Putting Down Roots: Why Our Jewish Family Needs a Yard Full of Trees
We celebrated the holiday of Tu BiShvat – the “Jewish Arbor Day” – way back in February, and we won’t celebrate it again until January. But no matter: I need to talk about the trees now.
Galilee Diary: Galilee encounters
Rethinking the Holy Days
I’ve come to the conclusion we need to change the date of Simchat Torah. Our Jewish festivals must be re-envisioned as inspirational community gatherings of joyful spiritual Jewish celebration. Every single festival needs to be a time of great community involvement and meaning.
Galilee Diary: Winter
It is life we want, no more and no less than that, our own life feeding on our own vital sources, in the fields and under the skies of our homeland, a life based on our own physical and mental labors; we want vital energy and spiritual richness from this living source.
Tu BiShvat: Customs and Rituals
Tu BiShvat: History
Baal t’kiah
Literally, “master of t’kiah,” meaning “one who sounds the shofar.”
Cheit
A Hebrew term for “sin.” Cheit is a Hebrew archery term meaning “missing the mark.” A section of High Holiday liturgy is the Al Cheit, a confession of ways in which we “missed the mark” during the past year.
L’shanah tovah
Literally, “for a good year.” This is a customary greeting for Rosh HaShanah. Also, “shanah tovah.”
T’kiah
Literally, “blast” or “blowing of a horn;” it is a note of the shofar call.