5762 is almost over

[cellio]

Tomorrow night is Rosh Hashana and the beginning of the year 5763. Tonight's preparations include cooking, a little shopping, and laundry. Whee. I've stayed late at work a couple nights this week, so I think I can bail early tomorrow and not rush the rest of the cooking.

We're having lefkowitzga and her parents over for lunch on Saturday. That'll be nice; it's been a while since we've had a leisurely meal with Gail or any meal with her parents.

I finally found starfruit last night. (This should not be hard. This year it was.) There is a tradition of eating a "new" fruit on Rosh Hashana -- "new" meaning one you haven't eaten this season yet. The first year I did Rosh Hashana I found myself wondering what to use; it's not like I had been paying attention for that entire year. Then I saw a starfruit in the store and I'd never eaten one of those in my life, so I decided that was the right thing to get. And I've done the same thing every year since.

Last night I had to go to a short "rehearsal" for the HHD (high holy day) services. (I'm in the service on Yom Kippur morning.) This was mainly for blocking, but everyone was asked to read a bit to get used to the room (And everyone with a Hebrew part did the whole thing.) Afterwards a fellow congregant who is fluent in Hebrew praised my pronunciation. Warm fuzzies are nice. :-) (Sadly, some of the people with Hebrew parts have not-so-good pronunciation. I wonder how we can fix that for next year, given that taking notes during services on individual skills isn't going to happen.)

Tonight's service was small and intimate. Tomorrow night will be large, formal, and not at all intimate. I think my rabbi was savoring tonight just a bit. Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur are when a bunch of people come out of the woodwork, and it really changes the character of the service.

Comments

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

Enjoy the starfruit. :)

A.

[indigodove.livejournal.com]

Have a blessed new year!

Happy new year!

[goljerp]

It's been fun reading your journal this past year.

L'shanah tovah tichatemu (May you be sealed for a good year).

(explanation, for those reading Monica's journal and wondering about the sealing bit - the tradition is that on Rosh Hashannah every person's year is written in the book of life, and on Yom Kippur, it's sealed. [And then on Hoshanah Rabbah (5th day of Sukkot - the next holiday after Yom Kippur) it's Really sealed.] I like to joke that then there are various intermediate stages where the book is put in the safe, the safe is locked, the door to the room where the safe is is closed, etc., all the way up until the next year... because there is a tradition that by changing yourself, the written decree can be annulled.)

Starfruit

[alienor.livejournal.com]

Enjoy your new year! (is that appropriate?)

Then I saw a starfruit in the store and I'd never eaten one of those in my life

If you are ever down in the Virgin Islands you should try the starfruit that's grown there. It's way more flavorful than what you can find in the grocery stores on the mainland. 'Course then you'd have to find another new fruit for that year, but it's really good.

Re: Happy new year!

[cellio]

It's been fun reading your journal this past year.

Thank you. I have also enjoyed reading yours.

There is another part to the sealing business. Tradition (though I don't know exactly where it comes from) says that on Rosh Hashana the truly righteous are immediately sealed for life, the truly wicked are immediately sealed for death, and the vast majority of us get a preliminary judgement and go through the process you described.

In the days leading up to my first Rosh Hashana I was explaining this to a gentile friend who, being a smart, analytical type, immediately spotted the flaw in this: doesn't this say something unfortunate about anyone who dies between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur? I had already decided that this was purely metaphor and not to be taken literally when, that year, my grandfather died on the second day of Rosh Hashana.

Re: Starfruit

[cellio]

Thanks for the tip! I had wondered where starfruit actually comes from; now I know.

[cellio]

I will. I have, after all, been waiting all year. :-)

[cellio]

Thanks!

Re: Happy new year!

[goljerp]

doesn't this say something unfortunate about anyone who dies between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur?

Well, I'd spin it this way: Everyone dies at one point or another, whether or not they're truly righteous or not. And death isn't always a punishment. Could you say that it was a punishment for someone to have died at a ripe age of 80 in, uh, 1937, rather than being killed in a concentration camp a few years later? So if someone dies between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, then perhaps they were righteous and sealed for good on Rosh Hashannah, but that "good", sadly, in their case didn't include another year of life...