In March someone commented that we were doing tons of posts on Easter but none on Purim. One reason for this is that Easter has, you know, CANDY; that is, I don't celebrate Easter as a religious holiday but I do enjoy the trappings (meaning THE CANDY).
That said, in the interest of being fair and balanced, here is a post about Rosh Hashanah, complete with video of a Shofar. The post is a day later than it should have been because I was busy going to Temple and eating brisket. (Mmmm...brisket...)
For the uninitiated, Rosh Hashanah is the celebration of the Jewish New Year. (The traditional greeting is not "Happy Jew Year", but "Shana Tova", which is Hebrew for "good year".) It is also the first of the two times each year that not-very-observant Jews, such as myself, go to Temple. The second time is next week, for Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur is "The Day of Atonement," kind of the one-day version of Lent. (As Jon Stewart once said, "Even in sin you people pay retail!" Ba-dum-bum.) There is a one-day fast, and then at sundown we eat, usually lox and bagels. (Any excuse to eat salty fish. Mmmmm…salty fish…)
One of the key elements of the Rosh Hashanah service is the blowing of the Shofar, which is a kind of trumpet made out of a Ram's horn. Since YouTube has a video of absolutely everything, here is a clip of the traditional Shofar blasts. It's not easy to do, as you can see; this year at the service I attended, I was slightly concerned that the Shofar blower was going to pass out, although he didn't.
By the way, one reason that not much happened in Congress yesterday was because some folks took the day off for Rosh Hashanah. If anyone was annoyed by that, try to imagine the government working on Christmas. Yeah. Didn't think so.
So Shana Tova everyone! Next week – Yom Kippur.
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