Sefer Safari Extravaganza and kick-off for the Jewish Community Library's "Jewish Family Story Hour" The Festival Calendar Is Very Detailed Wednesday, May 11, 1994 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM Agency for Jewish Education DR. RICHARD C. HERTZ SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS I 21550 West 12 Mile Road, Southfield, Michigan 48076 • Lots of Sefer Safari Entertainment featuring Maureen Schiffman and Coco • Special Jewish Book Crafts • Preview our New Library Programs • Cake and Ice Cream Attention all Sefer Safari Members: Bring your completed gameboards to claim your Sefer Safari prize and have your picture taken for the Jewish News. Please R.S.V.P. by May 6, 1994 For more information or to make your reservation call Jewish Experiences for Families at 354-1050. THE JEWISH NEWS A.J.'s SERVICES HEATING • COOLING • ELECTRICAL • LLJ CO TH E D E T RO w {-- 36 PROMPT 24 HOUR EMERGENCY DISPATCH Air Conditioning or Furnace Cleaning Start up & Check 12 point safety check $3495 EACH (Get both for $65.00) Regularly $45 each Includes all necessary adjustments & cleaning Not Valid With Any Other Offers Expires 5/13 94 L — — 544-7300 '300OFF Furnace or Air Conditioner Installed Not Valid With Any Other Offers Expires 5/13/94 We Honor All Competitors' Coupons on Identical Order ■ 20 0 f you are looking for one place in the Bible to summarize all of the holidays and festivals of the Jewish religion, you will find it in this sedrah, in Chapter 23 of Leviticus. It describes the calendar of the annual religious festivals celebrated in biblical times. This calendar also includes the Sabbath, which, of course, is the supreme weekly day of rest or- dained in the Ten Command- ments. There are other places in the Torah where short holiday calendars appear, such as in Ex- odus 23 and Exodus 34, as well as a fuller statement inDeuteron- omy 16. But these passages speak essentially of the three pilgrim festivals of Passover, Shavuot and Succot. The present chapter ofLeviti- cus 23 which lists also Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, gives the fullest and most de- tailed biblical account of the holy days as observed in ancient times. The contents of the chapter in- clude not only the Sabbath but the pascal sacrifices of the matzah festival as well as offer- ings of the new grain crops dur- ing the seven-week period of counting the Omar. Listed also are the first day of the seventh month, which is the day of com- memoration of the shofar's loud blast for Rosh Hashanah; the 10th day of the seventh month, which is the Day of Atonement; and the Succot festival beginning on the 15th day of the seventh month. Thus we have here, in capsule form the calendar's es- sential holidays and festivals of the Jewish religion. Many changes in Jewish reli- gious celebrations were marked over the years. Sacrifice, for ex- ample, which was the central fea- ture of ancient worship in the Temple has long since disap- peared and many new forms of celebration have been introduced. Incidentally, there is nothing here said about Purim or Chanukah, the lesser holidays in the Jewish religious calendar. They were added much later in the history of the Jewish people. After the destruction of the an- cient Temple in Jerusalem in 70 C.E. the celebration of the three festivals of Pesach, Shavuot and Succot returned to their places of origin, to the Jewish homes and to the synagogues. Observances of the festivals changed radical- o ff PHOTO RESTORATION with this advertisement (first time only) 29215 Northwestern Hwy. 358.2333 COATS UNLLVIITED Oak Park Lincoln Center 26150 Greenfield Road (313) 968-2060 Oak Park, MI 48237 West Bloomfield Orchard Mall 6337 Orchard Lake Road West Bloomfield, MI48322 (313) 855-9955 Troy Troy Commons 871 E. Big Beaver Road 528-9966 Troy, MI 48237 Dr. Richard C. Hertz is rabbi emeritus of Temple Beth El. ly as Jews migrated to different countries in the Mediterranean world and were influenced by dif- ferent cultures during different centuries. Yet some features are common to all three festivals. Each is des- ignated as a holiday, a time for worship and for rejoicing over special memories. Only Passover has its special liturgy, the Hag- gadah, used at a special home dinner, the seder, with its special substitute for bread, namely matzah. The Torah describes Shavuot only as an agricultural festival. The festival of the new year men- tioned in this sedrah actually is called by the Torah the day of Shabbat Emor: Leviticus 21:1-24:23 Ezekiel 44:15-31. Teruah. Our sedrah here calls it a remembrance of Teruah. The binding of Isaac is traditionally read in synagogues on Rosh Hashanah. Maimonides considered the impact of the ceremony of blow- ing the Shofar on the worshipper. It reminded people to awake from their slumbering, to rouse them- selves from their deep sleep and to search their deeds that they may turn and repent. Chapter 23 includes the Day of Atonement as a day of com- plete rest, a day on which the Is- raelites were to fast and deprive themselves in order to secure ex- piation of their sins. The chapter concludes with two laws con- cerning the Succot festival, the seventh day observance and the concluding celebration on the eighth day. Like the Passover fes- tival in the spring of the year, the first and seventh days of Succot were to be sacred assemblies on which work is forbidden. Thus Moses declared and or- dered the Israelites to observe the set times of the Lord. Leviticus Chapter 23 remains a summa- ry composite of the holidays and festivals celebrated today in the Jewish religious calendar by Jews everywhere. ❑ The first American Jew to win a gold medal at the Olympics was Myer Prins- tein, who took first place in the triple jump at the 1900 games in Paris.