Month: September 2012

The Jewish Holiday of Yom Kippur

Posted by

0

This week, Jewish families observe the holiday Yom Kippur. In Hebrew, Yom Kippur means “Day of Atonement.” People apologize for things they did wrong during the past year and ask forgiveness from others and from God.

On the night before Yom Kippur, Jews light a memorial candle to remember people who have died. Before the sun sets, families eat a large meal together. Then they go to the synagogue to chant a prayer called Kol Nidre. The prayer asks God to forgive each individual for promises they may break during the coming year. Everyone is still expected to try hard to do good things, but the prayer recognizes that humans make mistakes and will fall short of perfection.
After sunset, adults fast, meaning that they do not eat or drink anything until the following night. Young children don’t have to fast, but they usually give up a favorite food, such as chocolate. The Bible mentions in Leviticus 16:29 that God’s followers should “observe a day of sacred occasion when you shall practice self-denial. You shall do no work.” Jews practice self-denial by giving up food for a day. The act of fasting reminds them of their blessings and the needs of others who don’t have enough to eat throughout the year.
The following day is spent at the synagogue. Everyone prays for the sins of the community and also asks forgiveness for their own sins. The confessional prayer recited during the service mentions sins committed against God and against other people. Some people beat their fists gently against their hearts as they remember the mistakes they made. Beating one’s fist is a way of showing contrition for sins.
Another important part of the service is the reciting of the Great Aleinu, a prayer that asks God to forgive everyone. During the prayer, members of the congregation lie down. Lying down shows that the people are humble to and dependent upon God. Just after sunset, the shofar or ram’s horn is blown once to wish people a good new year and to mark the end of Yom Kippur.
When the service ends, families go home to a large meal because they haven’t eaten for a day. Traditional foods such as challah bread and matzah ball soup are often served.

Rosh Hashanah: Celebrating The Jewish New Year

Posted by

0

Next week, Jewish families will celebrate the holiday Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah means “Head of the Year” in Hebrew. The holiday represents the beginning of the Jewish New Year, similar to the way Advent, the period before Christmas, marks the beginning of a new year for Christians. On Rosh Hashanah, everyone wishes family and friends a happy new year with the Hebrew words shanah tovah, which mean “a good year.”

Rosh Hashanah begins with the setting of the sun and ends the following evening. When the sun sets, Jewish people go to their synagogue for a prayer service. They think about what they have done during the past year, including mistakes they’ve made and good things they have accomplished.

Depending on their traditions, the family will eat together either before or after the evening synagogue services. After thanking God for allowing them to live another year, it’s time to enjoy the food. A plate of apple slices surrounding a bowl of honey is an important part of the meal. Each person takes an apple slice and dips it into the honey. The apples and honey symbolize their hope for a sweet new year, one in which people will be kind and family members will be happy and healthy. Round Challah bread is also served. The round shape reminds everyone that the year always starts over again.

The biggest dish on the table is often a whole fish with the head on a separate plate. A family member might say a prayer hoping that people will be more like the head of the fish than the tail. This means that people should be leaders rather than followers.

The next morning, Jewish families go to the synagogue again to read from the Torah and wait for the blowing of the shofar. A shofar is an animal horn, often from a ram, but any kosher animal’s horn can be used except for a cow or ox. Though it is one of the most memorable parts of the holiday, there is no single reason for blowing the shofar. Some Jewish traditions say the sound is meant to remind people of stories from the past, like the story of Abraham. Abraham was originally asked to sacrifice his son to God, but when God saw the strength of Abraham’s faith, he told Abraham to sacrifice a ram instead. Others say the shofar is used to call people back to God so they will figure out what they did wrong over the past year and try to do better in the new one.

After the service, some people participate in a ritual called tashlikh. They gather near a stream or river and throw bread crumbs in the water. The crumbs symbolize the sins of the past year. By tossing them in water, people show their desire to avoid making the same mistakes in the new year.

Benjamin Franklin and Slavery

Posted by

0

Throughout his life, Benjamin Franklin had a tendency to change his mind on political issues. For example, he initially supported the Stamp Act and only later decided that the American colonies should separate from Britain. Yet often Franklin ended up on the winning side of an argument, even if the argument was not settled in his lifetime.

Like his opinion of the American Revolution, Franklin’s views on slavery changed, too. He owned a couple of slaves at various times of his life and published ads for slave auctions when he worked as a printer. Still, he and his wife Deborah made sure that their slaves received an education from a Philadelphia school for black students. Most slave owners didn’t think slaves could learn, but after Franklin visited the school he commented that he had “higher opinions of the natural capacities of the black race.” He also published a few articles arguing against slavery. Until 1787, however, Franklin never gave the abolition of slavery his complete support.

By 1787, the year of the Constitutional Convention, Franklin became president of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery. During the convention, he sought to include a statement about the freeing of slaves in the U.S. Constitution. Like many of the Founding Fathers, however, Franklin feared that the union between northern and southern states would not be created if he argued too forcefully for the end of slavery.

Franklin’s silence on the abolition of slavery lasted only until the Constitution was ratified and the new federal government was in place. In 1790, he submitted a petition on the society’s behalf to the U.S. Congress. Franklin declared that slavery contradicted the principles of the American Revolution, particularly the ideas that all men were created equal and that they were entitled to liberty. The petition stated that Congress had an obligation to ensure “the blessings of liberty to the people of the United States without distinction of color.”

The anti-slavery petition set off a heated debate in Congress. It angered pro-slavery advocates like Congressman James Jackson of Georgia. He stated that the Bible supported slavery and that slaves were needed to do the work on the South’s plantations. Though in poor health, Franklin didn’t miss the opportunity to mock Jackson’s speech in print. He compared it to a speech supposedly given one hundred years earlier by an Algerian pirate who had Christian slaves. The pirate argued that it was “in the interest of the state to continue the practice; therefore let the petition be rejected.” He also said that his religion permitted the enslavement of Christians, and that they were better off living as slaves than as free men in Europe “where they would only cut each other’s throats in religious wars.”

Like Franklin’s fictional Algerian pirate, Congress rejected the petition to end slavery. After the debate ended, George Washington wrote to a friend, “the slave business has at last [been] put to rest and will scarce awake.” The contradiction of slavery and the promises of liberty for all Americans awoke again in the nineteenth century, resulting in the Civil War. Once again, Franklin had picked the point of view that eventually prevailed.