Spirituality

HOLIDAY 101

Rosh Hashanah from page 75

teaches history and rabbinics at Hillel Day School of
Metropolitan Detroit in Farmington Hills, grew up in
Metro Detroit. He recalls Rosh Hashanah dinners with
friends, the great fun of getting out of school for the
holiday and spending time with his younger sister and
parents, Jay and Paula Korelitz, now of Farmington Hills.
At Hillel, where Seth teaches seventh- and eighth-graders,
Rosh Hashanah is an exciting time. Students come with
plenty of questions and creative ideas; at that age, "they
are in a place where they're questioning things and
challenging things:' he says.

Family Ties
In their own home, Sheryl and Seth have favorite tradi-
tions that began when their daughters were tiny.
Seth loved reading to his girls, both students at Akiva
Hebrew Day School in Southfield, books like Sammy
the Spider's Rosh Hashanah, many variations on Jonah
and the whale and charming, gentle stories filled with
midrashim [Jewish commentaries on scripture].
The girls are old enough to read to themselves these

days, but the family still listens to CDs of holiday music
while everyone helps prepare the Rosh Hashanah meal.
Rosh Hashanah is a time for a new outfit, as well, and
saying the Sheheichanu blessing just before putting it on.
The holiday also always is a time for decorating the
house with the many apple and shofar projects the girls
make at school and bringing up the storage bins filled
with their art, and honey jars and greeting cards from
years past.
When Hannah and Zoe were little, the family often
went apple picking at a local orchard. Today, the Korelitzes
like to find a fruit they have never tried and enjoy it on
the second day of the holiday. "Sometimes, I'll find a fruit
I've never even heard of:' Seth says.
"Sometimes, you're really happy that you've found it

❑

Head Of The
Year Primer

When: This year, Rosh Hashanah begins on Wednesday
evening, Sept. 8. Rosh Hashanah lasts two days, Thursday
and Friday, Sept. 9-10, the first and second of the month of
Tishrei. Rosh Hashanah is Hebrew for "head of the year:'
The holiday marks the beginning of the New Year and com-
memorates the creation of the world.
Why We Celebrate: The Torah, in Parshat Emor
(Leviticus 23:24) and Parshat Pinchas (Numbers 29:1),
directs us to observe Rosh Hashanah — though interest-
ingly, the name of the holiday is not directly stated in the
Torah (this occurred later).
Rosh Hashanah further begins the three-week holiday
season that continues with Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Shemini
Atzeret and Simchat Torah.
In addition to being the start of the year, Rosh Hashanah
is the Day of Judgment, when God weighs the acts of each
person over the past year and decides the fate of each.
Finally, Rosh Hashanah serves as the Day of
Remembrance, when we remember our relationship with
God, the Torah and the Land of Israel.
Customs: On Rosh Hashanah we blow the shofar, which
is made from the horn of a kosher animal (usually a ram).
The shofar is sounded during Musaf the prayer that follows
the Torah reading.
As with Shabbat and other major Jewish holidays, the
Rosh Hashanah morning service is divided into preliminary
prayers, known as P'sukei d'zimra; the morning prayers, or
Shacharit; the Torah reading, or kriat ha-Torah; the haftorah;
an additional service, Musaf, and finally the closing prayers.
The shofar is blown immediately before the congregation
recites the silent Amidah prayer during Musaf (On Shabbat,
the shofar is not blown, though prayers mention the "mem-
ory of blowing the shofar")
In most synagogues, congregants recite Psalm 47 seven
times. Whoever blows the shofar then recites responsively,
together with the congregation, seven verses from Psalms

76

September 2 • 2010

iN

and sometimes you're not — and you're surprised that
anyone ever actually eats it:'
The family joins with others in the neighborhood for
tashlich, ceremonially throwing away sins into a fresh
pond of water, complete with fish, in the front yard of a
friend in Huntington Woods.
And then, finally, the sacred day arrives. Together, the
family attends services at Young Israel of Oak Park or the
Woodward Avenue Shul.
Hannah says she looks forward to the day because, "I
like having the chance to start over every year."
Zoe's favorites: "I like getting a new outfit:' she says.
"And I like the gefilte loaf?"
"Rosh Hashanah is my favorite time of year," Sheryl
says.
In fact, it has been for as long as she can remember. As
a child, she loved everything about it: "I loved going back
to school; I loved the fall; I love that whole time of the
year. I still love beginnings."

