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Jewish Holidays and Practices

Holy Day Celebrations

  • Rosh Hashanah: the Jewish new year

    • Celebrate God creating the world

    • Shofar: ram’s horn

    • 10-day period of reflection

    • Celebrate with family and friends

    • Observed during the fall

    • Honey and apples are traditional foods (sweetness/goodness of God, world, and creation)

  • Yom Kippur: holiest day of Judaism, centers on atonement for sins and mistakes

    • Prayers of forgiveness

    • Fast from food and drink (including water)

    • No work

    • Repent from sins

    • Long services in synagogue

  • Passover: celebrates Israelites’ escape from Egypt

    • Told by God to celebrate in the Torah

    • Seder meal

    • Haggadah: text recited at Seder during passover

Significant Life Milestones

  • Birth and naming

    • Name is consecrated

    • Boys are circumcised on the 8th day following birth (as instructed in Torah)

  • Bar and Bat Mitzvahs

    • Coming of age ritual

    • Signifies children becoming adults in the community (age 13)

    • “Son” (Bar) or “Daughter” (Bat) of the Covenant

  • Marriage

    • Huppah: bridal canopy; sacred place

      • Representing Adam and Eve, return to the Garden of Eden

      • Say vows and blessings beneath the Huppah

    • Seven blessings over a cup of wine

      • Break the glass—symbolizes happiness and sorrow, support as a couple

  • Death and mourning

    • 5 stages

      • 1st day (day of death): rip part of clothing to express sorrow, acknowledge that God is Lord of all

        • Men don’t shave

        • Refrain from wearing leather (made from dead animals; no more death)

        • Body is prepared and placed in a wooden coffin

      • Public mourning

        • Recite Kaddish prayer

        • People visit family, bring food

        • Only supposed to say good things about the person who passed

      • 7 days following burial

        • Continued public mourning

      • 30 days after burial

        • Avoid public celebrations and social gatherings

      • The First Year

        • Full-year mourning for children of the deceased

    • Jewish gravestones are denoted with the star of David

      • Place stones rather than flowers (stones last longer, and you don’t have to kill something that is living to celebrate someone who has passed)

    • Kaddish: a prayer of mourning

Jewish Holidays and Practices

Holy Day Celebrations

  • Rosh Hashanah: the Jewish new year

    • Celebrate God creating the world

    • Shofar: ram’s horn

    • 10-day period of reflection

    • Celebrate with family and friends

    • Observed during the fall

    • Honey and apples are traditional foods (sweetness/goodness of God, world, and creation)

  • Yom Kippur: holiest day of Judaism, centers on atonement for sins and mistakes

    • Prayers of forgiveness

    • Fast from food and drink (including water)

    • No work

    • Repent from sins

    • Long services in synagogue

  • Passover: celebrates Israelites’ escape from Egypt

    • Told by God to celebrate in the Torah

    • Seder meal

    • Haggadah: text recited at Seder during passover

Significant Life Milestones

  • Birth and naming

    • Name is consecrated

    • Boys are circumcised on the 8th day following birth (as instructed in Torah)

  • Bar and Bat Mitzvahs

    • Coming of age ritual

    • Signifies children becoming adults in the community (age 13)

    • “Son” (Bar) or “Daughter” (Bat) of the Covenant

  • Marriage

    • Huppah: bridal canopy; sacred place

      • Representing Adam and Eve, return to the Garden of Eden

      • Say vows and blessings beneath the Huppah

    • Seven blessings over a cup of wine

      • Break the glass—symbolizes happiness and sorrow, support as a couple

  • Death and mourning

    • 5 stages

      • 1st day (day of death): rip part of clothing to express sorrow, acknowledge that God is Lord of all

        • Men don’t shave

        • Refrain from wearing leather (made from dead animals; no more death)

        • Body is prepared and placed in a wooden coffin

      • Public mourning

        • Recite Kaddish prayer

        • People visit family, bring food

        • Only supposed to say good things about the person who passed

      • 7 days following burial

        • Continued public mourning

      • 30 days after burial

        • Avoid public celebrations and social gatherings

      • The First Year

        • Full-year mourning for children of the deceased

    • Jewish gravestones are denoted with the star of David

      • Place stones rather than flowers (stones last longer, and you don’t have to kill something that is living to celebrate someone who has passed)

    • Kaddish: a prayer of mourning

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