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Delicious Recipes for Your Rosh HaShanah Meal
Whether you're feeding picky kids or vegan adults, ReformJudaism.org is here to help you plan the perfect menu for your holiday dinner.
Hear Their Cries: This Year, May We Listen to Those Who Cry Out
Rosh HaShanah – the “head of the year” – celebrates the beginning of a new year and officially starts aseret y’mei t’shvuah, 10 days of return and repentance. It is a time of serious reflection and introspection about our lives (and about life itself); a time to ask for forgiveness for missing the mark in our actions with others, ourselves, and the Divine.
Understanding the Significance of the Akeidah for Modern Jewish Thought
Aaron Koller is a professor of Near Eastern and Jewish studies at Yeshiva University and chair of the Department of Jewish Studies at Yeshiva College.
How a Day of Rest Can Save Your Life
Not in her wildest dreams, could Marilyn Paul have imagined that she would ever take a day off every week to calm her soul, and write a book about it. Learn her story.
What’s Different about High Holidays Challah?
In Pirkei Avot, Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah taught, “If there is no bread, there is no Torah; and if there is no Torah, there is no bread.” I love these words. They echo in my mind when I partake in two of my favorite almost daily activities, the study of Torah and the baking bread. On the holidays, these two passions intersect, as they have for generations of Jews, when I shape challah. The traditional shapes for challot (plural) can be Torah study on our very festival tables.
How to Harness the Healing Power of Forgiveness and Repentance
So how does one begin the process of forgiveness?
Shaping Our World through Play: Make Your Own Playdough
This Rosh HaShanah, we all need to find new and different ways to connect with the High Holidays and a playdough date might be just right for you and your family.
Tu BiShvat: Customs and Rituals
The Jewish mystics of the 17th century, the Kabbalists, created a special ritual—modeled after the Passover seder—to celebrate God's presence in nature. Today in modern Israel, Tu BiShvat has become a national holiday, a tree planting festivaTu BiShvat is not mentioned in the Torah. Scholars believe the holiday was originally an agricultural festival, corresponding to the beginning of spring in Israel. But a critical historical event helped Tu BiShvat evolve from a simple celebration of spring to a commemoration of our connection to the land of Israel. After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E. and the exile that followed, many of the exiled Jews felt a need to bind themselves symbolically to their former homeland. Tu BiShvat served in part to fill that spiritual need. Jews used this time each year to eat a variety of fruits and nuts that could be obtained from Israel. The practice, a sort of physical association with the land, continued for many centuries.l for both Israelis and Jews throughout the world
Tu BiShvat: History
Although the celebration of Tu BiShvat has a long and varied history, the theme most commonly ascribed to the holiday today is the environment.
5 Things to Know About Elul, the Month Leading Up to the High Holidays
Several customs during the month of Elul are designed to remind us of the liturgical season and help us prepare ourselves and our souls for the upcoming High Holidays.