Learning Something New
I was invited to a lecture given by Rabbi Bouskila at the Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel in LA. He was speaking about the meaning of Rosh Hashanah and the shofar. (It is the season of the High Holidays.) I love hearing people speak who are passionate about what they do and the Rabbi is one of those people.
One of the things he pointed out about Rosh Hashanah is that is isn’t necessarily what people think the holiday commemorates. According to the Jewish calendar, God began creating the world on the 25th of Elul, which is September 29th this year. On the 6th day, God created man, humanity.
That’s on the first day of Tishri, and this year it falls on October 4th which is Rosh Hashanah. So the celebration of what is commonly known as the Jewish New Year is actually the anniversary of when man was created. It is humanity’s birthday. This includes all of mankind, not just Jews.
Over the years, it seems that Rabbis have done their best to make things interesting for the people in the congregation, so they have added new meaning to the Torah, rearranged the stories to create a powerful message and to add more bang for the buck they’ve created rituals. I’m sure it has all been with good intentions.
Rabbis needed to add more material to the meaning of Rosh Hashanah because there isn’t much said about it in the Torah and the service wouldn’t last more than about 30 minutes, if that. So they took writings from here and there to make a day of it. In fact they made two. In my heritage, we can say in 10 pages what could be said in 3 paragraphs.
In ancient days, people looked in the sky to see when the new moon was until the calendar was established. People would observe the holiday for two days to make sure they got it right. Most holidays in the bible are centered on agriculture events because Israel was an agricultural society. A lot of what Jews celebrate is farming, hence the focus on food.
I really enjoyed the lecture Rabbi Bouskila gave tonight at the temple. He’ll be doing a series of lectures on Tuesdays at 7pm with dinner. The food is good. Kosher Chinese is a treat if you’ve never tried it. You can make reservations for next week’s lecture about Yom Kippur by calling the Temple at 310-475-7311.
Blessings!
Laura
Thanks for reading. If you would like to hear some of my songs, go to the online store at:
http://www.LauraCohnMusic.com
Where Music Meets Artistry
One of the things he pointed out about Rosh Hashanah is that is isn’t necessarily what people think the holiday commemorates. According to the Jewish calendar, God began creating the world on the 25th of Elul, which is September 29th this year. On the 6th day, God created man, humanity.
That’s on the first day of Tishri, and this year it falls on October 4th which is Rosh Hashanah. So the celebration of what is commonly known as the Jewish New Year is actually the anniversary of when man was created. It is humanity’s birthday. This includes all of mankind, not just Jews.
Over the years, it seems that Rabbis have done their best to make things interesting for the people in the congregation, so they have added new meaning to the Torah, rearranged the stories to create a powerful message and to add more bang for the buck they’ve created rituals. I’m sure it has all been with good intentions.
Rabbis needed to add more material to the meaning of Rosh Hashanah because there isn’t much said about it in the Torah and the service wouldn’t last more than about 30 minutes, if that. So they took writings from here and there to make a day of it. In fact they made two. In my heritage, we can say in 10 pages what could be said in 3 paragraphs.
In ancient days, people looked in the sky to see when the new moon was until the calendar was established. People would observe the holiday for two days to make sure they got it right. Most holidays in the bible are centered on agriculture events because Israel was an agricultural society. A lot of what Jews celebrate is farming, hence the focus on food.
I really enjoyed the lecture Rabbi Bouskila gave tonight at the temple. He’ll be doing a series of lectures on Tuesdays at 7pm with dinner. The food is good. Kosher Chinese is a treat if you’ve never tried it. You can make reservations for next week’s lecture about Yom Kippur by calling the Temple at 310-475-7311.
Blessings!
Laura
Thanks for reading. If you would like to hear some of my songs, go to the online store at:
http://www.LauraCohnMusic.com
Where Music Meets Artistry
posted by Laura Cohn @ 12:12 AM
1 Comments:
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