Happy New Year! Celebrating 5,772 Years With The Same Management...
Tonight at sundown, the Jewish New Year kicks in, traditionally a time for reflection and spiritual self-examination, as it starts the Days of Awe that proceed through Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement.
It's traditional to eat apples and honey and sweet things in general, as you see these Jews in Uganda doing:
Pomegranates are also eaten, because the seeds symbolize fertility.
One of the most important traditions of the holiday is the blowing of a ram's horn, the shofar. It is designed to be a trumpet call that galvanizes Jews into a spiritual awakening, in the ten days before Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
One of the holiest places to blow the shofar on Rosh Hashona and Yom Kippur is at the kotel, the Western Wall. And there are still Jews alive who remember when that was a crime.
When the British ruled Israel,they did everything they could to deny the Jews a nation in spite of their pledged word and the League of nations mandate they held to create a Jewish state.
As part of that, they forbade Jews to sound the shofar or bring Torah scrolls to the Kotel under pain of arrest and imprisonment. And of course, after the Arabs took over the Old City, the Jews who lived there were forcibly expelled,their Holy shrines were desecrated and destroyed and the Kotel was used as a garbage dump.
Here's a wonderful video showing how the Jews dealt with the British and what happened at the Kotel when the Jews retook the Old City from the Arabs after 19 years of exile. It will make you smile:
Anyone who thinks the Jews are willingly going to give up Jerusalem again ought to seek psychiatric care.
My very best wishes for the coming year....may you and yours be inscribed for a sweet and wonderful year.
Shanah tovah u'metukah.
3 comments:
SheTihiye LeRosh VeLo LeZanav.
By the way, Latma has a new Tribal Update for Rosh HaShana
"When the British ruled Israel they did every thing they could to deny the Jews a nation in spite of their pledged word and the League of nations mandate they held to create a Jewish state" At its height the British empire controlled 25% of the earth's land and 33% of its population. To put this in perspective, the USA of today only has a fraction of the power the British empire held at the height of its power. Given the biblical promises to bless whoever blesses the Jewish people and to curse whoever curses the Jewish people might Britain's decision in this regard have something to do with why Britain lost its empire? I think this is highly probable.
"Anyone who thinks the Jews are going to willing give up Jerusalem again ought to seek psychiatric care." I would add that anyone be they Gentile or Jewish leaders who would seek to rip this from the Jewsih people will not have a good ending. This is the divine heritage of the Jewish people and should not be negoitated away nor should any one expect the Jewish people to negotiate this away.
Finally, unlike prior to WWII Israel has a strong, well trained, well armed, and well led military that is likely armed with nuclear weapons. Any one who would attempt to go against them will meet a very bad ending. I pray and hope America and its leaders are not stupid enough to try such a thing.
Happy New Year!
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