The Chaggim, Part 1

The next three weeks are full of Jewish holidays.  It started last night with Rosh Hashanah, which is two full days.  Yom Kippur follows next week -- it's the Day of Atonement, the day on which Jews fast and pray to be sealed in the Book of Life.  After that, it's Sukkot (the holiday when Jews construct booths outside their homes) and Simchat Torah, when we finish reading the Torah and start right back at the beginning.  We'll get to these others in due time.

Rosh Hashanah, literally translated as "Head of the Year," is the Jewish new year.  It is also the first day of a period called "Yamim Nora'im" - the Days of Awe - a 10-day period of reflection and repentance for all not-good deeds done over the past year.  It's a holiday full of symbolism, from the apples and honey eaten at dinner to the round challah to the shofar that is sounded on Rosh Hashanah day.

One of the things that we were eagerly anticipating here was to celebrate the High Holidays.  All we've known is the holidays in the States.  There, it's a time for everyone (and I mean everyone) to dress up in their finest and make their way to synagogue for their annual appearance.  Synagogues set up overflow seating to accommodate everyone who arrives.

What's it like here?  Well, to some degree things are similar.  People come out of the woodwork to show their faces at synagogue.  There are large meals.  There is apples and honey and round challah.

But it's different too.  Imagine knowing that you have a 60-hour stretch where everything is going to be closed.  All restaurants.  All grocery stores.  All bakeries.  Everything.  It's pretty rare in the States because, if nothing else, Waffle House is open (unless there's a hurricane).  But in Israel, EVERYTHING shuts down for Rosh Hashanah.  Which means that the day Rosh Hashanah starts, town is hoppin'.  I took Alice and Gabi shopping and was surprised.  The spice shop had a line out the door -- people were buying dried fruit and chocolate covered yummies by the pound.  All of the lines at the grocery store were open (we've never seen that).  And the flower shop was doing a brisk business.

Services were something else, which probably isn't a surprise to those who read about our experience with the congregation earlier in the year.  They were entirely in Hebrew (makes sense).  They were in a different location (again, makes sense with more people there than normal).  And they were an hour.  Yup, 60 minutes from start to finish.  We racked our brains to figure out why and it comes down to the service leaders reading incredibly fast, minimal chanting and singing (as is common in the States), and everyone wanting to get home for their gargantuan feasts.

Lucky for us, we were invited to a college friend's house in Herzliyah for dinner.  Mort's wife's family is from Iraq and they go all out.  The meal starts with blessings and puns on various foods -- beets, dates, carrots, pomegranates, apples and honey, a squash-like thing, and fish heads (although we had beef, and it wasn't the head).  The girls did great and tried every single thing.  Some went down well; others found the side of the plate.  Then we ate, and ate, and ate.  Beef (sort of like brisket) with prunes and apricots, Persian rice, the squash-like things, homemade challah (with date paste and craisins).  And honey cake to top it off.

It's experiences like this that have made the trip so interesting so far.  And pictures like this one: Alice hasn't developed freckles; those are drops of pomegranate juice.