CONEJO JEWISH OUTREACH
Basic Judasim Links:
Basic Judasim by Seymour Rossel:
www.rossel.net/basic01.htm
Blessings for Shabbat:
http://urj.org/holidays/shabbat/blessings/
Shabbat Blessings / Jewish Children's Network:
www.akhlah.com/holidays/shabbat/shabbat_blessings.php
Rosh Hashanah 5771 Prayer
Rabbi Len Muroff, Conejo Jewish Outreach
Elohaynu vay-lohay avotaynu - God and God of our Ancestors:
We are preparing to begin a shana hadasha - a new year.
This is something we have done many times before, yet each time we do so, it is different than ever before.
We realize that the Hebrew word "shana" can mean "repeat."
There are so many things we do over and over again, that we repeat from year-to-year.
We note the irony that the Hebrew word "shana" also comes from the same Hebrew root as the Hebrew word for change - "l'shanot."
Our goal of course is to change for the better.
And so, the Hebrew word "shana" means both "to repeat" and "to repent."
So much has to remain the same, whether we like it or not.
So much else has to change, whether we like it or not.
We realize that before we can begin a new year we must attempt to create closure for year 5770.
We understand that by closure we do not mean that our mourning and bereavement must come to an end.
Instead closure should mean that we have learned from our mourning and bereavement in 5770, and that what we have learned will help us grow in strength during 5771.
We know that we will never fully "get over" the loss of our loved one, but perhaps in this new year we will better learn how to live with that loss.
So please help us in this time of transition, oh Lord.
Do not forsake us, and do not cast us off.
Draw us closer to you and then we will discover what we should change, and what should remain the same.
We have confidence that therein we will bring honor and blessing to our loved ones, to ourselves and to You... Amen.
18 Questions for Rosh Hashanah
(answers below)
1. What does the name "Rosh Hashanah" mean?
2. What other names are there for Rosh Hashanah?
3. When is Rosh Hashanah celebrated?
4. What Hebrew term is used to refer to the "High Holidays" (Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur)?
5. What are selichot?
6. When does the first Selichot service take place?
7. What is a shofar?
8. Why do we blow the shofar on Rosh Hashanah?
9. What great event in history was accompanied by the sounds of a shofar?
10. What are the Hebrew names of the three types of shofar sounds?
11. What is eaten on Rosh Hashanah as a sign of a sweet new year?
12. What shape are the Rosh Hashanah "Challot"?
13. What greeting do we extend to others on Rosh Hashanah evening?
14. What are the names of the sections that are added to the Musaf service on Rosh Hashanah?
15. What unusual thing happens during the recitation of the Aleinu prayer in Musaf of Rosh Hashanah?
16. What is ‘tashlich’?
17. When is ‘tashlich’ performed?
18. What birthday does Rosh Hashanah commemorate?
18 Answers for Rosh Hashanah
1. Head of the New Year.
2. Yom Teru'ah (the day of blowing the shofar), and Yom HaZikaron (the day of remembrance).
3. Rosh Hashanah is celebrated on the first of Tishrei.
4. Yamim Noraim (The Days of Awe).
5. Selichot are prayers of forgiveness.
6. The first Selichot service takes place at midnight, the Saturday before Rosh Hashanah.
7. It is a Ram's horn.
8. To remind us to begin the process of doing Teshuvah and to change our ways.
9. The giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai.
10. "Tekiah," "Shevarim" and "Teruah" are names of the three Shofar notes.
11. Apples dipped in honey are eaten as a sign of a sweet new year.
12. The Rosh Hashanah "challot" are round.
13. On the evening of Rosh Hashanah we greet each other, saying, "Shana tovah tikatayvu" –May you be written for a good year.
14. The names of the three additional parts of the musaf for Rosh Hashanah are: "malkhuyot" (Kingship), "zichronot" (Remembrance), and "Shofarot".
15. The Chazan or Cantor and often during the during the recitation of the Aleinu during the repetition.
16. Tashlich is the ceremony/service held by a body of water where we symbolically discard our sins.
17. Tashlich is performed on the afternoon of the first day of Rosh Hashanah.
18. Rosh Hashanah commemorates the birthday of the world.
Teshuvah Quotes:
1. The Significance of man is not in what he attains, but in what he longs to attain. (Kahlil Gibran)
2. That which man will not change for the better, time will change for the worse. (Benjamin Franklin)
3. The past has a vote not a veto. (Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan)
4. Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced. (James Baldwin)
5. Consider the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out. No turtle ever moves forward when enclosed in his shell.
6. Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense. This day is all that is good and fair. It is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on the yesterdays.(Ralph Waldo Emerson)
7. The mark of a civilized man is his willingness to re-examine his most cherished beliefs. (Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes)
8). D'la moseef yasef - Growth or Death. (Pirkei Avot)
The Month Of Elul
A month of spiritual preparation for the High Holidays
By Rabbi Reuven Hammer
This article is excerpted with permission from Entering the High Holy Days, published by the Jewish Publication Society.
Although the month of Elul--the sixth month of the year, which immediately precedes Rosh Hashanah--has no special importance in the Bible or in early rabbinic writings, various customs arose sometime during the first millennium that designated Elul as the time to prepare for the High Holy Days. Because these days are filled with so much meaning and potency, they require a special measure of readiness. We are called upon to enter them thoughtfully and to consider what they mean. As the Maharal of Prague said, "All the month of Elul, before eating and sleeping, a person should look into his soul and search his deeds, that he may make confession."
Jewish tradition points to the name of the month as symbolically appropriate--the letters of Elul form an acronym for the words in the verse Ani le-dodi ve-dodi li--"I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine" (Song of Songs 6:3). Believing that the "beloved" refers to God, the sages take this verse to describe the particularly loving and close relationship between God and Israel. Elul, then, is our time to establish this closeness so that we can approach the Yamim Noraim in trusting acceptance of God's judgment. We approach the trial not out of fear, but out of love.
Rabbi Reuven Hammer holds a Ph.D in theology from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. He teaches Jewish studies and special education in Jerusalem.
Passover Notes
Rabbi Len Muroff
Passover celebrates the birth of the Jewish people. Observed at home, one of the central aims is induct us into the extended family of the Jewish people. The Passover Haggadah is the family album of the Jewish community.
"On Passover," the author Israel Zangwill wrote, "Jews eat history." Around the Seder table everyone partakes of the symbols and substance of the family meal. All taste the bitterness of slavery, the saltwater of tears, of oppression, the dry, hard bread of affliction.
(based on the writings of Rabbi Harold Schulweis)
The opening sentence of the Haggadah calls for an open door for all people. "Let all who are hungry come and eat. Let all who are in need, come for the Passover." The goal is to feed both the poor of the Jews and the Gentiles, to visit the poor of both, to bury the deceased of both, and to comfort the bereaved of both. (Talmud Jerushalmi)
What is the lesson of the Passover story?
1) We should remember evil as well as goodness. We should remember the exploits of Shifra and Puah, the Egyptian mid-wives who defied Pharoah's decree to drown the infants. Also, Pharoah's daughter who reached out to save baby Moses when he was found floating in a basket in the Nile River.
2) There is joy in the Passover victory but not gloating. For example, the joy of victory is diminished and the wine is removed from the cups because the means of victory involved the death of G-d's children.
Elijah's Cup stands untouched. A 19th century rabbi introduced a ritual in which the cup of Elijah is unfilled. Passed around the table, every participant contributes some wine from his cup into the empty vessel. When the cup returns to the leader of the Seder, he/she proclaims, "Israel is not redeemed except through their own hands." Passover is not only to remember yesterday, but also to shape a better tomorrow.
Rabbi Len Muroff: The Exodus focuses on the journey that our People took to move closer to G-d.
KEY VERSE: In the beginning, our ancestors worshipped idols, but now the Omnipresent (HAMAKOM-the Place) has brought us close to His Service.
On Passover we celebrate that after a long and arduous journey we have drawn close to THE PLACE of truth and insight.
The Haggadah tells us, that "in every generation, each individual should feel as though he or she had gone out of Egypt."
This can mean that we should not take our freedom for granted
Also, that we are to be cautious so that we are to remember our Ancestors' spiritual missteps so that we can better direct our own journeys.
QUESTIONS:
1. If you think of the Exodus as a personal journey, where are you trying to leave and where do you want to go?
2. The Bible says that the paschal sacrifice was to be eaten "b’chipazon" (translation: "hurriedly") (Exodus 12:11) because that was the manner in which the Israelites left Egypt (Deuteronomy 16:3)
When is it good to rush? In your life now, where and why are you rushing?
3. To what extent is your journey shared with others? Is there an element of your journey that you must experience alone?
PASSOVER IS A SPIRITUAL JOURNEY
ISAIAH HOROWITZ (1565-1630) one of the great Kabbalists, began his commentary on the Haggadah with a statement that might strike you as odd: "All aspects of freedom that we deal with during this night [of the Seder] refer to freedom of the soul..."
In Hebrew, MITZRAYIM, "Egypt," can also be read MAYTZRAYIM, "The Narrows" the places of spiritual constriction or illusion. These are not only the ruts where our ancestors got stuck, but also the places where we find ourselves trapped. Read this way, the story becomes an allegory of the times when we are hopelessly mired in misery, when our lives seem to lack true purpose and we are not sure that there is a way out.
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