The High Holy Days

Pamela Viviano McDonald is my first guest blogeur!  She is a very talented young woman who I first met at a herb society meeting and we have been friends since.  I had asked her to write about her feelings and memories around the Jewish High Holy Days, with Yom Kippur having ended this past Wednesday at sundown. Formerly from Detroit, Michigan where she was a member of Temple Israel, West Bloomfield, Michigan, she currently lives in Shreveport, Louisiana where she is a member of Agudath Achim in Shreveport , Louisiana.

The High Holidays or High Holy Days conjure up crisp autumn days and the experience of a special time in my life-all the days I spent as a young girl with my family and continuing into adulthood with my own traditions of attending synagogue.

Rosh Hashanah starts with a blast: the sound of the shofar (beautiful, unique,and a real ram’s horn) sounded by a rabbi,congregant or cantor, which calls us to a reckoning of our mistakes made against ourselves and others.

Rosh Hashanah is a call of attention and Yom Kippur is about action: the things you need to change to be better and the actions you’re going to take to insure that you are, including making amends to the people you have harmed by asking forgiveness.  This forgiveness is made directly, if at all possible.  The ten days between the two holidays gives us a chance to do the work.

Before the day is over and night has completely fallen on Yom Kippur, you can be sure that you are “sealed in the Book of Life”, for another year of health and happiness.

The two events, the blowing of the ram’s horn and the event of closing The Book of Life by G-d, imagining that it is happening in the sky are signature events that capture the two holidays for me.

The Book of Life may be a symbolic gesture, but who can deny the power of knowing that your life is in G-d’s hands, and should He prevail, your life could be taken by Him in an instant.

As the prayer-book says; repentance, prayer, and charity can temper G-d’s harsh decree. Other activities such as eating apples (apples signifying life) on Rosh Hashanah symbolises that you will have a sweet New Year.  Being with your family and or congregation for dinner, prayer and the “break the fast” dinner are meaningful for me.

I had a taste of honey cake at the synagogue a few days ago and it reminded me of my European grandmother’s.  It just goes to show that traditional holiday foods taste the same worldwide.

It used to be my tradition to keep a journal of favorite readings from the holiday prayer-book.  I would thumb through it during prayer and later read it in the long break between the afternoon and evening services of Yom Kippur.

Then I would write them down later, to reflect on them during this time or any time.  One of my favorites is a theme for the whole of life:  Birth is a beginning, death is a destination, and life is a journey: from childhood to maturity and youth to old age.  Until looking backwards or ahead, we see that victory lies not at some high place along the way, but in having made the journey, stage by stage a sacred pilgrimage to life everlasting. Yom Kippur; The Gates to Repentance.