High Holy Days
In Judaism, the High Holy Days, also known as High Holidays or Days of Awe (Yamim Noraim; Hebrew: יָמִים נוֹרָאִים, Yāmīm Nōrāʾīm) consist of:
- strictly, the holidays of Rosh Hashanah ("Jewish New Year") and Yom Kippur ("Day of Atonement");
- by extension, the period of ten days including those holidays, known also as the Ten Days of Repentance (Aseret Yemei Teshuvah); or,
- by a further extension, the entire 40-day penitential period in the Jewish year from Rosh Chodesh Elul to Yom Kippur, traditionally taken to represent the forty days Moses spent on Mount Sinai before coming down with the second ("replacement") set of the Tablets of Stone.
The services for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur take on a solemn tone as befits these days. Traditional solemn tunes are used in the prayers.
Etymology
The term High Holy Days most probably derives from the popular English phrase, “high days and holy days”. The Hebrew equivalent, "Yamim Noraim" (Hebrew: ימים נוראים), is neither Biblical nor Talmudic. Professor Ismar Elbogen avers that it was a medieval usage, reflecting a change in the mood of Rosh Hashanah from a predominantly joyous celebration to a more subdued day that was a response to a period of persecution.[1]
Reform Judaism typically prefers the term High Holy Days over High Holidays because the former emphasizes the personal, reflective, introspective aspects of this period. By contrast, Holidays suggests a time of communal celebrations of events in the history of the Jewish people.[citation needed]
The days preceding Rosh Hashanah (Jewish new year)
The Hebrew month preceding Rosh Hashanah,
At midnight on the Saturday night or Sunday morning before Rosh Hashanah (or one week before that, if the first day of Rosh Hashanah is Monday or Tuesday), Ashkenazi Jews begin reciting selichot. On the following days, however, they generally recite the selichot before the regular morning prayers. On the eve of Rosh Hashanah, extra prayers are recited and many fast until noon.
Rosh Hashanah
Rosh Hashanah (Hebrew: ראש השנה "Beginning of the Year") is the Jewish New Year, and falls on the first and second days of the Jewish month of Tishrei (September/October). The Mishnah, the core work of the Jewish Oral Torah, sets this day aside as the new year for calculating calendar years and sabbatical and jubilee years.
Rabbinic literature describes this day as a day of judgment. God is sometimes referred to as the "Ancient of Days." Some descriptions depict God as sitting upon a throne, while books containing the deeds of all humanity are opened before Him.
Prayer services are longer than on a regular shabbat or other Jewish holidays, and include (on weekdays) the blowing of the shofar. On the afternoon of the first (or the second, if the first was Saturday) day, the ritual tashlikh is performed, in which sins are "cast" into open water, such as a river, sea, or lake.
The Ten Days of Repentance
The "ten days of repentance" or "the days of awe" include Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and the days in between, during which time Jews should meditate on the subject of the holidays and ask for forgiveness from anyone they have wronged.[2] They include the Fast of Gedalia, on the third day of Tishrei, and Shabbat Shuvah, which is the Shabbat between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
Shabbat Shuvah
It is held that, while judgment on each person is pronounced on Rosh Hashanah, it is not made absolute until Yom Kippur. The Ten Days are therefore an opportunity to mend one's ways in order to alter the judgment in one's favor.[2]
Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur (יום כפור "Day of Atonement") is the Jewish festival of the Day of Atonement. The Hebrew Bible calls the day Yom Hakippurim "Day of the Atonement/s".
In the Hebrew calendar, the ninth day of Tishrei is known as Erev Yom Kippur (Yom Kippur eve). Yom Kippur itself begins around sunset on that day and continues into the next day until nightfall, and therefore lasts about 25 hours.[5]
Observant Jews will fast throughout Yom Kippur and many attend synagogue for most of the day. There are five prayer services, one in the evening (sometimes known as "Kol Nidre" from one of the main prayers) and four consecutively on the day.[5]
Hoshana Rabbah
There is a Kabbalistic belief that, though judgment is made absolute on Yom Kippur, it is not registered until the seventh day of Sukkot, known as Hoshana Rabbah. The service for this day contains some reminiscences of those for the High Holy Days, and it is treated as a last opportunity to repent of sins that may have been missed on Yom Kippur. Jews take bouquets of willow branches that represent their sins and they bash them on the floor while saying a special prayer to God to forgive them for the sins that may have been missed on Yom Kippur.
High Holy Days seats
Generally, throughout most of the year, Jewish worship services are open to all, regardless of affiliation, and membership or payment of any fee is not a requirement in order to attend. However, the High Holy Days are usually peak attendance days for synagogues and temples, often filling or over-filling synagogues.[6] For this reason many synagogues issue tickets for attendance and may charge for them: practice varies on whether paid-up synagogue members must also buy these or whether it is included in the subscription.
Synagogues never pass a
See also
References
- ^ "High Holydays - Ask the Rabbi". Retrieved 7 October 2018.
- ^ a b c "The High Holidays". Retrieved 7 October 2018.
- ^ Sometimes spelled Shabbat Shuva, or referred to as Shabbat Teshuvah (the Sabbath of repentance), much as the Shabbat in the middle of Passover or Sukkot is called Shabbat Chol HaMoed.
- ^ The other Shabbat for a long sermon is Shabbat HaGadol.
- ^ a b "Yom Kippur: History & Overview". Retrieved 7 October 2018.
- ^ Fishkoff, Sue (20 August 2007). "'Praying without Paying' is becoming a more popular option among shuls". JTA. Archived from the original on 18 September 2016. Retrieved 7 October 2018.
- ^ Joselit, Jenna Weissman (7 October 2005). "Before We Begin, Let Us All Reach Into Our Pockets". The Forward. Retrieved 7 October 2018.
- ^ Dunn, Gabrielle (21 September 2008). "Jewish high holidays come at a high cost". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 7 October 2018.
External links
- "Festivals" in The Jewish Encyclopedia
- Online books, and library resources in your library and in other libraries about High Holy Days