Apples and honey

The Jewish holidays are early this year.

This time of year the Jewish calendar is filled with holidays  — the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah (the new year) and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), followed by the minor holidays of  Sukkot (a harvest festival) and Simchat Torah (a celebration of the Torah, the five Books of Moses).

The Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar, so our holidays do not line up perfectly with the secular calendar. Today is the first day of Rosh HaShanah.   Last year the first day of Rosh Hashanah was September 21, next year we will observe the holiday on September 30.

So you see what I mean about the holidays being early this year.

Rosh Hashanah is a festive occasion, but not in the way the secular new year is celebrated.  Family dinners are the norm, with traditional Jewish fare such as matzo ball soup, gefilte fish and brisket. Challah (a traditional egg bread) is round, to symbolize the circle of life.  Apples and honey are served to ensure a sweet new year.

The Days of Awe, the period that begins with a Rosh HaShanah and ends with Yom Kippur, is a time of introspection, atonement and prayer.  It is said that the Holy One, blessed be G-d, determines the fate of each person at this time.  On Rosh HaShanah it is written, on Yom Kippur it is sealed.  “May you be inscribed in the Book of Life” becomes a common greeting.

Tomorrow, the second day of Rosh Hashanah, we observe the 17th anniversary of 9/11.  So a holiday that already puts me in a contemplative mood feels more intense this year.  

L’Shanah Tovah. A sweet new year, and may we all be inscribed in the Book of Life