Rosh HaShanah

Hello from my heart to yours....

..In the seventh month, on the first of the month, there shall be a sabbath for you, a remembrance with shofar blasts, a holy convocation. -Leviticus 16:24

 

This is a blessing that I recycle every year... naturally, I take the liberty of editing because my thought process changes every minute... but the core message remains the same...  

I re-send it, with love, for all my Jewish friends especially.... and for my Christian friends, as a reminder that we were all Jewish once... after all, Jesus Christ celebrated this Holiday for 33 years..... 

 

Rosh HaShanah began last night at sunset and lasts until nightfall tomorrow... it is the Jewish New Year 5773... There are many traditions and customs that go into celebrating Rosh HaShanah, but this is my favorite I think because everyone can relate to it...

On Rosh HaShanah religious poems are added to the regular services... these poems refer to Psalm 81:4 ...

ד  תִּקְעוּ בַחֹדֶשׁ שׁוֹפָר;    בַּכֵּסֶה, לְיוֹם חַגֵּנוּ.	4 Blow the horn at the new moon, at the full moon for our feast-day.

 

The holiday is characterized by the blowing of the shofar, a trumpet made from a ram's horn and not from the horn of any other kind of animal, intended to symbolically awaken the listeners from their "slumbers" and alert them to the coming judgment.

 

So, I thought how wonderful it would be if every time we were "slumbering" ... and not listening to God's Word... and not following His commandments... someone blew the shofar to alert us... we need reminders throughout the day that we are not behaving as God's children... not behaving as the blessed people that we all are... this world would be a much better and loving place if we heard a little horn go off, wouldn't it? 

 

There are many instances in which we hear some type of shofar... sports come to mind immediately... that whistle just blows and blows...  for children, they hear the school bells.. this tells them that school is starting.. or hurry up because it was the late bell... and to change classes... many factories use whistles to let their workers know the day is over... can't you just hear Fred Flintstone right now? lol...... and Pavlov, in his conditional reflex experiment on saliva, used a variety of stimuli, including whistles, tuning forks and the ringing a bell to signal to the dog that food was on its way... 

 

In the Catholic mass, the altar servers ring sanctus/altar bells.. the primary reason for ringing the bells is to create a joyful noise to the Lord as a way to give thanks for the miracle taking place atop the Altar of Sacrifice ... however, another function of the bells is to focus the attention of those attending the Mass ..and "slumbering" ... that a supernatural event is taking place on the altar.

 

All of the world's people are guilty of "slumbering"... as adults, we shouldn't need a sound to remind us that the judgement day is coming and we should all be in God's grace when that happens... maybe we just need a little nudge from someone every once in awhile... something to keep us "awake"... maybe we can work on triggering our own minds and hearts so that when we do something wrong, we hear that shofar blowing in the distance ... blowing to awaken us from our slumber.... I don't know.. it's hard I suppose in this noisy world we live in... but we have to try because we are all loved beyond measure and are cherished blessings to the world...  

Just last week, a friend blew the shofar at me... I kind of knew I was "slumbering", but didn't quite know how to get out of the funk that I was in... on the morning that I met with him, my daily affirmation was... "Now is the appointed time.. today is the day of my amazing good fortune." ... and it surely was and is.... this holiday will forever mean so much to me... so much so, that I have been reading about the different rituals performed today... and the one that I especially liked and will do today is the Tashlich... Tashlich means "to cast" ... this custom consists of reciting select verses next to a body of water, such as a sea, river, stream or lake, preferably one that has fish... the idea is that "You shall cast into the depths of the sea all your sins." The reason for saying Tashlich next to a body of water is because Rosh HaShanah is the day when the Jewish people coronate God as King of the Universe... and even though I am Catholic, I rejoice with my Jewish friends as this is OUR, One and merciful God......  

I could go on and on, of course... (can you tell how excited I am about beginning the New Year?), but the blessing is really too long already... so, I will leave you all with this: 

 

L'Shana Tovah ...  "May your name be inscribed in the book of life and sealed for a good year."

 

May your day be blessed with all things sweet,

With Love,

Elena