click on the holiday to learn more about each.
07/30/09- Tishah B'Av
Tishah B'Av, which means the "Ninth of Av", refers to a traditional day of mourning the destruction of both ancient Temples in Jerusalem. More recently, in Reform Judaism Tishah B'Av has been transformed into a day to remember many Jewish tragedies that have occurred throughout history.
09/12/09 - S'lichot
S'lichot, a Hebrew word meaning "forgiveness," refers to the special penitential prayers recited by Jews throughout the High Holy Days. Jews recite S'lichot beginning late at night on the Saturday before Rosh HaShanah and continue each morning on the days between the New Year and Yom Kippur.
09/18/09 to 09/20/09 - Rosh HaShanah
Rosh HaShanah (literally, "Head of the Year") refers to the celebration of the Jewish New Year. The holiday marks the beginning of a ten-day period of prayer, self-examination and repentance, which culminate on the fast day of Yom Kippur.
09/27/09 to 09/28/09 - Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur is the "Day of Atonement" and refers to the annual Jewish observance of fasting, prayer and repentance. This is considered to be the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
10/3/09 to 10/10/09 - Sukkot click here to see TI Celebrates Sukkot
Sukkot, a Hebrew word meaning "booths" or "huts", refers to the Jewish festival of giving thanks for the fall harvest, as well as the commemoration of the forty years of Jewish wandering in the desert after Sinai.
10/10/09 - Simchat Torah
Simchat Torah, Hebrew for "rejoicing in the Law", celebrates the completion of the annual reading of the Torah.
12/11/09 to 12/19/09 Chanukah click here to see TI Celebrates Chanukah
C hanukah, meaning "dedication" in Hebrew, refers to the joyous eight-day celebration during which Jews commemorate the victory of the Macabees over the armies of Syria in 165 B.C.E. and the subsequent liberation and "rededication" of the Temple in Jerusalem. The modern home celebration of Chanukah centers around the lighting of the chanukiah, a special menorah for Chanukah; unique foods, latkes and jelly doughnuts; and special songs and games.
1/30/10 TuBish'vat click here to see TI Celebrates TuBish'vat
Tu BiSh’vat is the New Year of the Trees. Its name is derived from its date on the Hebrew calendar. In the Hebrew aleph-bet each letter has a numerical value. This system is called “ gematria .” The Hebrew “Tu” is made up of a tet , which has the value of nine, and a vov , which has the value of six. Together the two letters equal 15. Tu BiSh’vat occurs on the 15 th day of the Hebrew month Sh’vat. Tu BiSh’vat marked the time, determined by the sages, when the trees were nourished by the rains of the new year, as opposed to the rain of the previous year. Another name for Tu BiSh’vat is Rosh HaShanah L’Ilanot –the New Year of the Trees.Tradition teaches that on Tu BiSh’vat a heavenly court judges the trees and pronounces their fate–which trees will thrive and which will wither.
2/28/10 Purim click here to see TI Celebrates Purim
Purim, Festival of Lots, the only time when ribaldry and license were encouraged as examples of proper behavior, arrives on the 14th day of Adar. Adar is the month that precedes Nisan, when Jews celebrate the liberation from slavery in Egypt. Purim is also about deliverance from great peril and has many parallels with Pesach. The drama of the humbling of Egypt and its Pharaoh, the destruction of his pursuing army in the waters of the Reed Sea, as told and retold at the Seder, is the same theme as the downfall of the tyrant Haman: salvation and the miracle of Jewish survival. Though one festival is celebrated with farce, noisemaking, and the command (at least traditionally) to get drunk, and the other with the solemn drama of an ordered ritual meal, storytelling and prayer, each has its own special book, its own unique telling of a miracle.
Purim is the Scroll of Esther, called the Megillah (meaning "scroll"). There are five "scrolls" read on the various festival and holy days, (Ecclesiastes or Koheleth - Succoth; Song of Songs - Pesach; Ruth - Shavuot; Lamentations - Tisha B'Av) but only the Scroll of Esther is required by our tradition to be heard in its entirety by everyone.
3/29/10 to 4/6/10 Pesach click here to see TI Celebrates Pesach
Pesach, known as Passover in English, is a major Jewish spring festival, commemorating the Exodus from Egypt over 3,000 years ago. The ritual observance of this holiday centers around a special home service called the seder (meaning "order") and a festive meal; the prohibition of chametz (leaven); and the eating of matzah (an unleavened bread). On the eve of the fifteenth day of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar, we read from a book called the hagaddah, meaning "telling," which contains the order of prayers, rituals, readings and songs for the Pesach seder. The Pesach seder is the only ritual meal in the Jewish calendar year for which such an order is prescribed, hence its name.
Yom HaShoah
Yom HaShoah, also known as Holocaust Remembrance Day, occurs on the 27th of Nissan. "Shoah", which means catastrophe or utter destruction in Hebrew, refers to the atrocities that were committed against the Jewish people during World War II. This is a memorial day for those who died in the Shoah.
Yom HaAtzma-ut: A Brief History
Yom HaAtzma-ut, Israeli Independence Day, marks the establishment of the modern state of Israel in 1948. It is observed on the fifth day of Iyar in the Hebrew calendar. The Israeli Knesset declared the fifth of Iyar a public holiday in 1949; David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, noted that it was the first holiday to be added to the Hebrew calendar in more than two thousand years.
Counting of the Omer
The period between Pesach and Shavuot is called the “Counting of the Omer” (sefirat ha’omer), after the ancient rite of the bringing of the first sheaf (omer) of the barley harvest to the priest (Lev. 23:9-14).
5/28/09 to 5/29/09 Shavuot is a Hebrew word meaning "weeks" and refers to the Jewish festival marking the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. Shavuot, like so many other Jewish holidays began as an ancient agricultural festival, marking the end of the spring barley harvest and the beginning of the summer wheat harvest. Shavuot was distinguished in ancient times by bringing crop offerings to the Temple in Jerusalem.
Shavuot, also known as the Festival of the Giving of the Torah, dates from biblical times, and helps to explain the holiday's name, "Weeks." The Torah tells us it took precisely forty-nine days for our ancestors to travel from Egypt to the foot of Mount Sinai (the same number of days as the Counting of the Omer ) where they were to receive the Torah. Thus, Leviticus 23:21 commands: "And you shall proclaim that day (the fiftieth day) to be a holy convocation?" The name Shavuot, "Weeks," then symbolizes the completion of a seven-week journey.
Special customs on Shavuot are the reading of the Book of Ruth, which reminds us that we too can find a continual source of blessing in our tradition. Anther tradition includes staying up all night to study Torah and Mishnah, a custom called Tikkun Leil Shavuot, which symbolizes our commitment to the Torah, and that we are always ready and awake to receive the Torah. Traditionally, dairy dishes are served on this holiday to symbolize the sweetness of the Torah, as well as the "land of milk and honey".
