shabbat for Rosh Hashana in 2006. [1])

In the period leading up to the Yamim Noraim ("Hebrew, "Days of Awe") penitential prayers, called selichot, are recited, and on Rosh Hashanah itself, religious poems, called piyyuttim, are added to the regular services. Special prayer books for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, called the mahzor (mahzorim pl), have developed over the years. Many poems refer to Psalms 81:3: "Blow the shofar on the [first day of the] month, when the [moon] is covered for our holiday".

Rosh Hashanah has a number of additions to the regular service, most notably an extended repetition of the Amidah prayer for both Shacharit and Mussaf. The Shofar is blown during Mussaf at several intervals. Biblical verses are recited at each point. According to the Mishnah, 10 verses (each) are said regarding kingship, remembrance, and the shofar itself, each accompanied by the blowing of the shofar. A variety of piyyutim, medieval penitential prayers, are recited regarding themes of repentance. The Alenu prayer is recited during the repetition of the Mussaf Amidah.

The traditional greeting on Rosh Hashanah is "Shana Tova" IPA [ʃaˈ na toˈ va], Hebrew for "A Good Year," or "Shana Tova Umetukah" for "A Good and Sweet Year." Because Jews are being judged by God for the coming year, a longer greeting translates as "May You Be Written and Sealed for a Good Year" (ketiva ve-chatima tovah).

During the afternoon of the first day occurs the practice of tashlikh, in which prayers are recited near natural flowing water, and one's sins are symbolically cast into the water. Many also have the custom to throw bread or pebbles into the water, to symbolize the "casting off" of sins. In some communities, if the first day of Rosh Hashanah occurs on Shabbat tashlikh is postponed to the second day. The traditional service for tashlikh is recited individually and includes the prayer "Who is like unto you, O God...And You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea", and Biblical passages including Isaiah 11:9 ("They will not injure nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea") and Psalms 118:5-9, 121 and 130, as well as personal prayers.


Rosh Hashanah table set with symbolic foods.Rosh Hashanah meals often include apples and honey, to symbolize a "sweet new year". Various other foods with a symbolic meaning may be served, depending on local minhag (custom), such as tongue or other meat from the head (to symbolise the "head" of the year). Other symbolic foods are dates, black-eyed beans, leek, spinach and gourd, all of which are mentioned in the Talmud. Pomegranates are used in many traditions: the use of apples and honey is a late medieval Ashkenazi addition, though it is now almost universally accepted. Typically, round challah bread is served, to symbolize the cycle of the year. On the second night, new fruits are served to warrant inclusion of the shehecheyanu blessing, the saying of which would otherwise be doubtful (as the second day is part of the "long day" mentioned above).

Yael, if you still pop into this thread - what did you do for Rosh Hashanah?

[Rouge]

Yep I already wished Yael L'shanah tovah who should be back tomorrow night I think so she'll be able to explain all the goings on of Rosh Hashanah.

ETA: Ooo you found some stuff... cool!

[Phteven]

Interesting that dates and honey are both symbolic food.
They both have a special place in Islam too. Traditionally we break our fast with dates and a glass of water and honey is one of the foods mentioned in The Quran.

[Bathsheba]

Thanks for posting that info Jennifer

Well I've been up since 5am, enjoying the quiet house while the family sleeps. Been reading the papers of the deaths of several people. The two cancer victims (Clare Oliver and Ellice Hammond) and the 91 year old lady who was beaten up by burgulars. It has given me lots of food for thought (not usually possible when the kids are filling the house with their presence!). These women all faced incredible challenges. Clare (died of a melanoma from a solarium) knew that she wasn't going to live and made the best "use" of her time advocating for change. Ellice (diagnosed with cancer in her 22nd week of pregnancy and chose to stop treatment so that her daughter Mia could live). How strong were these women!!!? I just can't quite wrap my head around it...quite. There is a little voice whispering inside me that is assuring me that all is good for these women. The challenges they had to face allowed their spirits to 'fly' ie reach their full potential. I can't help think that mine is kinda languishing in comparison. I'm thinking aloud here but whilst these stories are sad I am not defining them as "tradgic". I think that if you can look past the suffering something truely special and wonderful has happened. I am so inspired. Not that i would wish what these women went through on anyone but isn't their inspiration a real insight and (dare I say it "proof" of the existance of God?) Where does this kind of strength come from? The families of these women will be in my prayers this weekend.

ETA: still mullin' I guess some people would also say "How can there be a God? If he existed then HOW could allow this kind of this to happen? How can he allow suffering?" Well I find this hard to answer but I have some vague notion that physical suffering is sometimes necessary for spiritual growth... just like the mother has to suffer in labour to birth her baby maybe the body sometimes has to suffer for the spirit to emerge? Sometimes this is the only way? C.S Lewis gives the analogy of the spirit as a muscle: challenges are the exercise that the spirit muscle needs to grow... sometimes it just needs to hurt. I know that my future is going to involve many different sorts of physical and emotional pain... I just hope I can find the strength... or accept the strength, when the time comes. I guess this is all straightforward to some of you Bear with me girls... I'm still relatively new to this... if only i had been prompted to think about this kind of thing as a child/teen. I'm such a newbie to this LOL

[Phteven]

Bathsheba, it's a bit early in the morning for me for such deep musings - I'm more a night owl muser lol, but on the subject of how does G-d allow suffering I geuss that I think that our time on Earth is only the begining of our journey. In Islam we believe that Allah rewards those who who suffer on earth in the afterlife. So in a wierd way awful things can be kind of a blessing because they bring rewards.
I read once that people with faith have much lower levels of depression, anxiety and suicide than athiests and I geuss that this is part of the reason why. I think that these are all awful (yet kind of inspiring) but I can be reconciled to them as part of Allah's plan. If I thought that thier pain and bravery went unnoticed and unrewarded then I would probably find it far more challenging.

