Saturday, September 8, 2007

Rosh HaShana is coming

So, Wednesday night starts Rosh HaShana (the New Year) and that means that the holiday season is starting here. For the next month there are three major Jewish holidays, a week of festivities, and two lesser known holidays. When we're talking holiday season we mean it.

Last night, that is Saturday night, we started an early morning service called Selichot. Basically they are supplications that are read to prepare us for Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur. There are a couple parts to the service; in one, we are asking God for forgiveness and another part we are going through the 13 Godly attributes and reminding ourself that if we are to live lives as Godly people we should try to emulate these attributes. It's a custom in our Ashkenaz community to start it the week leading to Rosh HaShana, while for Sephardim they tend to do it for the entire month before.

Last night's selichot were held at 12:30 am but for the rest of the week we will say them at 6:30am. The first day's prayers are usually considered the most important which is why we say them at midnight - its assumed from the time of the Talmud that midnight is a good time to ask God for forgiveness.

We are having Naomi's cousin Jay for Rosh HaShana and the Shabbat following. He's on Year Course and we're quite excited to have him. For those of you who don't remember - or need some mind jogging - Bethany did Year Course two years ago. Seems like a long time doesn't it B?

Anyway, we'll have some more updates soon with some new pictures.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Don't remind me, I still miss YC.