Conference taveng::bagels

Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish new year. Strangely enough, the date is _not_ the
first day of the first month of the Jewish calendar. I take this to mean the
day celebrates a spiritual anniversary, not a secular one. The holiday is
more solemn than joyful. Yom Kippur always occurs 9 days later. On Yom Kippur
we ask G-d to forgive our sins to G-d. On the days between Rosh Hashanah and
Yom Kippur we are expected to ask people whom we have wronged for forgiveness.
G-d has a kind of account book. On Rosh Hashanah G-d writes down our fate for
the coming year and on Yom Kippur seals the book. This holiday season is our
chance to pray for favorable revisions -- serious stuff. Most Jews, even
non-observant ones, attend services on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

The standard Rosh Hashanah greeting is "May you be written [in the book of Life]
for a good year". On Yom Kippur we say "May you be sealed for a good year."
If the family you are visiting normally says the blessings before a meal, they
will probably add one or two special blessings for the holiday. No big deal -
just say "amen" at the end if you feel inclined. Dress in your "Sunday best".

More holiday facts. The shofar (ram's horn) will be blown during the service
on Rosh Hashanah (to wake up the sleepers 8^). Yom Kippur is a fast day so
there is nothing to interrupt the praying. About 1 week after Yom Kippur comes
Simchat Torah which marks the end of the annual Torah reading cycle. We read
the end of Deuteronomy (death of Moses) and the start of Genesis (In the
beginning...) on that day. This is the day we finally let loose with a rousing
celebration.

Dave

    If the family that you are visiting is traditional, they may follow
    some customs related to eating special (symbolic) foods.  They will
    be dipping the bread (Challah) in honey to commemorate a sweet year.
     They may do the same with peices of apple.  My family also follows
    the chassidic custom of eating dates, spinach pancakes, leeks, beans,
    and fish because their hebrew names are similar to words used in
    some symbolic new year wishes for a healthy, happy, prosperous and
    enemy free year.
    
    My children really enjoy it...it becomes almost like a passover
    seder.
                                               
        *********      ****      *       *     *
                *         *       *     *    *
        *       *         *        *    *   *
        *       *    ******         ******** 
                                                                            
   *******    ******     ****     **      *                          
         *          *       *     *  *     *                
   *     *          *       *     *        *                      
   *     *    *********     *     **********
 
    
  --- Av
    
    (calligraphy courtesy of Fern Reiss)
 

I just noticed I omitted Succot and a whole week of the holiday season. Oh well,
I don't understand Succot too well anyway.

I also noticed that .0 asked about the history of the holiday. It is interesting
that .2 mentions Passover. Somewhere in Leviticus (I don't remember chapter and
verse) there is a list of holidays that G-d has commanded us to observe. The
first holiday listed is Passover which occurs in the 1st month. At about the
middle of the list there is a one-line description of a Day for the Blowing of
the Shofar. It is likely that the ancient rabbis frowned on the idea of
celebrating the new year on Passover because it drew attention away from the
central idea of the day (celebrating our release from Egypt and all the
miracles that accompanied that event). So they assigned new year to the Day
for Blowing the Shofar. Whether this is true or not is lost in history.

I often wonder how loud a shofar is supposed to be. The technique for blowing
it is like playing a brass instrument but the thing has no mouthpiece. This
makes it very difficult to play well. To my knowlege, the instrument is only
sounded during Rosh Hashanah and at the conclusion of Yom Kippur, and this
gives the player very little opportunity to practice his craft.

The children at Rosh Hashanah services usually get bored and wander off. But
the parents always bring them back in time for the Shofar "blauzen" (sp?).
Each year I hope to hear a mighty blast, but we usually settle for a moderate
"toot".

.2 has a good point about sweet foods to symbolize a sweet year. A box of
candy would thus be an appropriate gift (kosher candy if the family keeps kosher
and maybe even if not). Jewish New Year cards are available in the stores.
Some people like them and some think they're tacky.

Dave

    The shofar is also blown at the end of morning services for the
    previous month (Elul).  This should provide enough practice :-)
    
    

    It's also blown at the end of Selichot (late Saturday night before
    Rosh Hashanah), and at the very end of Yom Kippur.
    
    The two families (Schwarzes and Federmans) who are our shofar-blowers
    all manage to produce enough noise to definitely wake up any
    slumberers, even if they live in the next town!  I usually sit in
    the second row for services (I am very near-sighted), so I have
    NO PROBLEM hearing the shofar ;-)

  re .1  
    >>Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish new year. Strangely enough, the date is
    >>_not_the first day of the first month of the Jewish calendar. I take
    >>this to mean the day celebrates a spiritual anniversary, not a
    >>secular one. 
    
    Are there any other explanations why the Jewish "New Year" and the
    Jewish calendar don't coincide?  I may have once learned "the" answer
    in Hebrew school, but I no longer remember.  Thanks
    
    
    Gene

    The Jewish Calendar begins with the emancipation of the Jewish People
    from Egypt.  So, according to my Rabbi, the Jewish Calendar new
    year holiday is actually Pesach!
    

Yes, and the liturgy for Rosh Hashanah indicates that this holiday is the
anniversary of the Creation.

Dave

In fact there is a debate in the Talmud (Tractate Rosh Hashana -- where else?!)
as to when the world was created. One Rabbi says: the 1st of Tishri, the
other says the 1st of Nissan. Obviously the liturgy of Rosh Hashana indicates
which opinion was accepted! However, the calendar year starts in Nissan
anyway since the Bible (in Exodus) explicitly says "This is the first month"
(talking about the month in which the exodus occured). So the real question
is, I suppose, why Jewish tradition accepted the opinion that the world was
created on the 1st of Tishri rather than the opinion of the other Rabbi
(mentioned above). 
Since nothing in the text of Genesis forces one to either opinion (in fact
RAshi brings both opinions in his commentary on the Flood story), I wonder
if ancient peoples had any particular view about when the world was
created, in the spring or the autumn. IF they (for example) generally held
that the world was created in the autumn, maybe our ancestors simply
agreed with the Tishri opinion as a matter of "generally accepted scientific
knowledge". But this is all conjecture, of course, since I don't know if
the Greeks, Persians, Babylonians, Egyptians, or ??? had any commonly
shared opinion on the matter. 
Anyone out there know?
-AZ

    I believe that the 1st of Tishri corresponds to the 6th day of
    creation---when MAN (Adam and Chavah) were created.  We have the
    tradition in our shul to begin on 25 Elul to read the first day
    of creation from Bereshis(Genesis) and read the next day of creation
    on each succeeding day.  The sixth day then is Rosh HaShana.
    
    Av