ETA - Sometimes having a really privledged life with no suffering could be a greater test because it leads so easily to pride and arrogance.

[Heaven]

Wow, so much to catch up on. I'm glad this thread is going again. Waiting to see what Yael, did for Jewish New Year now. I'm not sure, is it the same as feast of trumpets?? Seems like it was on the day before?

[Heaven]

Anyone going to be observing the day of atonement this saturday?

[Yael]

Hi guys,

Sorry I've been absent - yes, we had our New Year which was went from Wed night until Friday night, and then straight into our sabbath - so it was effectively a 3 day holiday where we don't use computers (or turn on electricity really), hence the me missing for a few days part.

Have to be quick, i can hear my son waking up, and i still have a phone call i need to make.

SaraJane - it is the "feast of trumpets" also probably called the day of blowing. We blow a rams horn 100 times each of the 2 days... my son very much enjoyed watching this part. It is basically to awaken you from your slumber of the year, and to begin again.

And yes, we will be observing the day of atonement this Saturday. You normally blow the shofar (rams horn), at the end of this, but as it is Saturday this won't be done. Also, this is one of the only two times that you fast on a sabbath, every other time the fast is pushed off until the next day (last Saturday, the day after Rosh HaShanah was a fast day, which was observed on Sunday).

So we will be fasting (no food or water) for 25 hours.. I actually quite enjoy it, find it very refreshing and cleansing, but I haven't fasted this pregnant before, so will probably take the afternoon very easy and will only go to synagogue in the morning.

OK, I'd better run, the boy is definitely awake - i will try to get on later and post some more about our holidays!

[Heaven]

I know what you mean, fasting sounds bad, but I enjoy it too. People might think I'm weird. I guess if you do it for no reason it's not much fun. But it has a sense of purpose, there's a reason why you're doing it!

[AngelPunks]

With one coven I was involved in, we would fast for 24 hours before a major ritual, then we'd bathe before either putting on our robes or going skyclad (depending on the weather!). After the ritual we would feast and celebrate.

[~StarBright~]

Wow, i remember looking in here when this thread first appeared, now there is so much i cant catch up, i will be popping back in to catch up some more before i ask any silly questions which may have already been anwered.
i would just like to put a few thoughts out there....

I was brought up with no religious culture. My parents had my two older sisters christened but by the time i came around they had decided not to continue with any religion. As a result i have grown up interested in all sorts of religions and cultures and i have noticed that when you take an overall view, things are quite similar through out many religions. So i have come up with a few theories on life and the High Ruler and our place as humans in this world. Some of my theories are WAY out there, but they are all based on a spiritual ideas with aspects of all the religions taking part in the whole picture.

I would like to see the human race get it together and unite and maybe if we all asked our respective "Gods" nicely to please send us some help to sort all this mess and confusion out. The one thing i have trouble with is that i dont believe that one religion can be 100% fully fledged "right" because while they all have similarities they are all that little bit condratictory of another religion. I sort of beleive that we all started with the right ideas (like thousands of years ago) but that as humans little differences in stories have appeared. And now instead of seeing all of the similarities, people have focused on the differences.
So i start to think if there is one "God" out there either he/she's happy that we have all found our own ways to appriciate him/her or its really angry because we are not all doing the right thing, especially by fighting eachother and not respecting our planet. And i tend to think its the latter because of all the trouble different beliefs can cause between people and countries etc. and the ignorance that some people have towards other people and the planet. Surely it was not in any plan for us to fight eachother over our beliefs if there is a truth out there for us all to agree on.

I love to see people from different religions talking to eachother, like in this thread, finding out similarities in thier beleifs without any bias or negativity. Maybe if the rest of the world could do the same, we wouldn't have such strife


Sorry to just intrude like this, i hope i haven't offended anyone- i wish only peace and harmony for all of gods creatures. I dont mean to just jump in here and spurt my bit like i know everything, coz i dont, thats the problem. As someone looking for some sort of inner peace and "right" path to follow, it is very hard to fully beleive in something when it is so obvious there are many religions to choose from. And yet it feels wrong to just pick one and say "thats the right one for me" because then i feel like i am just picking the thing that suits what i want, not neccessarily what is needed. And then when i look around the world and see that these differences of opinion are causing so much greif between people it upsets me. I think to myself, there has to be a simpler way.

I hope that i haven't put a damper on this wonderful thread, but i wanted to put this out there and maybe see if anyone can understand where i am coming from. And maybe there is a religion out there that may answer some of my questions that i haven't found yet.

Goodnight and Sweet Dreams

StarBright

[Heaven]

So i start to think if there is one "God" out there either he/she's happy that we have all found our own ways to appriciate him/her or its really angry because we are not all doing the right thing, especially by fighting eachother and not respecting our planet. And i tend to think its the latter because of all the trouble different beliefs can cause between people and countries etc. and the ignorance that some people have towards other people and the planet. Surely it was not in any plan for us to fight eachother over our beliefs if there is a truth out there for us all to agree on.

I agree.


Yay!! I just found the new religion forums, how exciting. We were talking about that being a good idea a while back! I wonder if this will get moved now. Thankyou very much for making them Kelly. When I started this thread I didn't think there'd be so much interest!! Obviously we needed them, hopefully lots of people get involved, I've really been enjoying this thread!! Thanks again!

[Phteven]

time for a new thread

Religion #2