IF ONE ROSH HASHANA is not enough to satisfy our soul and your stomach, take heart.
Judaism has four ( ! ) roshi ha’shana.
I am not a rabbi nor do I play one on tv. I cite my sources; please refer to them. |
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ALL OF THE NEW YEARS are mentioned in the Misna tractate Rosh HaShana. Logical.
NOTE: In most cases the spelling is as it appears in the cited text.
Rosh HaShana, the two-day everywhere new years is known in the Torah as the day Yom Ha-Zikkaron (the day of remembrance) or Yom Teruah (the day of the sounding of the shofar). The holiday is instituted in Leviticus 23:24-25.1 Rosh Hashanah is also known as Yom HaDin, “the Day of Judgment.”2
This Rosh HaShana is two of the three days when so-called “Three-Day Jews” managed to get to a synagogue or at the very least, to acknowledge the day. The other day is, of course, Yom Kippor.
Interestingly, while rabbis are wont to give overly-long sermons — off times demanded by the Three Day Jews — the Shabat before Pesach, Shabat HaGadol is traditionally the day of the longest sermon.3, 4
One way to stay alert is to count each of the shofar blasts. If the total is less than 100, someone was not paying attention or the day falls on Shabat.1
Akin to Pesach, there is a Rosh HaShana seder. The seder usually includes
* Dates
* Sesame or green beans
* Leeks (different from scallions)
* Beets or chard
* Pomegranate
* Pumpkin
* Apple dipped in honey
* Head of a fish (or sheep).
Tu b’Shavat — the 15 of the month of Shevat — is the “new year of trees.” It’s “full name” is "Rosh HaShanah La'Ilanot", literally "New Year of the Trees." In contemporary Israel, the day is celebrated as an ecological awareness day, and trees are planted in celebration
Of the talmudic requirements for fruit trees which used Tu BiShvat as the cut-off date in the Hebrew calendar for calculating the age of a fruit-bearing tree, Orlah remains to this day in essentially the same form it had in talmudic times. In the Orthodox Jewish world, these practices are still observed today as part of Halacha, Jewish law. Fruit that ripened on a three-year-old tree before Tu BiShvat is considered orlah and is forbidden to eat, while fruit ripening on or after Tu BiShvat of the tree's third year is permitted. In the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th years of the Shmita cycle Maaser Sheni is observed today by a ceremony redeeming tithing obligations with a coin; in the 3rd and 6th years, Maaser Ani is substituted, and no coin is needed for redeeming it. Tu b’Shvat is the cut-off date for determining to which year the tithes belong.
Unlike the other new years, the New Year for Trees is celebrated on the 15th (ט"ו) of Shevat. Shamai ruled it should be, as are the other new years, on the first of the month. Hillel ruled it should be on the 15th5 and because he was Hillel, he prevailed.
Thanks to Rabbi Yitzchak Luria of Zefat, Tu b’Shavat, like Pesach, has a special meal, a seder. The main idea was that eating ten specific fruits and drinking four cups of wine in a specific order while reciting the appropriate blessings would bring human beings, and the world, closer to spiritual perfection. (ibid.)
There are few customs or observances related to this holiday. One custom is to eat a new fruit on this day, or to eat from the Seven Species (Shivat HaMinim) described in the Bible as being abundant in the land of Israel. The Shivat Haminim are: wheat, barley, grapes (vines), figs, pomegranates, olives, and dates (honey) (Deut. 8:8). You can make a nice kosher vegetarian pilaf from the shivat haminim: a bed of cooked bulgar wheat or wheat berries and barley, topped with figs, dates, raisins (grapes), and pomegranate seeds, served with a dressing of olive oil, balsamic vinegar (grapes) and pomegranate juice.6
The four cups of wine for the Tu b’Shevat seder, as suggested by NJOP7 are
Pure White
Pale Pink (white with a drop of red)
Dark Pink (a mixture of white and red)
Almost Red ( red with a drop of white)
The first new year's day is the first day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, usually in the early spring (April). Nisan is considered the first month of the Hebrew calendar, though years are counted from the first day of Tishrei, the seventh month. The First of Nisan was considered the new year for counting the years of the reigns of kings in ancient Israel. It is also the new year for ordering the Jewish holidays. The month of Nisan is closely tied with the festival of Passover; and while Rosh Hashanah is seen as the anniversary of the creation of the world, the first day of Nisan is seen as the anniversary of the founding of the Jewish people when they escaped from Egypt during the Passover story. 8
The Gemara explains that the conventional way of dating documents in Talmudic times was according to the year of the king; to give it a modern twist, we would write, "in the 7th year of the reign of President Pelone". Regardless of the date on which a king was appointed, come the first of Nissan, documents would be dated to the second year of his reign. This was a beautiful way to give honour and respect to the sovereign of the state in which one resided, and applied equally to Jewish and non-Jewish kings (though the Gemara explains that for non-Jewish kings, their year would begin at Tishrei)9
Animals The first of Elul is the new year for animals.
Rosh Hashanah L'Ma'sar Behemah (Hebrew: ראש השנה למעשר בהמה "New Year for Tithing Animals") or Rosh Hashanah LaBehemot (Hebrew: ראש השנה לבהמות "New Year for (Domesticated) Animals"). During the time of the Temple, this was a day on which shepherds determined which of their mature animals were to be tithed. The day coincides with Rosh Hodesh Elul, the New Moon for the month of Elul, exactly one month before Rosh HaShana.
Sefaridim begin Selihot on the seond day of Elul.
Beginning in 2009, the festival began to be revived by religious Jewish animal protection advocates and environmental educators to raise awareness of the mitsvah of tsar baalei chayim, the source texts informing Jewish ethical relationships with domesticated animals, and the lived experience of animals impacted by human needs, especially in the industrial meat industry.10
Throughout traditional High Holiday liturgy, G-d is often imagined as a shepherd, and the pastoral metaphor becomes all the more potent and poignant when we consider our own animals for whom we are directly responsible as well as our shared fate with all living creatures.
Rabbinic commentators similarly imply a kinship between humanity and other living creatures, pointing to other animals’ instincts and actions as not only similar to our own, but sometimes even embodying model behavior which we should strive to emulate. In his commentary on Genesis, Nahmanides accounts for the original plant-based diet proscribed in the first chapter of Genesis by describing how animals possess animating souls and certain spiritual capacities, thus making daily decisions which affect their safety and welfare. In the Talmud (BT Eruvin 100b), Rabbi Yochanan (bar Nappacha) declares, “Had the Torah not been given, we would have (still) learned modesty from the cat, [the prohibition against] stealing from the ant, [the prohibition against] forbidden relations from the dove, and good behavior from the rooster.”11
Four times a year we can wish each other a safe, healthy, prosperous, and enjoyable new year.
What other religion can do that?
Sources
1. http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday2.htm
2. http://tinyurl.com/yxderyrj
3. https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/shabbat-hagadol/
4. http://tinyurl.com/yymbashc
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tu_BiShvat
6. http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday8.htm
7. http://tinyurl.com/y6ac2exp
8. http://tinyurl.com/yxtfuxxr
9. http://tinyurl.com/yx9424tl
10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosh_Hashanah_LaBehema
11. http://tinyurl.com/y5x4gy92
Why are some URLs spelled out and some shown as “tinyurl.com” entries? I don’t want long URLs to break over a line, making it hard to copy-the URL.
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