Temple Beth Miriam High HolyDays FAQ

All you wanted to know about the High HolyDays and then some...

What are the High HolyDays?

The Jewish New Year begins in the Hebrew month of Tishri, which can move around the secular calendar, and is usually in September. Rosh haShanah (the New Year) is celebrated with apples and honey, a round challah, and the blowing of the shofar (ram’s horn). The ten days of repentance (t’shuvah) end with Yom Kippur (the day of Atonement), a solemn day of fasting and prayer. The seven day festival of Sukkot follows from the 14thof Tishri, and the eighth day is Simchat Torah. It is custom for Jews to gather in prayer together.  Those who do not make a regular practice of praying in a synagogue or temple, often make the choice to attend High HolyDay services.

What can I expect at services?

High HolyDay services are a bit different than regular Friday night or Saturday morning shabbat services. The music is more formal, reflective of the idea that we are trying to look our best as we reflect over our lives. The cantor and rabbi may wear white robes, and the Torah scrolls are also dressed in white, to reflect the renewed purity that is our goal. There is a lot of traditional liturgy – prayers that go back for thousands of years, that our people have used as prompts for the process of t’shuvah (repentance).

What is t’shuvah?

T’shuvah is a Hebrew word that is often translated as “repentance” but is related to the idea of turning or returning. Over the past year, we may have strayed from the path that we intended to follow. T’shuvah is the opportunity to reflect and turn back to the right path. There are five steps: First, we recognize what we have done wrong. Second, we go to the person that we have done wrong, apologize, and ask how to make it right. Third, we do what we can to reconcile. Fourth, we, hopefully receive forgiveness from them. Fifth, we are atoned – which is why Yom Kippur is called the “day of atonement”, and why we dress the torah scrolls and the clergy in white.

What do you offer for families with younger children, or people looking to ease into this experience?

Temple Beth Miriam has a family service at 9am on Rosh haShanah morning and Yom Kippur morning. These services will last about 50 minutes, will cover the musical and liturgical highlights of that day, and will be in our sanctuary.  The target audience is readers. For younger children, we have a service outside our sanctuary geared toward pre-readers and their families.

What is with the round challah and the apples and honey?

The round challah is either a symbol of how the year has cycled back around, or a crown for the Jewish New Year.  We hope for a sweet new year – so that is why we dip sweet apples in sweeter honey.  Jews from other parts of the world might eat pomegranates.

What is the right greeting?

Most people say l’shanah tovah or just shana tovah which means (Have a) Good Year. Around Yom Kippur, they might say g’mar chatimah tovah, which means may you be sealed for a good fate. Some people say tzom kal or have an easy fast.

Fast – what is that all about?

One of the mitzvot (religious obligations) of Yom Kippur is to afflict our physical bodies, so we can focus on t’shuvah. Fasting means no eating, drinking, wearing of perfumes, leather shoes, or engaging in overly friendly activities with a spouse. Of course, people who are pregnant or ill, or who cannot fast medically, or have not yet reached Bet Mitzvah age, are exempt from fasting. The fast runs from sundown on the night that Yom Kippur begins (often called kol nidrei) until sundown the next day. That’s why the n’ilah (concluding) service runs so late – so you can eat right away.

I have heard of kol nidrei, but I’m not sure what it means.

Kol nidrei means “all vows”.  It refers specifically to a prayer from the Middle Ages in which our ancestors asked God to forgive us in advance for any vows or oaths that we might make and break in the year to come. This idea seems backward from the usual idea of  the High HolyDays of repenting for the past year, so the rabbis of the time tried to ban the practice. That did not work, so we still have this prayer today, which begins our Yom Kippur evening service. The tradition at many synagogue, and Temple Beth Miriam, is for the past presidents to come up to the bimah (the high point where we lead the service from) and hold the torah scrolls as witness to this formal request – just like you swear on a Bible in court. We will do it three times – once, on the cello; once sung by the cantor, and we’ll read the translation at the end. Then, we are ready to move into the serious work of Yom Kippur. Kol nidrei has become so iconic that the evening service, and often the evening of Yom Kippur is often referred to as kol nidrei.

I am getting confused about timing – evenings and mornings. When do Jewish holidays start and end and why?

Jewish holidays begin at sundown on the night – erev in Hebrew – before the date often marked on the calendar, and end at sundown (or when you can see three stars) on the next day. That follows the description of the first days in the first version of the creation story in the Torah, which says, “And there was evening, and there was morning – a first day.”  Sundown was much easier for our ancestors to figure out precisely through observation than it was to determine midnight.

What year is it?

Good question – obviously 2025, but that is the common Western calendar which tracks from the birth of Jesus. Jews were around before that, and counted time from what we thought was the creation of the world – if you counted back all the years and ages listed in the Torah. The agreed upon timeline has us just finishing the year 5785 and entering the new year of 5786.

Shofar, so good.

The shofar is a traditional symbol and ritual of the High HolyDays. On Rosh haShanah, we blow a series of different calls throughout the service, ending with a very long blast, t’kiah g’dolah. We also end Yom Kippurwith a long t’kiah g’dolah. The shofar can be made from the horn of any kosher animal, except a cow. (We do not want to remind God of that incident with the Golden Calf, when we are asking for a good new year.) The three blasts are t’kiah – a long blast that goes up at the end; sh’varim – that same blast, but broken into thirds; and t’ruah – the same blast shattered into at least nine up and down notes. T’kiah g’dolah just means a big t’kiah.