Sunday, October 8, 2000
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Sunday, October 8, 2000 |
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The meaning of the Jewish High Holiday By RABBI JULIE S. SCHWARTZ Each year, as children head back to school and as we adults return from the vacations of summer, the Jewish community returns to its roots. In the autumn, Jews celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. The entire holiday period which spans two weeks is called the Yamim Noraim, The Days of Awe. In America, these Days of Awe have come to be known as the High Holidays. This is the most festive and solemn period of the Jewish liturgical cycle and it is filled with custom and ritual. Jews gather for special family meals to begin the New Year and enjoy foods sweetened with honey symbolizing our prayers for a sweet new year. As well we dip apples into honey and the apples remind us of the circular cycle of our lives and our years. We spend time together as a community in prayer and we rejoice that we have been given another year filled with new opportunities. We participate in the unique service during which the Shofar, ram's horn, is blown as a type of ancient trumpet. Its call tugs at our hearts and we remember God's role in our lives and our responsibilities to our families and our communities. Then some ten days later, we join in our congregation for the much more solemn observance of the Day of Atonement. Now that we have entered into a new year, we wish to live it as better people. Prior to the holiday, we are expected to ask our friends and relatives for forgiveness so that we can "wipe the slate clean." Then we participate in a 25-hour fast, pray from sunset to sunset, and focus on personal reflection. Through prayer, inspiring music, and study of our traditions, we pass the day totally removed from the secular world. We remember that we are much more than bodies which are comfort and possession oriented we have souls which are our link to God. By the end of this most intense experience, we hope to feel renewed in life and ready to make the year different, better than those we have lived before. These Days of Awe are all about homecoming another fall ritual in the South. We use them to come home to our families, our community, our relationship with God. Through their celebration, we renew our links with our past, direct our present, and ensure our future. [Rabbi Julie S. Schwartz
was ordained as a Reform Rabbi from the Hebrew Union College in 1986.
She served as a Naval chaplain for the first three years of her rabbinate
earning the distinction of being the first woman rabbi in the United States
Military. After her tour of duty, she entered into advanced studies in
Clinical Pastoral Education. She taught on the faculty of the Hebrew Union
College until 1999 and developed its program of applied rabbinic training
as its first Supervisor of Clinical Pastoral Education. In July, 1999.
she moved with her husband, Rabbi Steven Ballaban and their four children
to Atlanta. She is the rabbi for the Weinstein Hospice, the Jewish hospice
which began service in Atlanta in September, 1999. She began her tenure
with Congregation B'nai Israel upon her move to Atlanta.]
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