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Sukkot
Sukkot
Beginning five days after Yom Kippur, Sukkot is named after
the booths or huts (sukkot in Hebrew) in which Jews are supposed to dwell
during this week-long celebration.
Sukkot is the ancient autumnal harvest festival. Much of the
imagery and ritual of the holiday revolves around rejoicing and thanking God
for the completed harvest. The sukkah represents the hut that farmers
lived in during 40-yers of wondering the dessert.
Many of the most popular rituals of Sukkot are practiced in
the home. As soon after the conclusion of Yom Kippur as possible,
often on the same evening, one is enjoined to begin building the sukkah, or hut, that
is the central symbol of the holiday. The sukkah is a flimsy structure with at least three sides, whose
roof is made out of thatch or branches, which provides some shade and protection
from the sun, but also allows the stars to be seen at night. It is traditional
to decorate the sukkah and to spend as much time in it as possible. In commemoration
of the bounty of the Holy Land, we hold and shake four species of
plants (arba
minim), consisting of palm, myrtle, and willow (lulav ),
together with citron (etrog ).
As with all festivals, services play an important role in the
communal celebration of Sukkot. In addition to special festival
readings, including Psalms
of Praise (Hallel), on Sukkot additional prayers are
included in the service asking God to save us (hoshana, from which we get the English word hosanna). During the
Hoshana prayers, congregants march around the synagogue sanctuary holding the
lulav and etrog. The seventh and last day of the festival is called Hoshanah Rabba, the “Great Hoshana.”
Hol Hamoed (Intermediate Days) Sukkot
During the intermediate days of Sukkot, one is allowed to
pursue normal activity. One is nonetheless supposed to hold and wave the lulav
and etrog on a daily basis, eat one’s meals in the sukkah, and continue
to dwell in the sukkah for the remainder of the holiday.
The enforced simplicity of eating and perhaps also living in
a temporary shelter focuses our minds on the important things in life and
divorces us from the material possessions of the modern world that dominate so
many of our lives. Even so, Sukkot is a joyful holiday and justifiably referred
to as zeman simchateynu, the “season of our joy.”
Based on https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/sukkot-101/
Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur
is one of the most important holidays of the Jewish year. Many Jews who do not
observe any other Jewish custom will refrain from work, fast and/or
attend synagogue services
on this day. Yom Kippur occurs on the 10th day of Tishri.
The name
“Yom Kippur” means “Day of Atonement,” and it is a day set aside to “afflict
the soul,” to atone for the sins of the past year. During the Days of Awe, God inscribes
all of our names in either the book of life or death. On Yom Kippur, the
judgment entered in these books is sealed.
Yom Kippur
atones only for sins between man and G-d, not for sins against another person.
To atone for sins against another person, you must first seek reconciliation
with that person, righting the wrongs you committed against them if
possible.
On the eve
of Yom Kippur, some religious Jews practice a ritual known as Kapparah (כפרה).
Yom Kippur
is a Sabbath day;
no work can be performed on the day of Yom Kippur. During the holiday Jews fast
for approximately 24 hours, from sundown to sundown. In addition to
dietary restrictions, he Talmud also
specifies additional restrictions that are less well-known: washing and
bathing, anointing one's body (with cosmetics, deodorants, etc.), wearing
leather shoes (Orthodox Jews
routinely wear canvas sneakers under their dress clothes on Yom Kippur), and
engaging in sexual relations are all prohibited on Yom Kippur.
As always,
any of these restrictions can be lifted where a threat to life or health is
involved. In fact, children under the age of nine and women in childbirth (from
the time labor begins until three days after birth) are not permitted to fast,
even if they want to. Older children and women from the third to the seventh
day after childbirth are permitted to fast, but are permitted to break the fast
if they feel the need to do so. People with other illnesses should consult a
physician and/or a rabbi for advice.
Most of
the holiday is spent in the synagogue, in prayer. In Orthodox synagogues,
services begin early in the morning (8 or 9 AM) and continue until about 3 PM.
More religious people then usually go home for an afternoon nap and return
around 5 or 6 PM for the afternoon and evening services, which continue until
nightfall. The services end at nightfall, with the blowing of the tekiah
gedolah, a long blast on the shofar.
It is
customary to wear white on the holiday, which symbolizes purity and calls to
mind the promise that our sins shall be made as white as snow (Is. 1:18).
Some people wear a kittel, the
white robe in which the dead are buried.
The
origins of Yom Kippur are unclear. It is not mentioned in the list of holidays
to be observed when the Temple destroyed by the Babylonians was rebuilt.
Zecharia omits Yom Kippur from the fast days Jews are to follow after their
return from captivity, and Ezra says nothing about it in his instructions on
preparing for Sukkot.
