Apple Dipped in Honey: For a Sweet New Year! - Jews in Green

Holiday Guide, Laws & CustomsNATIONALLiberator.IYom Kippur10 Tishrei (begins evening of 21Sept through nightfall 22 Sept)Yom Kippur isthe Day ofAtonementand theholiest andmost solemn day of the Jewishyear. It is the only Biblicallymandatedfast day. Its centralthemes are repentance,atonement and reconciliation.The day is customarily fullyoccupied with prayer. Eating,drinking, smoking, wearingperfumes, bathing, shaving, thewearing of leather shoes, maritalrelations and any labor, as definedfor Shabbat, are all prohibited. AYom Kippur “machzor” is used inplace of the regular prayer book.Yom Kippur and all the lawspertaining to it start before sunset,as do all the holidays, with candlelighting.Fasting begins beforesundown on the eve of 21 Sept andends after nightfall on 22 Sept.Please make sure that sufficientmeals are provided for you bothbefore and after the fast. It is areligious requirement to eat'heartily' before the fast. Partakingof a festival meal at this timedemonstrates our faith in G-d'sabundant mercy and ourconfidence in being forgiven andsealed for a good year.Among the many preparations forthe awesome day of Yom Kippur,and perhaps one of the mostimportant, is the seeking offorgiveness from friends, relativesand acquaintances — for actualwrongs done or to soothe badfeelings that may have arisenduring the year. This is one aspectof our behavior that is not forgivenby God, unless forgiveness is firstsought from those we havewronged.Kol Nidrei“Let our vows not be consideredvows; let our oaths not beconsidered oaths.” – Kol NidreiThe first prayer of Yom Kippur, asthe sun is setting, is Kol Nidrei, thecancellation of vows. Thesignificance of this prayer datesback to the persecution of Jewsduring the Spanish inquisition ofthe 15th century, when Jews wereforced to convert to Catholicismunder the threat of death.Outwardly, the Jews behaved liketheir Spanish neighbors, but inprivate they remained devout.Once a year they would gather insecret, declaring Kol Nidrei to vowtheir commitment to Judaism,despite their seemingly Catholiclives. Kol Nidrei was theirproclamation that their externalbehavior was not who they were.Yom Kippur comes to an end withthe blowing of a single blast of theshofar, which marks the conclusionof the fast.Sukkot15-22 Tishrei (begins evening of 26Sept through October 3)The Torah commandment torejoice is mentioned more often inconnection with the holiday ofSukkot than for any other holiday.For forty years, as our ancestorstraversed the Sinai desert prior totheir entry into the Holy Land,miraculous "clouds of glory"surrounded and hovered over them,shielding them from the dangers anddiscomforts of the desert. Ever since,we remember G-d's kindness andreaffirm our trust in His providenceby dwelling in a sukkah, a hut oftemporary construction with a roofcovering of branches, for theduration of the Sukkot festival. Forseven days and nights, we eat all ourmeals in the sukkah and otherwiseregard it as our home. As we sit inthe Sukkah, we, too, are aware andgrateful for God's protection.The Four KindsA most important and meaningfulMitzvah of Sukkot is the “taking ofthe four kinds.” The four plantsenumerated in the Torah are theetrog (citron), lulav (palm branch),hadassim (myrtles) and aravos(willows).The mitzvah recitingthe appropriateblessing on these fourplants is performedevery day of Sukkotexcept Shabbat. Thelulav, haddassim andaravos, all bandedtogether, should betaken in the right hand and the etrogtaken in the left. All are shaken andswayed in accordance with variouscustoms.This mitzvah has extraordinaryrelevance to our lives today. In ouroral tradition, it is explained thateach of these four kinds correspondsto a different type of person. From9VOL. XII NO. 1ELUL 5767-TISHREI 5768 / FALL 20079