What's Happening in the Torah? Rosh HaShanah Activities for Families
Our Interfaith Family and the New Year
As we’re preparing for our first Rosh Hashanah with our 8 month old son Solomon, I can’t help but to pause and wonder how my husband and I got here? My husband, Matt, is not Jewish, and from an early age I was encouraged to only date Jewish men.
Pursuing Social Justice: Yom Kippur Activities for Families
Creating New Rituals and Tradition for the School Year and the New Year
For children, traditions and rituals are significant; they provide predictability, support, and familiarity, while bringing families together and creating unity and a sense of belonging.
Habari Gani? How My Family is Melding Kwanzaa and Hanukkah Customs
Rosh HaShanah Evening Blessings: Kiddush- Blessing over the Wine, Shabbat and Weekday
Blessings over the wine during the evening of Rosh HaShanah.
Reflection of the Days of Awe
I love this time of year; Fall setting in, the ending of one year and the beginning of another. It never hurts to reflect on the past year and make a resolve to be the best person you can be moving forward. Although Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur have record synagogue attendances, personally, we’ve been a bit different in how we observe the High Holidays year-to-year
Beyond Apples and Honey
Galilee Diary: Attunement
Sure enough, last week I saw the first chatzav flower of the season – which was actually sort of surprising, as it's been several years since the last leap year, so the holidays are "early" in the solar year this year.
The New Reform Machzor and the Shofar Service
The traditional High Holy Day prayer book, as opposed to the Reform versions produced in the last century and more, includes a service, musaf, that evokes the ancient sacrifices. Reform Judaism abandoned this service, due to its musty connotations of “barbarian” rites but a key element of this service on Rosh Hashanah, the sounding of the shofar was maintained. Sounding of the shofar was retained no doubt because the very essence of Rosh Hashanah is bound up in the peal of the shofar. Can you imagine Rosh Hashanah without it