Elon Gilad
argues that the biblical references to the Day of Atonement (Numbers 29:7-11
and Leviticus 16:1-34; 23:26-32) were “inserted by priests during the Second
Temple period to validate new rites added to purify the Temple in advance of”
Sukkot. He also posits that Yom Kippur may have been inspired by Akitu, a
Babylonian festival marking the beginning of the new year, which has several
similarities to the Jewish holiday.
The fifth
day of Akitu was the only day the king entered the sanctuary of the Babylonian
temple. Similarly, the Day of Atonement was the only time the high priest of
the Israelites would enter the Holy of Holies (where the Ark of the Covenant
was kept). The Babylonian king would tell his deity that he had not sinned; by
contrast, the Jewish priest would confess the sins of the Israelites over the
head of a live goat. The animal would then be sent away into the wilderness
(Leviticus 16:21). This type of ritual performed by Jews and others gave rise
to the term “scapegoat.”
Fasting is
the practice most associated with Yom Kippur, but the Bible does not explicitly
call for Jews to refrain from eating or drinking. The phrase “ye shall afflict
your souls” is used, which is interpreted to mean fasting because that is the
meaning elsewhere.
Yom Kippur
has its own candlelighting blessing. If the holiay coincides with Shabbat, the words in
parentheses are added:
|
Baruch atah adonai eloheinu melech
ha'olam asher kid'shanu b'mitzvotav v'tzivanu l'hadlik neir shel (shabbat
v'shel) you hakippurim. |
After the
candles are lit, the Shehecheyanu prayer
is recited.
The
evening service that begins Yom Kippur is commonly known as Kol Nidre, named
for the prayer that begins the service. “Kol nidre” means “all vows,” and in
this prayer, we ask G-d to annul all personal vows we may make in the next
year. It refers only to vows between the person making them and G-d, such as
“If I pass this test, I'll pray every day for the next 6 months!”
This
prayer has often been held up by anti-Semites as
proof that Jews are untrustworthy (we do not keep our vows), and for this
reason the Reform movement
removed it from the liturgy,
but it was eventually reinstated. In fact, the reverse is true: we make this
prayer because we take vows so seriously that we consider ourselves bound even
if we make the vows under duress or in times of stress. This prayer gave
comfort to those who were converted to Christianity by torture in various
inquisitions, yet felt unable to break their vow to follow Christianity. In
recognition of this history, the Reform movement
restored this prayer to its liturgy.
There are
many additions to the regular liturgy.
Perhaps the most important addition is the confession of the sins of the
community, which is inserted into the Shemoneh
Esrei (Amidah) prayer. Note
that all sins are confessed in the plural (we have done this, we have done
that), emphasizing communal responsibility for sins.
There are
two basic parts of this confession: Ashamnu,
a shorter, more general list (we have been treasonable, we have been
aggressive, we have been slanderous...), and Al Chet, a longer and more specific list (for the sin we sinned
before you forcibly or willingly, and for the sin we sinned before you by
acting callously...) Frequent petitions for forgiveness are interspersed in
these prayers. There's also a catch-all confession: “Forgive us the breach of
positive commands and negative commands, whether or not they involve an act,
whether or not they are known to us.”
It is
interesting to note that these confessions do not specifically address the
kinds of ritual sins that some people think are the be-all-and-end-all of Judaism. There is no “for
the sin we have sinned before you by eating pork, and for the sin we have
sinned against you by driving on Shabbat” (though obviously these are
implicitly included in the catch-all). The vast majority of the sins enumerated
involve mistreatment of other people, most of them by speech (offensive speech,
scoffing, slander, talebearing, and swearing falsely, to name a few). These all
come into the category of sin known as “lashon ha-ra”
(lit: the evil tongue), which is considered a very serious sin in Judaism.
The
concluding service of Yom Kippur, known as Ne'ilah, is one unique to the day. It usually runs about 1 hour
long. The ark (a
cabinet where the scrolls of the Torah are kept) is kept open throughout this
service, thus you must stand throughout the service. There is a tone of
desperation in the prayers of this service. The service is sometimes referred
to as the closing of the gates; think of it as the “last chance” to get in a
good word before the holiday ends. The service ends with a very long blast of
the shofar.
After Yom
Kippur, one should begin preparing for the next holiday, Sukkot, which begins five
days later.
Sources: Judaism 101;
Kapparot, Wikipedia;
Elon Gilad, “The Obscure Origins of Yom Kippur,” Haaretz, (September
30, 2014).
Rosh Hashanah Source Sheet
Rosh Hashanah Source Sheet
Historically Rosh Hashanah is the time
of the Creation of Adam and Eve (according to Rabbi Eliezer – see source 9). It
was also on this date, while Moshe was on Mount Sinai praying for forgiveness
for the sin of the Golden Calf, that G-d’s Mercy was shown and He heard and
answered Moshe’s prayers. The days from Rosh Hashanah until Yom Kippur have
been set aside as days for forgiveness ever since.
The Torah, in describing Rosh Hashanah,
mentions only the sacrifices and the festival nature of the day, and the
blowing of the Shofar. The concept of judgment and ‘New Year’ does not appear
in the Torah, but is first explained in the Mishna.
