Sunday, September 13, 2020

Happy New Year - in September?

 


You are already familiar with the fact that there are NUMEROUS days celebrating the New Year throughout the calendar year – and this coming Friday is one of them.

The link below will allow you to view the rest of the celebrations:

https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2016/02/happy-new-year-again-and-again-and-again.html

The New Year celebration this coming Friday is called Rosh Hoshanah.  Like several other New Year celebrations, the exact date of the celebration varies from year to year, but is generally some place between early and late September. In the case of Rosh Hoshana,  the two-day celebration begins on the first day of Tishrei, which is the seventh month of the ecclesiastical year. In contrast to the ecclesiastical year, where the first month Nisan, the Passover month, marks Israel's exodus from Egypt, Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of the civil year, according to the teachings of Judaism, and is the traditional anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve, the first man and woman according to the Hebrew Bible, and the inauguration of humanity's role in God's world. According to one secular opinion, the holiday owes its timing to the beginning of the economic year in Southwest Asia and Northeast Africa, marking the start of the agricultural cycle.

Rosh Hashanah customs include sounding the shofar (a cleaned-out ram's horn), as prescribed in the Torah, following the prescription of the Hebrew Bible to "raise a noise" on Yom Teruah. Its rabbinical customs include attending synagogue services and reciting special liturgy about teshuva, as well as enjoying festive meals. Eating symbolic foods is now a tradition, such as apples dipped in honey, hoping to evoke a sweet new year.


Shofar-16-Zachi-Evenor.jpg



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosh_Hashanah

When I lived in Evanston, I tried to get to every one of the 71 churches in town, but ran out of energy after about 60 of them. Because I always worked on Friday evening, I was unable to attend services at mosques of synagogues.

https://www.faithstreet.com/evanston-il

 

Since I grew up in a Christina household, I’ve read various versions of the Bible on numerous occasions, and I also read the Koran, after I received a couple of free copies in the mail.

The Bible, of course, was originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. The first person to translate it into English was John Wycliffe. After his death (from a stroke)  his corpse was exhumed and burned and the ashes cast into the River Swift, which flows through Lutterworth, England.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wycliffe

The Koran is written in Arabaic, and was translated into English as early as the 17th century, but most translations were done in the 20th.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_translations_of_the_Quran#:~:text=1649%20The%20earliest%20known%20translation%20of%20the%20Qur%27an,du%20Ryer%2C%20Lord%20of%20Malezair.%20L%27Alcoran%20de%20Mahomet..

The Jewish Bible is called the Talmud, and the earliest versions date from the 2nd century. It is written in Mishnaic Hebrew and Jewish Babylonian Aramaic and contains the teachings and opinions of thousands of rabbis (dating from before the Common Era through to the fifth century) on a variety of subjects, including halakhaJewish ethics, philosophy, customshistory, and folklore, and many other topics. The Talmud is the basis for all codes of Jewish law and is widely quoted in rabbinic literature.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talmud

The Talmud was translated in English by Michael Rodkinson in 1918. Although I took the time to do a “book report” on the Koran (it was about 4000 words long) I no longer have the energy to attempt to so the same thing with the Talmud.

https://sacred-texts.com/jud/talmud.htm

Since I’m not Jewish, we have no plans to celebrate the New Year on Friday. Although you CAN find recipes for matzo ball soup on line, I’ll take the easy way out and buy a can or two of prepared versions at the store.

 Since the Hebrew version of “Happy New Year” looks like a variation of our 2 year old grandson’s scribbling,  I’ll leave you with the Irish language version:

athbhliain faoi mhaise duit

 

 

 

 

 

 


No comments:

Post a Comment