Dear Hendrix College Faculty and Staff,
   
   At the request of the College's Chaplain's Office, I'm sending you information, pasted below, about the Jewish High Holidays, which begin this evening.  I hope you will take this information into account if there are students in your classes or working at your offices who are observing the holidays.

  To all those who are celebrating, I?d like to wish you Shanah Tova?a good new year--on behalf of the Crain-Maling Center of Jewish Culture.

Sincerely,

Marianne
-- 
Marianne Tettlebaum, PhD
Director, Crain-Maling Center of Jewish Culture
and Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion and Philosophy
Hendrix College
Mills 306P; (501) 450-4598
tettlebaum@hendrix.edu


The Jewish High Holidays (High Holy Days) 



What are the High Holidays?

The upcoming Jewish holidays Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are two of the most sacred in the Jewish tradition.  Rosh Hashanah begins on September 18th at sundown and lasts until September 20th at sundown.  Yom Kippur lasts from September 27th at sundown until September 28th at sundown.  The Jewish calendar is lunar; because the number of days in the lunar year differs from that in the solar, Jewish holidays do not fall each year on the same date.

Rosh Hashanah lasts for two days (some Jews only observe one day); Yom Kippur for one day.  Both holidays begin and end at sundown, and the entire 24-hour (or, for Rosh Hashanah, 48-hour) period is considered sacred.  The holidays are as much about the activities Jews do to observe them (going to services, eating meals together, fasting) as they are about the feeling Jews have as they experience the sacredness, somberness, as well as festivity of the high holiday atmosphere.

Rosh Hashanah is the celebration of the Jewish New Year, but it is also a time of introspection?to consider the deeds of the previous year and the expectations for the coming year. Yom Kippur is a day of atonement when Jews fast and ask forgiveness (from G-d and from other people) for their sins.  Jews fast so that they are able to concentrate their energy entirely on spiritual contemplation rather than on fulfilling bodily needs.

What do Jews do on the High Holidays?

On Rosh Hashanah it is customary for Jews to gather together for meals, most often on the first night or for lunch or dinner on the first day.  There are religious services on the first night and in the morning and most of the afternoon of the first day.  These services are an expanded version of the services Jews celebrate each week for the Sabbath.  One of the highlights of the Rosh Hashanah service is the blowing of the ram?s horn or shofar, which reminds Jews of how their community was called together in biblical times. Observant Jews do no work on Rosh Hashanah; they attend to their spiritual rather than everyday lives.

On Yom Kippur, Jews gather on the first evening to hear the singing of the beautiful Kol Nidre prayer, in which they ask to be released from any vows they have made?to G-d and to others?in order to start the new year with a clean slate.   Services continue for almost the entire length of the next day, during which time Jews fast, repent, and pray for forgiveness.  At sundown, at the end of the evening service, the shofar is blown again.  Then, Jews break the fast?either with their congregations or with family and friends.

Although work is permitted, the period of time between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is also considered sacred.  It is the time when, as many of the prayers discuss, fate is decided for the coming year:  who shall live, and who shall die, who shall be inscribed in the book of life, and who shall not.

How do Jews, especially Jewish college students, feel on the High Holidays?

The feeling for Jews around the High Holidays is a little like the feeling for Christians around Christmas and New Year in the following respects:

1)  the holidays are a time to cease from work

2) the holidays are a time to spend with family

3) the holidays are a time for reflection, introspection, and prayer

For Jewish students away at college, the high holidays are often accompanied by profound homesickness and a good deal of inner conflict around the following kinds of questions:

Should I go to class or to High Holiday services?

If I miss class in order to honor the requirement that there should be no work on the holidays, but I don?t go to services, am I doing something wrong?

If I go to class because I just don?t want to have to miss the work, how guilty will I feel about missing religious services?

Does it mean anything to fast on Yom Kippur if I don?t attend religious services?

Can I properly reflect and atone for my sins on Yom Kippur and yet still do my course work?

For Jewish students, in other words, as for many other assimilated Jews, the High Holidays are a time of profound reflection on and often struggle with the relationship between religious and secular identity

As Jewish students on college campuses throughout the United States take up the challenge of the High Holidays and turn inward, their professors, coaches, employers, etc. are encouraged to give them the time and space they need to negotiate the demands of religion, identity, and everyday life.







