Shofah or ram's horn blown on Jewish New Year. Picture from Wikipedia.
Problem
When are the Jewish holidays and how will this affect me?
Answers
I just received an animated Jewish New Year e-card via the Jacqueline Lawson website. It was a design showing honey and bees and apples with a moving bee and bee hives.
I now have to reciprocate by wishing the senders a Happy New Year. I need to work out which of my long list of family, friends, and colleagues, might be pleased to receive an e-card. I received a Muslim card last month and decided I should reciprocate.
So now, the first question is, when is the holiday coming up?
A card I was sent. The apple, circular, with seeds, represents the circle of life and the new births. The six point stars are a Jewish symbol. Some say the six point star is the Star of David or the Shield of Solomon. Others think the points symbolize evil being caught inside the spokes or pointed tips which are like corners. Tov means good, as in Mazel tov, good luck. Shanah Tovah, (a) good year!
Jewish New Year starts the evening of Wednesday September. The important day when people will be off work and attending synagogues is Thursday. Because of the time difference in different parts of the world, holidays are celebrated a second day in the diaspora (scattering of people outside Israel) to be sure that when the holiday is being celebrated for one day in Israel, everybody in the rest of the world is also celebrating that day whatever their time zone. For Orthodox Jews and others who celebrate two days, the time ends Friday 22nd September.
Israeli New Year greeting card. From Wikipedia.
So you will find that attempts to see a doctor or dentist, or hire a taxi, might be less easy if all or some of the staff are taking days off for religious holidays.
When I lived in the USA, the system was that everybody in the company got about ten or fifteen days off a year, and you chose to have them off on your religious holidays, and the company hoped to spread the days off so that the business always had staff in the office.
About a week after Jewish New Year feast comes the Yom Kippur Fast. Any events which cannot take place on September 29-30, will have to be brought forward to Sept 23 weekend, or moved into October.
Yom Kippur Sept 29-30 2017.
If you are arranging any group events, sports or contests, meals out, trips away, you may have to check if any of your group are affected. Any food you were expecting to get from a Jewish restaurant, or bagel bakery or deli - oops, they are closed.
The new year is celebrated with the noisy blowing of the shofah, a rams horn, used as a trumpet since biblical times.
Foods enjoyed to celebrate the sweetness of the new year are apples dipped in honey and a round chollah (bread).
Hebrew - English
ha - the
rosh - head
shanah - year
tov / tova - good
yom - day
English - Hebrew
day - yom
good - tov
head - rosh
the - ha
year - shanah
You can learn Hebrew for free on the website www.duolingo on a computer, or laptop or phone.
Tips
https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/us/rosh-hashana
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. See my other posts, on Israel, Judaism, learning Hebrew and learning languages. Please share links to your favourite posts.
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