Rosh HaShanah Blessings: On Apples and Honey to Celebrate the New Year
Pick up a slice of apple, dip it in honey, and say:
Yom Kippur Blessings: For Starting Observance of the Day
On Yom Kippur, we share a holiday meal called seudat mafseket, the concluding meal before the fast begins. We begin the meal with haMotzi, the blessing over the challah
Rosh HaShanah Worship Services: Haftarah Blessings
The blessing after the reading of haftarah always sanctifies the day on which it is read. Throughout most of the year, that day is Shabbat, but haftarahis also read on the High Holidays. On Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur the text changes from the familiar Shabbat text to refer to the holiday.
Yom Kippur Worship Services: Haftarah Blessings
The blessing after the reading of haftarah always sanctifies the day on which it is read. Throughout most of the year, that day is Shabbat, but haftarah is also read on the High Holidays.
Hanukkah Blessings
Shehecheyanu
Recite this blessing the first time you do something each Jewish calendar year (e.g., the first night of Hanukkah when you light the menorah), and to mark joyous occasions.
8 Blogs of Hanukkah: Why did Antiochus' army ruin all the oil in the Jerusalem Temple?
8 Blogs for 8 Nights of Hanukkah Blog #1: Oil and the Secret of the Jew
From Gelt to Gimmel: A Personal Hanukkah Journey
A New Year, a New Opportunity for Jewish Learning
Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish new year, is a wonderful time to assess the past year and consider what we hope to achieve, spiritually speaking and otherwise, in the year to come.
The Shofar Blasts as a Metaphor for Life
If, as the Talmud tells us, the blasts of the shofar are meant to remind us of crying, (Babylonian Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 33A – specifically of Sisera’s mother – but that is another subject!), then I would offer the following.