This section of Nechemiah describes the return to Israel from Babylonian slavery. This was a new beginning for Israel and the Jews. The refugees who returned from exile were mainly poor, uneducated and many of them were intermarried. In this section Ezra inspires and educates the people to observe the mitzvot and divorce their non-Jewish wives. From this beginning the new Jewish state was created with the Second Temple as its focus. It is appropriate that this occurred on Rosh Hashanah, the time of Creation and new beginnings.
Rosh Hashanah is one of several New
Years that have halachic (Jewish legal) significance. It seems that there is no
direct connection between the ‘New Year’ of Rosh Hashanah and its significance
as ‘Day of Judgment.’ (There does not necessarily have to be any connection
between the two. For example the New Year for trees is on 15th Shevat
but the Day of Judgment for trees is on Shavuot). According to the Mishna, Rosh
Hashanah is the New Year for agricultural and seasonal reasons rather than
because it was the day of Creation.
The Mishna describes the four annual
Days of Judgment. How these relate and connect to the final judgment after a
person’s death or the judgment of the world at the end of days, (or even the
relationship between judgment for crops and the judgment for the people who eat
those crops) is beyond the scope of this source sheet.
On each of these days of judgment we
give offerings (in the Temple). On Passover, the Omer of barley (crops). On
Shavuot, the Two Loaves of wheat, considered similar to a tree in Talmudic
literature. On Succot there is a special water offering poured on the altar
(symbolizing rain) as well as rituals with willow branches, which require large
quantities of water to grow.
On Rosh Hashanah we offer our lives (our
breath) with the Shofar blasts.
|
The Ran (Nissim ben Reuven (1320 –
9th of Shevat, 1376, Hebrew: נסים בן ראובן)
of Girona, Catalonia was an influential talmudist and authority on Jewish law. ) explains that according to
the opinion of Rabbi Eliezer the world was created in Tishrei, Accordingly,
Rosh Hashanah is an appropriate time for judgment because Adam was judged with
mercy on that day. He asks, however, according to Rabbi Yehoshua, who says that
the world was created in Nissan, why should Rosh Hashanah be a day of judgment?
The Ran gives two answers. Firstly it gives people time to take stock, examine
their deeds and repent before Yom Kippur (and for the righteous, who don’t need
G-d’s mercy, they can be already judged and sealed for life). Secondly, he
says, perhaps while Moses was on Mount Sinai praying for forgiveness for the
Jewish people from the sin of the G0lden Calf, there was a change in G-d’s
attitude on Rosh Hashanah which preceded the full forgiveness on Yom Kippur.
Our prayers on Rosh Hashanah reflect the
duality of creation. The world was created in potential, and actuality.
Rabbeinu Tam explains that on Rosh Hashanah we are commemorating the ‘thought’
of creation, the ‘remembrance of the first day’. From our perspective the
physical creation did not occur until six months later in Nissan. However,
since G-d is beyond time (and created time when He created the universe) we can
understand that these two events occurred simultaneously, but when they were
brought into creation (from our perspective) they were separated in time.
Humankind is the ‘completion’ of the world because it is the
purpose of creation. Rosh Hashanah is the anniversary of judgment and mercy. We
have two very different explanations of what that mercy was.
The Aruch Hashulchan (a chapter-to-chapter restatement of
the Shulchan Aruch (the
latter being the most influential codification of halakhah in the post-Talmudic
era). Compiled and written by Rabbi Yechiel Michel Epstein (1829–1908),
the work organizes each chapter of the Shulchan Aruch, with special
emphasis on the positions of the Jerusalem Talmud and Maimonides. understands that mercy is defined as
spreading punishment over time. (This also explains how G-d ‘forgave’ the Jewish people for the sin of the Golden
Calf, yet the Talmud says that we are still paying the price for that sin.
Historically Rosh Hashanah was the time
of our freedom from the slavery of Egypt (even though we didn’t leave until
Pesach). This freedom is recreated every year on Rosh Hashanah and symbolized
in the Shofar blasts, which represent freedom from the Evil Urge, freedom from
sin and G-d as King; free to do.
The entire world is judged on Rosh Hashanah, even things
that have no free choice. Clearly, therefore, the judgment is not about whether
a person has made the right choices in the past year or has done the right
things.
Everything in Creation was made to
fulfill a Divine Plan. On the anniversary of Creation G-d prepares an ‘annual
report’ giving a breakdown of how well the ‘company’ of the universe is doing.
There is a complete ‘stock-taking’ of each component of creation to evaluate
its efficiency and effectiveness in meeting the ‘corporate goals.’
The judgment of Rosh Hashanah is not
judging ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ which are free choice issues, but rather the yearly
‘stockholders meeting’ where each component of the ‘company’ must justify its
effectiveness over the past 12 months, and for the coming year.
 |
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Monday, July 26, 2021
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