and Lamentations. Finally, the shofar blower recites two
blessings, followed by three blasts of the shofar, then a
responsive reading of -three verses from Psalm 89.
Those who follow the Ashkenazi liturgy have a second
shofar blowing during the cantor's repetition of the Musaf
Amidah.
In the Sephardic liturgy, the shofar is blown during the
congregation's silent Amidah prayer and its repetition.
Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are the only days on
which Jews prostrate themselves in prayer as was done
in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. The prostration occurs
during the Aleinu portion of the Amidah prayer and is per-
formed by kneeling and touching the forehead to the floor.
It's All About the Honey: Rosh Hashanah includes fes-
tive meals and symbolic food, such as a braided challah
or the head of a fish. The most famous of these foods is, of
course, apples and honey, which we eat after saying a prayer
expressing our hopes for a sweet new year.
Tzom Gedaliah: The day after Rosh Hashanah is Tzom
Gedaliah, the Fast of Gedaliah. This is a minor fast day,
which begins at sunrise and ends at sundown (as opposed
to Yom Kippur, for example, which is a 24-hour fast). Tzom
Gedaliah commemorates the murder, on the third of Tishrei,
of Gedaliahben Achikam, whom the Babylonians named
governor of Judah after their capture of Jerusalem in 586
BCE.
Following the conquest, the Babylonians deported much
of the Jewish population in both the northern and southern
kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Other Jews fled to neighbor-
ing lands.
The few that remained included the family of Gedaliah,
who had a long history in politics. Gedaliah, like his ally
the prophet Jeremiah, was a respected leader; the two men
encouraged Jews to accept the reality of Babylonian rule and

rebuild the land.
Gedaliah's optimism and words of encouragement
inspired the community. Those who stayed behind soon
sent word to Jews outside the land that life was returning to
normal. Many refugees came back and began to rebuild the
ruined vineyards and fields.
Baalis was king of the neighboring Ammonites, well-
known enemies of the Jews. The last thing Baalis wanted
was a resurgent Jewish state, so he devised a plan. He
brought to his court Yishmael, son of Nataniah, a descen-
dant of the last king of Judah. Baalis was a clever man who
knew that Yishmael resented Gedaliah's rule.
Yishrnael, after all, was a descendant of Israel's great King
David, while Gedaliah was not. And yet it was Gedaliah who
was now in charge.
But, of course, Baalis pointed out, if Gedaliah were no
longer here ...
Yishmael gathered a force of men and murdered Gedaliah
and all the members of his administration, which included
Babylonians.
The Babylonian king who had appointed Gedaliah was
furious. Fearing reprisal from the Babylonian leadership, the
Judeans fled to Egypt. Though Jeremiah urged them not to
leave — Egypt, he warned, would become a death trap —
the Jews went anyway. They even abducted Jeremiah and
took him with them.
Soon afterward, Babylonia made war on Egypt and killed
virtually every Jew there (only Jeremiah survived).
Meanwhile, the towns, vineyards and once-beautiful
fields in Israel fell into ruin. The land was now bare, desolate
and devoid of Jews. The destruction the Babylonians had
started was now complete.
To memorialize Gedaliah, and to remember the horrible
aftermath of his senseless murder — by a fellow Jew — the
rabbis ruled that the entire Jewish people should forever fast
on the third of Tishrei.
While the death of Gedaliah may seem, to some, like
ancient history with no relevance to anything now, rabbis
point out a correlation between the deep divisions in the
Jewish community today and the discord, mistrust and mis-
understanding in the Jewish world that resulted not only in
Gedaliah's murder, but also the destruction of Israel. Li