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Judaism

JEWISH HOLIDAYS

THE HIGH HOLIDAYS: A period of ten days in Sept. - Oct. beginning with:

• ROSH HASHANAH - The Jewish New Year, commemorating the anniversary of The Creation (1996-97 is dated 5757 on the Jewish calendar.

• and ending with: YOM KIPPUR - The Jewish day of atonement.

SUKKOT - The fall harvest festival celebrated for eight days beginning four days after Yom Kippur.

SIMCHAT TORAH - The day after the last day of Sukkot. When the reading of the Torah in the synagogue is completed and the cycle is started all over again for the next year.

HANUKKAH - "The Festival of Lights" a minor festival celebrated for eight days in Dec. commemorating the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem in the year 165 B.C.E.

PURIM - Usually falling sometime in March, this holiday commemorates the story found in the Biblical book of Esther when the Jews foiled a plot to kill them in ancient Persia.

PESACH (PASSOVER) - Starts the first full moon after the vernal equinox and celebrated for eight days in April, commemorating the Exodus from ancient Egypt (see Exodus Chap. 12).

SHAVUOT - The spring harvest festival, celebrated in May or June, also commemorating when Moses received the Torah on Mt. Sinai.

SHABBAT (SABBATH) - Equal in importance to any other holiday, observed from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. Shabbat is a day of rest observed because "on the seventh day [of creation] God rested."

There are several other minor Jewish holidays, but those outlined above are the most significant.

The Jewish calendar follows the lunar cycle, thus from year to year the holidays fall at different times on the Gregorian calendar (although always on the same Hebrew date). In addition, to keep the holidays within the correct seasons a leap month must be added (in the spring) every two or three years.

All Jewish holidays begin at sundown and end at sundown. Jewish reckoning of a "day" is from sundown to sundown since, in the first chapter of Genesis, we find "there was evening and there was morning, one day" (Gen. 1:5, et. al. - evening comes before morning).

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