High Holidays 2024
Shana Tova from your friends at the J!
Best wishes for a sweet and prosperous New Year!
What is Rosh Hashanah?
Rosh Hashanah is a festival that celebrates the Jewish New Year! According to the Bible, the holiday is known as the day of blowing the shofar (ram’s horn) and in rabbinic literature it came to also commemorate the birthday of the world and the beginning of a 10-day period where all humankind is judged for their deeds. The holiday lasts for two days.
This year, Rosh Hashanah begins on the evening of Wednesday, October 2 and ends on the evening of Friday, October 4. The J closes early at 3:00 PM on October 2, and will be closed on Thursday, October 3 and Friday, October 4.
The main elements of the holiday include prayer, festive meals and a tashlich service. There are a number of changes to our standard liturgy at this time and many Jews attend synagogue to hear the shofar blown, inspirational messages and music, as well as to pray. Tashlich, or casting away, is a ceremony where we throw breadcrumbs into water, symbolically throwing away our sins.
What is Yom Kippur?
This holiday is considered Judaism’s most sacred day of the year and is when Jews are closest to God. Yom Kippur is most often referred to as the “Day of Atonement.” It occurs 10 days after Rosh Hashanah. Like Shabbat, Yom Kippur is a one-day sunset to sundown holiday, observed through praying, repentance and refraining from six forms of pleasure, including: eating, drinking, bathing, sexual relations, anointing and wearing leather shoes. [Mishna Yoma 8:1].
Before the holiday, Jews participate in a meal often referred to as “seudat mafseket” (meal before the fast). If fasting poses a health risk for a person, they are not allowed to fast. For fasting individuals, this means they will go without food or water until the holiday is over. Many people go to synagogue on the evening of Yom Kippur to recite prayers, such as the Kol Nidre Prayer.
Prayer services are held throughout the next day, and the holiday ends the following night with a final service called Neilah and the blowing of the Shofar. People break the fast with a variety of customary foods.
What are Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret, and Simchat Torah?
Sukkot is a seven-day holiday of Biblical origin. The first day (and second day outside of Israel) is a festival day. Since Sukkot begins five days after Yom Kippur, Sukkot is a very joyful holiday and is commonly referred to as Z’man Simchateinu (The Season of our Joy).
Sukkot is considered one of our three pilgrimage festivals, in addition to Passover and Shavuot. Sukkot has a dual significance: historical and agricultural. Historically, Sukkot commemorates the 40-year period during which the children of Israel were wandering in the desert, living in temporary shelters. Agriculturally, Sukkot is a harvest festival and is sometimes referred to as Chag Ha-Asif (The Festival of Ingathering). The word “Sukkot” means “booths,” and refers to the temporary dwellings that we are commanded to live in during this holiday in memory of the period of wandering.
Shemini Atzeret is referred to as the eighth day of the festival, but in Jewish liturgy and tradition is considered a holiday in its own right. It is also a one-day festival day, extended to two outside of Israel. It is known as “the day of gathering,” yet its meaning is still somewhat cryptic.
Simchat Torah was a holiday later added to this day and commemorates the end of the annual reading of the Torah cycle. In places where only one day of the festival is observed, Simchat Torah and Shemini Atzeret are on the same day. In places that observe two festival days, Simchat Torah is celebrated on the second day.
